On Sunday Solar 21 Park — Milebush will host a double header of cup action with the Connacht Gold Super Cup between Castlebar Celtic and Ballina Town the highlight at 2.45pm, before that at 12 noon Snugboro United will face Fahy Rovers in the Connacht Gold Premier Cup final.
Celtic finished the league season a fortnight ago in third place after a strong second half to the season, having to overcome a couple of managerial changes in the early months. But under Conor O'Grady they have become an impressive unit and should be serious challengers to Westport United's dominance in the league next season. En route to the final they saw off the Premier Division champions Iorras Aointathe, Straide and Foxford United, and the league champions 3-2 away from home thanks to goals from Jason Hunt, Liam Flatley, and Gary Concannon. On their way to the final Ballina Town beat Westport United B, Ballyheane, and Glenhest Rovers in the semifinal 2-0 with Keith Duffy and Jamie Cawley getting the goals in that one. Ballina Town had a horrible start to the league season and were down at the bottom for the first number of weeks, but they pulled things together over the second half and finished in fifth place — 10 points behind Celtic in the final standings. Celtic are looking to retain the cup title they won last season and the smart money is probably on their doing so, but Ballina have shown in the past few months they have found their way again and will not make it easy.
In the curtain raiser the League One champions Snugboro have now made it two promotions in a row and look to be building themselves back up after a couple of years in the wilderness. They had three points to spare in claiming their divisional crown, losing just twice in their 14 games and will be hungry for more success. Fahy Rovers finished joint second last in the division above Snugboro and they will be facing a play-off against Killala in the near future to try to secure their status in that division for next year. While they have faced tougher opponents all season in the league this one could go against Fahy Rovers with the Boro riding on the crest of a wave this season and a cup win would be a fine hat to put on top of it.
Super League survival up for grabs on Saturday
The question of who will drop out of the Super League will be answered on Saturday evening in Solar 21 Park-Milebush when Ballyheane and Glenhest Roves meet in a relegation play-off. Each side finished level on 13 points at the end of the 18 game season. If there is no winner after 90 minutes the game will then go to extra-time and potentially penalities to decide who stays up in the top flight for next season.
