Ballina Town are sitting pretty top of the Super League with four wins out of four, but chasing their tales in second place in the league are Iorras Aontaithe who have won their opening three fixtures. But this weekend’s challenge for Iorras will tell them far more about themselves than their three fixtures so far according to their manager Michael S Togher. “Yeah we’ve done well so far in the league, but going to Manulla will be a big test for us and really tell us a lot about ourselves for the season ahead.”
Togher has taken over Iorras this season and is enjoying the challenge so far. “Everything is going well so far on the results side, but it’s early days. The lads have been putting in the work and there is a good squad there that are capable of challenging for the title and that’s where we aim to be at the end of the season.”
Ballina and Westport will be the favourites to battle it out for the title, with Iorras and Manulla in a second group behind them and the rest of the league probably scrapping it out at the bottom, but it has been like that for the last couple of years according to Togher. “There has kind of been two divisions in a division for the last few seasons, with the top four or five battling it out for the title and the bottom four or five fighting among themselves. It’s up to ourselves to make sure that we are still in the hunt for the title coming into the last few games of the season and driving on from there. Manulla on Sunday will be a tough game, they are probably like ourselves, looking to be in the battle come the last few games, and this will be a very tough battle on Sunday.”
This weekend’s other fixtures sees bottom of the table Snugboro United host Westport United. Mick Wallace’s men have only picked up a single point from their opening three games, leaving them bottom of the table. Westport have won their two games so far this season, and they should leave Conway Park with their third win of the season. Ballyheane, who picked up their first win from four last weekend against Snugboro after coming from behind, will be hoping that they can put a bit of a run together when they travel to Green Road to take on Straide and Foxford United. Last weekend saw Ballina Town put five past Straide and Foxford United and they will have to seal up that porous defence against Ballyheane come Sunday. Castlebar Celtic, who claimed their first points of the season with a 3-0 win over Fahy Rovers, will be looking to leapfrog Swinford in the table when the sides meet on Sunday. Swinford went down to Iorras last weekend, but this is a battle of two sides who will probably be involved in the relegation dogfight and both sides will be targeting this game for a win. The final game in the league sees Ballina Town make the trip to Moneen to take on Fahy Rovers, on paper you can’t look anywhere but a Ballina Town win.
