Kelly’s eye on Oscar Traynor prize

JOE KELLY’S Mayo face the Sligo-Leitrim League next Sunday afternoon in Solar 21 Park in Milebush in the first round of the FAI Oscar Traynor Cup.
The fixture draws additional attention this year following the announcement by the Mayo League of plans to enter a Mayo FC team into the League of Ireland (LOI).
And while nobody expects Kelly’s charges to be of LOI standard, the team’s progress in the competition will be closely monitored nonetheless.
Jordan Loftus and PJ Gilmartin are two absentees (due to injury) from the 25-man squad named in August. Dylan McKee of Ballina Town, who has recovered from his injury, has been added to the squad.
“Preparations are going well,” Joe Kelly told The Mayo News on Sunday evening last.
“They are certainly going as well as they can, given the time of year, and lads gone to college. We have had lads travelling from Limerick and Galway to training on a Wednesday night. We have had huge buy-in from the players.”
Kelly has had five weeks to prepare for Sunday’s match, and would have liked to have had five training sessions to prepare and to work on set-pieces and plays.
“We played a few friendlies and gave all the players a run out except, of course, those carrying injuries.”
What did Kelly learn from the friendlies?
“The important thing about friendlies when you are looking at a representative side is getting the players used to playing with each other,” he explained.
“That was the sole purpose. We looked at all the players to see how they worked together and to find out what are the best combinations in certain areas of the pitch.
“The commitment we have had has been mind-blowing. They have left college at four o’clock to be in Milebush for half-seven. We fed them after the session and then they headed back. We’ve had 24 of the 26 at every session with only the injured players missing.
“It has been fantastic commitment. We said from the start that we would have a united approach and it has certainly worked out that way.”
Kelly usually sets his teams out in a 4-4-2 formation, and while he was naturally unwilling to speculate on his starting eleven for Sunday’s clash, his probable line-up is likely to look as follows:
Goalkeeper, Gary Cunningham with captain Cillian McGlade (both of Westport United) at right-back. Andrew Shally (Ballina Town) at left-back with Ioseph O’Reilly (Castlebar Celtic) and Cillian Redmond (Ballyheane) as the centre backs.
Oran Groarke (Castlebar Celtic) is likely to be the holding midfielder, with Darren Browne (Westport United) and Dylan McKee (Ballina Town) as the more advanced midfielders. Benny Lavelle and Jamie Cawley (both Ballina Town), along with Ben Edeh (Ballyheane) are likely to be the front three with Cawley operating in his favoured left-wing position.
This is the first of three matches for Mayo in the Connaught section of the competition which is run on a league basis, with at least one team going through to the last eight.
With LOI football somewhere on the horizon, a good run in this competition would lay a solid foundation and declaration of intent.

FIXTURE
Oscar Traynor Cup
Mayo v Sligo-Leitim
Sunday, October 1
Castlebar at 2pm