Search Results for 'Crossmolina'

Following the penultimate weekend of action in the group stages of the Royal Theatre senior football championship seven of the eight quarter finalists have emerged. On Saturday evening, Ballina and Knockmore booked their places in the last eight draw. Knockmore topped section four with five points from their three games thanks to a 0-15 to 0-9 win over 2008 champions Ballaghaderreen. The east Mayo men now have to navigate their way through the relegation play offs to ensure they hold on to their senior status for next season. Ballinrobe who were drawn in the group of death for not the first time in recent history, had a great chance to make the quarter final going into the last round of games. They were a point ahead of Ballina and had a home draw against the Stephenites, but it was the north Mayo men who came out on top steam rolling to an easy 3-7 to 0-9 win over Norman O'Brien's side. The performance by Ballina was a fine tribute to the late mother of Paul McGarry who died earlier in the week.

Maybe not a lot of people know it, certainly not a lot of my generation, but it’s a fact – when Louth won the All-Ireland football title in 1957, there were two Mayo men on the team. And the two of them – Dan O’Neill and Seamie O’Donnell – actually played the entire second-half at midfield together, after Seamie moved out there from the half-forward line. Together, they drove Louth forward in what was a titanic struggle and, with their help, the Wee County’s perseverance paid off. Sean Cunningham scored a late goal to help them overcome Cork in the final that saw Padraig Harrington’s father, Paddy (since passed away, RIP) lose his second All-Ireland final on the trot.

By the time you read this the semi-final pairings for the TF Royal Theatre football championships will have been revealed with the draw taking place late on Thursday evening. But last weekend’s action in the senior championship in McHale Park was an engrosing weekend of football. Saturday started off with Breaffy looking to get one over the experienced heads of Crossmolina in only their second ever quarter final at this grade and ultimately coming up short, while it concluded in a barnstorming game of football, where Ballintubber will be ruing the fact they let a Ballaghaderreen side with posssibly the longest list of mentors ever to grace a programme back into a game.

Sixty minutes is all that stands in the way of the Mayo under 21s and a place in this year’s All Ireland final. Pat Holmes collected his fourth consecutive Connacht title after a comprehensive win over Sligo which wrapped up the provincial honours following tough wins over Galway and Roscommon earlier in the competition. Standing in their way are Downwho claimed the Ulster title on Wednesday evening following a one-point win over Armagh.

The draw was made last Monday night for the quarter finals of the championship. Our boys, Crossmolina, have been drawn to play Ballaghaderreen. It is a match that will definitely focus the minds of both outfits and I would anticipate a close exciting match on September 27. It has been a frustrating time for club teams throughout the summer months as a result of the start-stop nature of the championship. It seems like an eternity since we played the opening round of the championship against Knockmore and it is really difficult to try to keep a team fresh and focused throughout the summer. Two of our players from Crossmolina, Ian Rowland and Sean Kelly, went out to Boston to work and play football for the summer. There was no work here at home and they received a call with the offer of paid work along with the opportunity to play in the local championship. They did well on the football scene and both were very much to the fore in winning the Boston final last Sunday for a small club called St Christopher’s. They arrived back in Ireland on Tuesday morning and I was looking forward to having them both back at training this week and available for our league match against Ballina this Saturday evening in Crossmolina (6.30). At the time of writing I have just received a telephone call from the boys en route to Shannon for a Friday afternoon flight back out to Boston for the All-American finals this weekend! Sure it’s hard to blame them as they are both young and carefree and they don’t go back to college for another week. I assume when they saw the floods of water around these parts upon arrival here on Tuesday it wouldn’t have taken too much convincing to get them to travel back out!