Search Results for 'Niall Douglas'

Crossmolina played Westport in a relegation play-off match last Sunday at McHale Park. It was a glorious day for football and we arrived at the venue in a fairly confident mood. This match was a relegation play-off to ultimately decide who would join Burrishoole in the drop to division 1B of the senior league. A defeat, however, wasn’t the end of the road as the losers (Crossmolina) had a second opportunity of survival with a match against Ballinrobe this Sunday (or so we thought). Both teams were aware that a county Board meeting was scheduled for last Monday night that would ratify a proposal to relegate just one team to Division 1B, thus ensuring all three teams would remain in the upper division next year. However, we came to McHale Park to win the match and we failed miserably, producing, arguably, one of the worst performances I have witnessed from Crossmolina in years.

I have so little energy this evening. I am wrecked after a tough session in the gym. The penny hasn’t dropped with me yet that the body isn’t able for the kind of punishment I once subjected it to. Earlier this evening, I was happily plodding along in the gym doing my thing, when I was invited to join in with the spinning class taking place in an adjoining room. The instructor pushed us hard for almost an hour. It was an eye opener and I can now admit to myself that the old body is not what it once was. However I comforted myself when I realised that there is no point in peaking this time of year! That is not the situation however for any new potential inter-county footballer wanting to impress new managers around the country. The reality is many of those players wil not have kicked a ball in months, yet they are expected to make an impression at these trial games. That’s the way it is, and until there is a better solution it will continue that way. I had a text from Ian Rowland from Crossmolina earlier this week announcing that he was invited on to the Mayo football panel for the FBD league. Ian had a wonderful year with Crossmolina, impressing in lots of games in both the league and championship. He is a player who has improved enormously this year and I expect there is more to come from this young student. Ian was one of the players invited to participate in a trial match last Saturday morning in McHale Park. I heard he played well in the trial, kicking a number of monster points that clearly caught the eye. Incidentally, I have rarely witnessed a player anywhere in the country who can kick the ball as far as this man can. Understandably, he is thrilled to be presented with this opportunity and I am quite confident he will do well.

Mayo will start their defence of their Connacht u21 title tomorrow in Fr O’Hara Park in Charlestown with the visit of Liam Sammon’s Galway side. Since the trio of Pat Holmes, Noel Connelly, and Mícheál Collins took charge of the side in 2006 they have at the least managed to claim the Connacht title, in their first year in charge they landed the top prize seeing off Cork on an unforgettable day in Ennis.

This weekend sees the Mayo senior club championships reach the last quarter final stage with all eight sides left in the competition having realistic chances of making the last four of the competition. The action gets under way in the senior championship on Saturday evening in Castlebar, which will host two more games on Sunday, with the fourth clash of the round taking place in Ballina on Sunday afternoon.