Kildare vs. Mayo – first game, first meet-up

Photo: Michael Maye

February 2^nd dawned bright and sunny for the first away journey of the Mayo GAA faithful, and journey they did, in their droves. Loyalty was the theme of the day and in fact, the season ticket queue –indeed, queues – in Newbridge reached far beyond the regular ticket queue yesterday as green and red mingled with white and white to gain access to St. Conleth’s Park.

Mayo was strongly represented in the 6,000-strong crowd, who were treated to a thrilling encounter with plenty of ebb and flow and a hurling scoreline to boot. Not the result we were after, but plenty to talk about in the aftermath of the game, and  you can read the match report over on MayoGAAblog.com along with plenty of debate and analysis.

Club ’51 also had its first outing, convening in the Liffey Arms prior to the game. It was touch and go for a while, given that the door was still firmly locked when we arrived, and when the bolts finally came off and everyone piled in, the solitary staff member behind the bar was under considerable pressure to satisfy the thirsty hordes. We did try to give them some warning (honest!), but finally, reinforcements arrived on the scene and mercifully, a disaster of unimaginable proportions was averted and no-one left thirsty.

It was great to see such a big turnout, and thanks to everyone who stuck their heads in to say hello and mingle. We’ll have details of a meeting point for Omagh next Sunday up on the site during the week, and some other useful info. This time, as we’ll have the luxury of a bigger ground with over twice the capacity, we’ll also fix a meeting point within the ground so we can congregate inside as well as out! If you’re travelling, be sure and stick a flag or two in the boot and bring them along too – and make sure the lungs are well rested this week to be ready to cheer the lads on to what will hopefully be the first league win of the year.

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Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie is a researcher and by day, a dreamer by night, an occasional writer (you can find her in the Mayo News twice monthly) and a Mayo GAA nut all the time. She thinks about football far more than is healthy but to balance this out, she also thinks at length about ducks, politics, bridges and Roy Orbison.

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