Search Results for 'Aidan Walsh'

Those who made the trek to Salthill early last Sunday to catch a glimpse of this year’s batch of Mayo minors after getting a glowing recommendation following their destruction of Galway in the Connacht semi-final, will have been rightly scratching their heads at full time. It would be hard to imagine any two sides coming together in a provincial final and producing a worse game of football. Mayo got a second chance at the death, thanks to captain Aidan Walsh who tapped over a free manufactured by Cillian O’Connor a minute into injury time, which was sweet relief for Mayo. Roscommon players and supporters will be scratching their own heads at how they contrived to not win a game. They just avoided hitting double the amount of wides to scores they got on the board (15 in total), but also dropped a number of efforts short of the target or so wild that they managed to drift off target and still not cross the end line.

Roscommon advanced to round three of the qualifiers with a victory over Wexford in Dr Hyde Park on Saturday, winning by three points in the end on a score line of 11 points to eight. Roscommon have the freetaking of Donie Shine to thank as he almost single-handedly booted them into the next round with a fabulous display of placekicking. Shine scored nine of Roscommon’s 11 points, eight of which came from placed balls. Roscommon manager Fergal O’Donnell will only know too well that if Roscommon are to progress further in this year’s championship, scoring three points from play will not be enough. Wexford had a number of chances and can blame some wayward shooting for their championship exit. They kicked 10 wides in the second half and if Meath’s forwards get the same amount of possession this weekend they will not be as wasteful.

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!

Mayo 1-8

Mayo 3-10

Mayo 2-9       Down 0-9

Quite often the best game on All-Ireland final Sunday is the minor contest rather than the senior joust.

Often the best game on All-Ireland final Sunday is the minor contest, rather than the senior joust. Last year was no exception and Mayo and Tyrone played out a real thriller in Croke Park that had to go to a replay before Tyrone just about collected the silverware.

Often the best game on All-Ireland final Sunday is the minor contest, rather than the senior joust.

Twelve months on and Ray Dempsey and his management team and only a handful of their side from last year are back in an All Ireland final and are once again going in as underdogs against the Ulster champions. But that tag won’t faze either the management team or the players who are sent out onto the field in an attempt to claim the ultimate prize in this grade. Over the season the Mayo minors have adapted to many challenges through the Connacht championship and the All Ireland series and any time a question has been asked of them they have found the answer. Starting off against Galway in Sligo as underdogs, Mayo gave a tour de force in the second half blowing Galway off the pitch and sending them into the Connacht final as favourites. A tag that did not rest well on them, and they struggled against a very physical Roscommon side and were lucky to get a second bite at the cherry, but they learned their lesson from that game in Salthill and despite having to go to Hyde Park for the replay, they were able to up their game and change it around enough to see off Roscommon with ease in the end.