Search Results for 'Brendan Lavelle'

Ballina Town got their title defence off to a winning start in Attymass on Saturday night thanks to early goal from ace marksman Brendan Lavelle against a tough battling Moy Villa side. The champions made all the running early on in the contest, but were made to sweat at the end as Moy Villa threw everything at them to try and salvage an equaliser at the death.

With an announcement regarding a new Galway Airtricity League team imminent, the two local outfits in the current first division are in action tomorrow.

Following four defeats on the spin in all competitions, Mervue United will be especially eager to deliver a home Airtricity League first division victory when Cobh Ramblers visit Fahy's Field on Saturday afternoon (4.30pm kick off).

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 Oscar Traynor Trophy side will be making an almost 300 mile round trip from the home of the Mayo League in Milebush, Castlebar, to Buncrana this Sunday looking to book their place in the next round of the national interleague competition.

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.

Ballina Town are on the look out for a new manager following the news that Brendan Kenny has decided to step down form the position of manager. Kenny who led Ballina Town to back to back Super League titles stood down this week following Ballina’s elimination from the FAI Junior Cup last weekend. He told the Mayo Advertiser this week that, “It’s been a great four years with the lads, but I think it was time to step away. It’s been all go in the Mayo League because your going all year round and I feel like I have brought them as far as I can. A big thing for me was retaining the Super League title, but I don’t have the energy to give it all the time you need anymore so I’m taking a step back. I’ve been there for four years now and the lads need a new fresh voice to push them on further, and it’s a great opportunity for a manager to come to a side who are the top of the tree in Mayo. The club has come on leaps and bounds over the last few years not just off the pitch, we have the new club house and the astro turf which is a great credit to all those involved and I’m pleased to have been involved in that.”

The Mayo League Oscar Traynor side will go to McSharry Park in Sligo on Sunday afternoon knowing that only a win will do if they want to progress in the competition this season. A fortnight ago Brendan Kenny’s side played their first game in the competition at home to the Roscommon League and were only able to come away from the game with a draw. However Kenny was happy overall with the performance of his players. “It was a tough game and the lads hadn’t played for a long time,” he said. “We were going into the game soft, having only a few training sessions under our belts. We went behind three times and pulled it back each time which was a positive itself. You can’t doubt the commitment of the lads, you can have the best players in the world but if you don’t have the commitment you won’t win anything. Everyone of them showed pride in the jersey which is something you can’t buy.”

“It’s a cup competition in reality, you can’t afford to lose a game,” is how Mayo League manager Brendan Kenny sees Sunday’s game against the Roscommon side in the Oscar Traynor Trophy. Weather permitting, Kenny’s Mayo will host neighbours Roscommon on Sunday in Milebush Park at 2pm in their first game in this year’s Oscar Traynor Trophy. It will be the visitors’ second game in the competition this year after going down 3-1 to a Sligo/Leitrim side a few weeks ago, meaning it is do or die on Sunday for them.