Allianz National Hurling League Division 2B: Armagh v Mayo (tomorrow, 2pm, Athletic Grounds)
THE only thing that will be decided in the Athletic Grounds tomorrow is who will definitely not be going up to Division 2A next season.
Mayo’s surprise seven-point defeat at home to Wicklow last weekend broke their 100 per cent record and means they head into the final weekend level with Armagh and Down at the top of the pile.
Armagh lost their opener to Down, who subsequently lost at home to Mayo, creating the scramble for the two places in next Saturday’s final.
“There is a bit of frustration that they have the league that way,” says Armagh boss Sylvester McConnell.
“It’s frustrating that nobody goes straight up. It doesn’t make sense really.
“The teams in the other section, going from 2B to 2A, you maybe have to play a game that hasn’t won a team all year.
“We could win four or five games and not get promoted, and a team that hasn’t won a game all year can canter through and knuckle down for one game and stay in that division.
“Your whole year’s work goes on one game, really. That doesn’t make sense to me, but we’re not there to make the rules.”
He will take a full-strength side into battle against JP Coen’s charges, who look likely to still be without hamstring victim Keith Higgins.
The unpredictable nature of the league’s results so far is a slight concern for McConnell given that his side has yet to turn in a poor display.
“Mayo seemed to be the form team up until last week, they looked like they were going to go through the league unbeaten and then Wicklow caught them.
“Mayo would be one of the teams to beat. They haven’t been scoring a pile of goals but they’ve been putting up good scores against teams, and they’ll be hard to beat.
Cahair O'Kane, Neil Loughran and Andy Watters on this week's hurling action from Division 1B-2B
“It seems that every team has been caught a bit flat in the league for one game – hopefully it’s not our turn this week,” said the Armagh manager.
Armagh pushed Down to within two points in their opener before claiming wins over Donegal, Meath and, most impressively, away in Wicklow.
A big feature in their success has been the settled nature of their starting line-up over the last 12 months.
Their attack in particular has shown the same six faces in each of their four games to date, with Ryan Gaffney’s reliability on the frees and Cathal Corvan’s decent tallies from play headlining.
“We’ve had a settled team since last year, and we’ve built a bit of play into our game,” said McConnell.
“We’re very lucky that we have a lot of versatile players and we can move players about.
“We’ve tried to set a system up that suits our team and our players, and it works well.”
Kenny Feeney has been in high-scoring form up front for Mayo but the lack of scoring support to him will be of concern as they look to salvage their promotion hopes.
Armagh are a side on the up, and they should get the win here that will give them the chance to prove that next weekend.
