Search Results for 'Tomas Tierney'

The dust has just about settled on the group stages of the Mayo championship and there is never a weekend that goes by that you are not intrigued or partly shocked by some of the results. I’m not quite the expert tipster I thought I was- our east Mayo friends in Aughamore let me down (Jimmy Killeen- the lethal Garrymore forward bagging himself eight points) along with Tomas Tierney’s Westport who failed to deliver on their promising victory in Tourmakeady.

I was in the Neale last Sunday morning for an u15 semi-final and there, taking pride of place, was the Pete Mc Donnell junior cup sitting on top of the gated entrance to the field. There were many gravelly, tired sounding, voices in the small compact stand, which is very understandable considering this was their first and only adult title of their 110 year history and no doubt a long night of celebrations had taken place.

I popped along to Crossmolina last Saturday evening to see my former team, Crossmolina, play against Davitts in round two of the league. It was not too pretty to watch because the standard of football was not particularly good on this occasion. At no stage did I get the impression that Davitts were going to beat Crossmolina which will understandably be a concern for them, as they will be really anxious to continue to play at this higher level of football into the foreseeable future. There will not be too many clubs in a forgiving mood during this league campaign, so picking up points at every and any opportunity is essential. Those teams that got a real scare of relegation last year will be more determined than ever to avoid being sucked into the same territory again this year, so it is going to be a real baptism of fire for the Ballindine club as they will no doubt discover.

Just like last year Mayo will square off against NUIG in the home final of the FBD League on a Friday night in McHale Park. The prize for the winners, a trip to New York in October to take on the exiles in the away final, should be enough motivation for any amateur player, but both sides have bigger fish to fry in the coming days and weeks, which will be a distraction this evening.

I am travelling to Dangan twice weekly training the NUIG footballers. The training is going well but unfortunately the results are not matching so far. The senior squad played three league matches against GMIT, Sligo IT, and Athlone IT, and unfortunately lost all three. Both Tomas Tierney and I agreed we would use the league to try to have a look at as many players as possible. This meant a loss of continuity in selection and with it a series of disjointed performances. Those three lost games meant we were drawn into a relegation play off. We lost the first play off game last week against DIT and we have one final game against UL next week.

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.

NUI Galway will host the Sigerson football competition in February 2012. I, along with Tomas Tierney, have agreed to look after the team again this year and we intend to have a little more success than last year – a year in which we became frustrated at times for a combination of reasons. We made it to the quarter finals in UCD but came up well short against the hosts.

The club championship kicks off this weekend. It is a fact that the majority of teams that play this weekend believe they will be good enough to win their respective matches. However 2011 will undoubtedly cough up its fair share of surprising results. We also have sufficient proof that, on any given Sunday, the majority of teams in the county are capable of beating each other. Form in the league counts for nothing when championship comes around. We have several teams sprinkled around the county that excel in beating more fancied opponents. Our Crossmolina boys are off to Garrymore this Saturday evening to play against a team that rarely suffers in the confidence department! I am very aware of how formidable they can be in their own back yard.

The club championship kicks off this weekend. It is a fact that the majority of teams that play this weekend believe they will be good enough to win their respective matches. However 2011 will undoubtedly cough up its fair share of surprising results. We also have sufficient proof that, on any given Sunday, the majority of teams in the county are capable of beating each other. Form in the league counts for nothing when championship comes around. We have several teams sprinkled around the county that excel in beating more fancied opponents. Our Crossmolina boys are off to Garrymore this Saturday evening to play against a team that rarely suffers in the confidence department! I am very aware of how formidable they can be in their own back yard.