Mayo manager John O'Mahony has expressed his disappointment at the fact that next month's NFL opener against Galway will not be played under lights at McHale Park. The glamour fixture at the redeveloped Castlebar venue was due to take place on Saturday evening, February 6 and be shown live on Setanta Sports, but a planning issue means that it has been pushed back to the following afternoon. Now O'Mahony is calling on Croke Park to draw up a blueprint that county boards can use when trying to install floodlights at their grounds. "The Galway match will be a very keenly contested occasion, but it would have been a very special atmosphere and environment had the lights been on," he told the Irish Examiner. "It will be good, but it could have been better. I think there needs to be a strategy put in place by Croke Park, but it needs to be within the planning conditions. It also needs to be a fully consultative process involving all people concerned. "Some places have no problem with floodlights - look at Ballybofey, the ground is in the middle of the town. It is becoming a necessity for all counties to have floodlit grounds and it could be the real solution to our fixture backlog." Tweet

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