Search Results for 'Brendan Lavelle'

Ballyglass v Ballyheane

Who will pick up the coveted Mayo League Player of the Year Award, we will find out tomorrow night when the annual Mayo League Awards take place in the Welcome Inn Hotel in Castlebar. The three players shortlisted for the award are Westport United’s David Cameron, Bangor Hibs’ Brian McHale, and Conn Rangers’ man Owen McNamara.

The Mayo League make the trip to the far edge of Roscommon on Sunday where they will face down against the Roscommon and District League in the first round of the Oscar Traynor Trophy at 2pm.

One can only imagine what odds you would have got at the start of the year that Glenhest Rovers would pitch up against Ballina Town on Sunday, in the Connacht Gold Shield Final. Last year’s Super League winners will feel that they should be taking part in the showpiece event a couple of hours later but it has been that sort of season for Ballina. After losing a string of top quality stars it was always going to be tough to repeat the kind of form that parachuted them to glory last season.

No-one can deny that Westport United have been the best team in the Mayo League and they capped a remarkable league season last weekend when they went through the whole campaign unbeaten. Dropping just two points over the whole season is a remarkable achievement, but knowing the hunger there is in that Westport United side their draw against Straide and Foxford in the middle of July will be something they will look back on with a tinge of regret over the winter.

Last Sunday, Outside the Box made its way along to Ballyglass for the clash of the top two in the Premier A division and did not leave disappointed, as Swinford held out against their hosts to record a 3-2 win and send them top of the table by two points. The game itself was the proverbial game of two halves with Swinford looking home and hosed 10 minutes before half time after going into a 3-0 lead, but the straight red card needlessly picked up by midfielder Padraig Noone just before the break turned the game on its head. Up to that point Val Kenny’s men had been bossing the game with their number nine Alan Carter the main man on the pitch, scoring two goals and causing all kinds of problems for Tom Connolly’s side.

Going into Sunday’s game in Green Road against Straide and Foxford United the news that the previous evening, Ballina Town had been held by Manulla gave Westport United the chance to stretch their legs at the top of the Elverys Super League table. And that’s exactly what they did and in some style thanks to a 4-0 win. That’s 22 goals the Coveys have now scored in their four games so far in the league, an amazing 5.5 goals per game so far in the league.

Outside the Box was on a sabbatical overseas last week, but did make it back in time for the Connacht Junior Cup final in Milebush last Sunday and you can read all about that at www.advertiser.ie/mayo/article/69409. While Castlebar Celtic were suffering a heartbreaking defeat to Ballinasloe Town in the provincial cup decider, the team who lost to them in the previous year’s final, in a similarly heartbreaking way, were cementing their position at the top of the Elverys Sports Super League table.

Even with eight regulars missing from their starting line-up, Westport United showed no mercy to Charlestown Athletic in the Sportspark on Sunday. No less than seven different Westport United players got on the score sheet in their 7-2 route of the east Mayo side. Westport struck four goals on the bounce from injury time in the first half until the 56th minute of the contest, to turn at 1-0 lead into a 5-0 lead and sap the fight out of a Charlestown Athletic team who up until that point had been doing their best to hang in with home-team.

The big game of the opening weekend of the Mayo League Super League last weekend was the meeting of Westport United and Castlebar Celtic in the Sportspark only seven days after their Connacht Cup semi-final clash in Castlebar. The Covies came out on top this time around, despite going in trailing 1-0 at half time thanks to a Jason Hunt goal. But three second half strikes from Martin Geraghty and a Dave Hoban brace gave the hosts a 3-1 win.