Search Results for 'Barry Kilgannon'

This may only be the third weekend of the league season, but it offers an opportunity for a number of clubs to firmly state their intentions for the season. The big game of the weekend in the Super League is the meeting of Castlebar Celtic and Ballina Town on Sunday in Celtic Park. With both sides currently sitting in first and second place in the table respectively, a win for either could seriously damage the others chance to go on and win the league at the end of the season, due to the condensed nature of the new league set up.

It’s all about to kick off across the soccer pitches of the county for another long and winding season. On Saturday evening the action will kick off in the Premier A, Premier B, League One and League Two of the Mayo League at 6pm. On Sunday the big boys will get to grips with each other in the Super League along with the basement boys in League 3. This year the action in Mayo is spread across six different divisions with eight sides in each of the top five divisions and ten in the bottom tier. The league will be operating a two-up and two-down system of promotion and relegation across all divisions and come September 4 it should all be over for all the sides in the county. With only 14 games to be played in any of the top five divisions, a couple of losses could rule any side out of contention early doors and leave the battling it out at the bottom of the table.

It was a bad day for the majority of Mayo sides in FAI Junior Cup action at the weekend. Of the four sides who were playing fifth round ties only Westport United made progress to the sixth round of the competition. Barry Kilgannon’s side were 2-1 winners over City United in the Sports Park on Sunday afternoon. Super League champions Ballina Town were knocked out of the competition by Ennis side Avenue United 5-1, while Castlebar Celtic were beaten 5-0 by St Peters FC. The other Mayo side in action in the cup Kiltimagh/Knock United were also beaten 5-0 by Wilton FC in Cork.

There is a busy weekend of action in store on the local junior soccer scene in Mayo. Four Mayo sides will be in action in the FAI Junior Cup fifth round, with two more in Connacht Junior Cup third round contests and one side in the Connacht Junior Shield.

After what must seem like a never ending hiatus for both Ballina Town and Westport United, the final round of games in the Super League finally rolls around this Sunday, and in one of the most exciting title races in years it is all still up for grabs for both sides. After 17 games only a point separates both sides at the top of the table, with last year’s defending champions in the driving seat ahead of the weekend.

The Super League enters its final stretch at the weekend and Westport United are three points clear at the top of the table. However Westport United manager Barry Kilgannon told the Mayo Advertiser this week that it is going to be a tough run into the title and he is taking nothing for granted. “We’ve got four very tough games left to play and any of those sides are capable of taking points off us on their day, so we have to be on top of our game from now on into the season.” While it will be a tough challenge to reclaim the title they surrendered to Ballina Town last season, Kilgannon would rather be where he is now than any of the other title chasers. “If you gave me this at the start of the season, top of the league with four games to go, of course I would have taken it, the season seems to have flown by to now. But now it’s time to push on and that starts on Sunday with Fahy Rovers. This is a local derby and they are fighting for their lives, so it’s not going to be just a matter of us showing up and collecting the points.”

The Super League has been firmly split into two camps for most of the season, and now with only four games to go for the vast majority of the sides the next month will shape the winners and losers. At the top of the table, Westport United, Iorras Aontaithe, and Ballina Town are going at it hammer and tongs for the title, while everyone else from fourth placed Manulla down is battling to beat the drop. It is going to be one hell of an exciting end to the season.

Ballina Town striker Michael Duffy has been called up to the Irish junior side, the north Mayo hit man has already picked up one international cap in 2008 against the USA, during a period when he was in a rich vein of goal scoring form. But over the past two seasons he has suffered from a number of bad injuries which curtailed his playing time. He did come back last season to help Ballina Town finally claim the Super League title. Duffy has been called up for a quadrangular tournament involving the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man which will take place in County Down from next Wednesday April 21 to Saturday April 24.

At the start of every season winning the title is the ultimate goal for most sides, but in this years Elvery’s Sports Super League avoiding the drop is a big a concern for a lot of teams. This year will see four sides dropping out of the top division before it becomes a more compact and competitive eight team league for the 2011 campaign. Last year only one team (Kilmore) dropped out of the top flight with Swinford replacing them this season, after Westport United B won the Premier Division title but were not allowed to come up. But this year if you finish between 10th and seventh place in the league and you are dropping through the trap door.

Castlebar Celtic got their season off to a winning start in the EA Sports Cup with a 1-0 preliminary round win over Salthill Devon in Celtic Park on Tuesday night. Peter Dravins was the hero for Celtic scoring an 87th minute winner over the Galway side who were promoted from the Newstalk A league to division one of the Airtricity league last season, a feat Celtic will be hoping to emulate this season. The win puts Castlebar Celtic into the first round proper of the competition where they will take on Finn Harps at home. A win over the Donegal men will keep Celtic moving in the right direction ahead of their kick off in the Newstalk A league in May.