Search Results for 'Super League'

While most eyes last weekend were on Westport United’s big game in Lecarrow in the Connacht Junior Cup, there were still three rounds of games in the Elverys Sports Super League. Ballina Town made it three wins from three with a 7-2 win over Claremorris at home. That is 19 goals scored in three games by the north Mayo men, who are laying down a serious assault on this year’s title. Their goals came from a David O’Mahony hat-trick with Barry Higgins, Daniel Gorman, Pat Duffy, and Ben McGarry all chipping in with goals.

While most eyes last weekend were on Westport United’s big game in Lecarrow in the Connacht Junior Cup, there were still three rounds of games in the Elverys Sports Super League. Ballina Town made it three wins from three with a 7-2 win over Claremorris at home. That is 19 goals scored in three games by the north Mayo men, who are laying down a serious assault on this year’s title. Their goals came from a David O’Mahony hat-trick with Barry Higgins, Daniel Gorman, Pat Duffy, and Ben McGarry all chipping in with goals.

With two rounds of the league under their belts, the action across the all divisions of the Mayo League this weekend turns towards the divisional cups. Last weekend’s only game in the Super League was the round one catch-up game between Westport United and Ballyheane in Westport. The visitors were the ones who went home happiest, having secured a 2-2 draw after coming from one down to go into a 2-1 lead thanks to goals from Alan Tuffy and Arek Tobiasz in the 71st and 78th minute of the contest. But Westport levelled it up near the end thanks to a Darren Browne strike. Ballyheane, who have always been a notoriously tough opponent for the Coveys have two points on the board from their opening two games after last weekend’s draw and their draw in round one against Iorras Aontaithe. It’s the sort of good start to the season that the Quigley Park outfit will have been dreaming about. For Westport it’s a dent to their defence of the title, but with the Connacht Junior Cup final coming up the scare given to them by Ballyheane will have been a timely reminder that nothing comes too easy in this game. Last weekend’s game leaves Ballina Town on top of the table with six points, on goal difference from Manulla who also have two wins under their belt, while Westport United sit in third place on four points.

Ballyheane will make their return to action in the Elverys Super League on Sunday and will face into a 100 mile plus round trip to Carenash to take on a Iorras Aontaithe side who were well turned over on the opening day by Manulla in Carramore. The side from Quigley Park were one of the Super League’s permanent fixtures for years, before they finally slipped out of the division a couple of years ago, but they regrouped last year and aided by a good winter in provincial competition where they won the Connacht Shield they kept their foot down and won the Premier A title by the narrowest of margins. On Sunday, Ballyheane will be hoping their experienced players like Peter Burke, John Kelly, Theron Coghill, David Sheridan, along with Terry and Chris Maughan will supply the solid foundation they are looking for to start the season well. As teams have found out at the bottom and the top of this eight team Super League in the past, you can be out of contention for either the title or safety before you are even up to full speed.

April showers and summer soccer have been familiar friends over the past two decades in Mayo since the Mayo League introduced summer soccer for the junior sides in the league. This weekend will see the 20th instalment of summer football kicking off across the now five divisions from Super League down to League Two. The top division features the names you would expect with Westport United once again leading the pack as defending champions, with Castlebar Celtic, Ballina Town, Iorras Aontaithe, Manulla, and Claremorris all chasing after them like last season. Making the step up from the Premier A from last year are champions Ballyheane and runners up Snugboro United. Both sides have had plenty of experience in the top division over recent years, but will be severely put to the pin of their collars this season to remain in the top division. But with two other sides in the division which can be considered local derbies, there are plenty of games where form can be put aside for a while.

The Mayo League season will kick off on Sunday with the now traditional Charity Shield clash in Milebush Park. This year’s Charity Shield will see last season’s quadruple winners Westport United (Super League, Connacht Junior Cup, Connacht Gold Cup and FCS Cup) take on Castlebar Celtic in Milebush on Sunday at 2pm. This year’s chosen charity is CF West and all funds raised from Sunday’s game will be donated to CF West towards its building fund to try to build a CF day unit on the grounds of Mayo General Hospital. The shield itself is in honour of the late Liam McEntee who was a referee in the Mayo League for a number of years.

When they look back on 2012 in Westport, it’ll be one of the great years to remember for them. They conquered all before and after them, league champions, cup winners and Connacht Cup winners. They took them all on and saw them all off. And there is still the little matter of the FAI Junior Cup come the new year, which they will be targeting to bring home for the second time if they can. There will be plenty of memories for the men in red and black stripes, but Gary Cunningham’s two saves in the penalty shoot-out against Athenry in the Connacht Cup final to set up their win will undoubtedly be the highlight.

In June 2012, PJ Loftus lost his battle with bowel cancer. PJ was an extremely popular and valued member of the Knockmore community and had been a dedicated servant to Knockmore and Mayo GAA for many years. To pay tribute to his father's memory and raise much needed funds for the Mayo/Roscommon Hospice, PJ’s son Alan has organised a charity match between the Knockmore senior GAA team and their soccer counterparts from Conn Rangers. The game will take place on St Stephen's Day at 1pm at the Knockmore GAA pitch. The Knockmore team will feature county stars Kevin McLoughlin and Shane McHale, alongside Alan himself, Aidan Kilcoyne, John Brogan, Declan Sweeney and the returning pair of Trevor Howley and Niall Canavan amongst others. The Conn Rangers senior soccer team who narrowly missed out on promotion to the Super League this year will be represented by Owen McNamara and Brian Hughes (who both featured on the Mayo Premier A league team of the year), along with Noel Butler, Darren Coleman and Joe Faughnan.

It is a case of six of the best for Westport United in the Mayo Advertiser sponsored Mayo League Super League team of the year. The run-away Super League champions have half a dozen players picked in the 4-3-3 formation team of the season. Gary Cunningham gets the nod in goal with Martin Geraghty and Shaun Tagg the centre back pairing. In the middle of the park David Cameron is one of three midfielders with both JP O’Gorman and David Hoban making up two thirds of the strike force. Both Claremorris and Ballina Town have received two nods, with full back pairing of James Stretton and Andrew Shally claiming the awards for the south Mayo men. Michael Duffy earned a spot in the midfield three with Brendan Lavelle picking up his award in the front line. The last spot on the team went to Castlebar Celtic’s Ger O’Boyle whose good form saw him called up to the Irish junior side, before cruelly picking up an injury just before the game.

The Mayo League this week have revealed the winners of their various monthly awards for August and September this week. The club of the month award for August went to Urlar United with the September award going to Partry Athletics. The manager of the month awards went to Michael Moran (Castlebar Celtic B) for August, and Michael Carroll (Urlar United) for September.