Search Results for 'Ciaran McDonald'

Seamus ‘Banty’ McEnaney loves his football and, particularly it would seem, managing football teams. I heard it said that a number of years ago when Banty was managing a local club side in Monaghan, he would often leave his bar in the early hours of the morning, and rather than go home and risk a sleep in, he would drive to the training ground, have a few hours’ kip in the car, before taking an early morning session with his charges. There can be no doubting his commitment to the cause.

Inter-county management is a tough station. The facts speak for themselves this season.

Garrymore v Charlestown

Inter-county management is a tough station. The facts speak for themselves this season.

I only got to see one game last weekend and that was the much anticipated replay between Ballaghadereen and Ballintubber on Sunday. The previous encounter was a right rip-roaring clash with Ballintubber denied a famous victory when Andy Moran scored a goal for Ballaghadereen almost at the death, to put his team in front with time almost up. Ballintubber did manage an equaliser deep into injury time and set up the opportunity to witness these two do battle again. The weather was perfect for football and I was really looking forward to a good game. I parked myself with a few of the Crossmolina boys, who were there keeping an eye on proceedings, as they play the winners this Sunday. No note taking required by these boys as Liam Moffett, the Crossmolina manager, was videoing the game from behind us, obviously for closer scrutiny later in the week in his effort to try and orchestrate another county title for the Deel Rovers. Sadly the game never really caught fire and once Ballaghadereen started getting ball into their forwards there was never going to be anything other than a decisive victory for the boys from the east. Andy Moran, who was having a really quiet championship campaign up until last weekend, played like an inter-county footballer and proved to be a right handful for the three defenders who tried to curtail his scoring threat. Andy has perfected the knack of shoving off his marker with his hand and demonstrated this tactic several times throughout Sunday’s encounter.

By the time you read this the semi-final pairings for the TF Royal Theatre football championships will have been revealed with the draw taking place late on Thursday evening. But last weekend’s action in the senior championship in McHale Park was an engrosing weekend of football. Saturday started off with Breaffy looking to get one over the experienced heads of Crossmolina in only their second ever quarter final at this grade and ultimately coming up short, while it concluded in a barnstorming game of football, where Ballintubber will be ruing the fact they let a Ballaghaderreen side with posssibly the longest list of mentors ever to grace a programme back into a game.

I received a call from RTE 1 radio last Sunday, while watching the matches at McHale Park,

The time to make amends for disappointments in the past is fast approaching for both Charlestown and Ballaghaderreen. This year’s TF Royal Theatre senior football championship final pits the losing finalists from the 2006 and 2007 final together in Sunday’s showdown for the Moclair Cup. Ballaghaderreen booked their place in the final two last Sunday thanks to a 3-7 to 0-10 win over Crossmolina, the side who denied them twice at the death in the 2006 final (the game went to a replay). After shaking the Deel Rovers monkey off their back with thanks to a three-goal salvo at the three-quarter mark, they have their eyes set on another border side.

At this time of year it can be very difficult to know what to get for people at Christmas. When you are 15 or 20 years married or more and the collective libido may not be what it used to be, there is always a temptation for a female to buy her partner a good book which might stop him bothering her trying all night to do what he used to do all night.

Time has ticked by very quickly since Mayo took their final bow in the championship for 2008 on a warm August Saturday in Croke Park, slipping out of the championship at the hands of the eventual winners, Tyrone, by a solitary point. And with Cormac Reilly’s final whistle that day attention turned to 2009 and the talk of the pubs and sidelines as to what went wrong over the past two years. Well one thing is for sure, John O’Mahony is still in the hot seat and will remain there for the next couple of years after being given a new deal in the autumn. Who will make up his side this Sunday and for the rest of the year will be talking points for the next few weeks as a side begins to take shape as the opening rounds of the National League slip by.