The Mayo League season will kick off on Sunday with the now traditional Charity Shield clash in Milebush Park. This year’s Charity Shield will see last season’s quadruple winners Westport United (Super League, Connacht Junior Cup, Connacht Gold Cup and FCS Cup ) take on Castlebar Celtic in Milebush on Sunday at 2pm. This year’s chosen charity is CF West and all funds raised from Sunday’s game will be donated to CF West towards its building fund to try to build a CF day unit on the grounds of Mayo General Hospital. The shield itself is in honour of the late Liam McEntee who was a referee in the Mayo League for a number of years.
Westport United will be using Sunday’s game against their old rivals as a tune up for their Connacht junior cup semi-final clash against Mervue United the following week. United booked their place in the last four of the cup thanks to a thrilling 2-1 win over City United in Milebush Park last Sunday. Westport’s Joe Lawless was sent to the sideline after only four minutes in controversial circumstances as City United were awarded a penalty from which they took the lead. Despite being a goal down and a player down Westport went for it and David Hoban levelled the game with 25 minutes to go, and with only three minutes left on the clock David Horkan headed home the winner to send Westport into the last four. They will be meeting Galway’s Mervue United in the semi-final after the Tribesmen saw off the brave challenge of Iorras Aontaithe in another quarter-final. The game was decided in extra-time thanks to a Paul Sinnott goal three minutes into the second period of extra-time.
In the shield competition it will be an all Mayo affair with Urlar United and Partry Athletic winning out in their semi-final showdowns. Partry Athletic saw off Cregmore 2-0 thanks to goals from Jamie Wall and Tom Byrne. In the other semi-final which was an all Mayo affair, Urlar United came from one down to see off Swinford thanks to a late goal from sub Chris Jordan to secure a 2-1 win. Swinford went into a first half lead through Martin Sweeney. Keith Robinson levelled the game on 64 minutes, with Jordan securing the win a couple of minutes before time.
Celtic women see off Rovers
Castlebar Celtic’s senior women’s side picked up their sixth win of their league campaign last weekend when they saw off Shamrock Rovers 1-0 in a battle of the hoops at the AUL complex. Shauna Jackson’s goal put Celtic into the lead after only a quarter of an hour, which they held on to until the final whistle. Celtic were also without the services of Emma Hansberry and Sarah Rowe who were on duty with the Irish u19 side, and Lisa Casserly who was also on international duty with the Irish u17 side. This Sunday Celtic will be making the long trip down south to take on Cork Women’s FC in the league as they look to cement their grip on fourth place in the table.
