The action across the divisions in the Mayo League will take a back seat this weekend with the semi-finals of the divisional cups down for decision. The FCS Cup last four sees the meeting of Ballina Town and Castlebar Celtic on one side of the draw, with Westport United and Ballyheane going toe to toe in the other semi-final, both games are down for Saturday evening with 7pm kick-off times.
Table toppers Ballina Town dropped their first points of the season last weekend when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Ballyheane at home. Ballina took the lead shortly after the quarter of an hour mark, but Barry McLoughlin levelled the game up inside the final 10 minutes, to ensure his side have yet to taste defeat this season and pick up their fourth draw from six games. Ballina’s opponents this weekend moved into third place in the table, with their second win in the league last weekend thanks to a 4-1 win away to Snugboro United, who were forced to put John Gielty in goal due to a number of injuries to its goalkeepers. With Ballina Town nine points clear of Celtic in the league table following a wobbly start for the Hoops they will be looking at this competition as a major chance to claim a trophy this season, but the north Mayo men will be keen to keep up their flying start to the season.
In the other semi-final, Westport United will not be taking anything for granted against a hard-working Ballyheane side. The teams have already met this season in the Sportspark in a game that finished in a 2-2 draw, at the beginning of May. The toll of the Connacht Cup campaign has been showing on Westport in the early rounds of this year’s league, with them only picking up one win from their first four games, while Ballyheane have never feared going up against their more illustrious opponents and this should have the making of a very interesting contest.
The Westaro Cup semi-finals has paired first placed Straide and Foxford United against third placed Castlebar Celtic B, while fourth placed Charlestown Athletic will host sixth place Clew Bay United. The second of those semi-finals is a repeat of a fixture from last weekend where Clew Bay United took home the points with a 2-0 win against Charlestown. When the other semi-final pairing met in the league in round two, it was the men from Straide and Foxford United who took home the spoils, with a 3-1 win, and will be favourites to do so again on Saturday night.
Three of the top four sides in the Premier B division have progressed to the final four of the Tuohy Cup, and table toppers Swinford managed to avoid the two other top four sides in the semi-final. They will make the trip to north Mayo to take on the second bottom in the table Bangor Hibs, while third placed Partry Athletic will host fourth placed Ballyglass.
Full details of all the other fixtures are contained in our fixtures section.
