New York will be up against the “second best team in Ireland” when they play host to Mayo in today’s Connacht SFC opener, according to New York GAA games development officer Simon Gillespie.

Last year the Exiles narrowly lost out to Leitrim after extra-time but they have lost some key players since then.

"Last year, we had a perfect combination of a very strong New York team,” Gillespie remarked to Sky Sports.

"We had five or six players with intercounty championship experience. In the year since that game, we've lost all of those players. We had Tom Cunniffe, Donal Ward, Neil Collins, and obviously Jamie Clarke giving a bit of an X-factor. We don't have them this year for one reason or another.

“So it's very hard to expect players who have played county U21 or a high level of Sigerson to compete with probably the second best team in Ireland at the minute.

"I'm not sure how many Division 3 counties would even be able to compete with them (Mayo) with the form they're in.

"We've had no challenge games this year. In previous years, we've had Corofin come out or Donegal or Cavan. We haven't played a county game since the Leitrim game last year, so it's obviously a huge disadvantage to us."

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