O’Connor’s star quality

TEENAGER Cillian O’Connor lit up Mayo’s first FBD Connacht League match last weekend and has been hailed as “a striker of real quality” by James Horan.

The new Mayo boss was full of praise for his Ballintubber clubmate after the 18 year old hit 1-6 against GMIT under the floodlights at McHale Park, Castlebar.

Last year’s county minor captain shot 1-1 from play and tacked on five well-taken frees during an impressive senior debut as he helped Mayo to a comfortable six-point victory over the students.

“He’s just finding his feet at this level but there’s no doubt he’s got potential,” admitted Horan, who also managed O’Connor at club level last year.

“He’s got the right attitude to do quite well at this grade so we’re just looking forward to easing him into the set-up. But for his first day out he’d have to be happy with it.”

The Mayo management are planning to take a closer look at another raft of fresh faces against Roscommon next Sunday with Trevor Howley, Barry Moran, Richie Feeney and Brian Benson all in line to start if fit.

“The more games we play the more we can find out what we need to work on,” explained Horan.

“We’ll be trying to get everyone on the panel a game and a half through the FBD process. Some guys who started wouldn’t be happy with their game so we’ll be looking at them again, to give them another chance.”

One player who will not get another chance is forward Kevin Dolan. The Tourmakeady forward, making his debut last Saturday, broke his jaw in two places after a freak collision with a GMIT defender after five minutes.