Search Results for 'Kevin Cassidy'

For those of us for whom Friday nights were irrevocably changed when top flight football left Terryland, there will always be a memory of the cups of Bovril and the smell of wintergreenand the smack of leather on a hardened hip in the days before the Dyke Road venue became one of the best football stadiums in the country. Back then with the pitch facing a different alignment, the cold breeze coming in off the Corrib on those winter’s days hardened many a memory in the minds of football fans across not just the city and county, but beyond. Back then when the man after whom the ground is now named marshalled the centre of the pitch, when the Bovril in your cup rippled with every thundering tackle from Miko Nolan, when Kevin Cassidy ran Mario Kempes-style through the hearts of many a defence, when Philip Fay and Carl Humphries threaded the ball down the sidelines like needles in the hands of a seasoned seamstress, they created a sort of magic for every youngster in the ground. And later when Ricky and Jumbo and Donie et al carried that magic to Glenina and back, there was a feeling that no matter the result, you never went home feeling cheated from a day out at Terryland.

Local politicians and soccer legends were to the fore at the recent Galway Lawn Tennis Open Day Tennis Challenge.

Diarmuid Neachtain, Spiddal:

When the Aston Villa Legends face West United - the club at which the late Eamonn Chick Deacy began and ended his soccer career, they can expect “hard tackling” and “tough and fearless” opposition, warns its manager William Grant.

Having been involved in team management for so long, I find myself drawn towards the action on the sideline as well as the football game itself. I am intrigued by the body language and the general dynamics of the managers who patrol the sidelines.

Westmeath goalkeeper and captain Gary Connaughton has opted to spend the remainder of the summer in the US. The decision by the long-serving custodian is a major blow to both his club Tubberclair and of course to Westmeath ahead of the qualifiers. Connaughton’s safe pair of hands, point saving ability and booming kick-out, along with his determination and experience, leave a big void to be filled at both club and county level. Tyrrellspass man Darren Quinn is set to take over the number one spot for the qualifiers.

For many of us, Terryland Park was the nearest we got to the San Siro back in the 1970s and 1980s. It was the most senior level of soccer we could get to see without getting on a plane to do so, and that was unheard of in those days.

It has been a difficult week for many League of Ireland supporters in Galway and the west of Ireland, with the realisation that for a lot of us there will no longer be a team to support at Terryland Park. Since 1977, a team representing everyone in Galway has played at the Dyke Road venue.

A - Anthony Cunningham has had the sort of 2011 that any manager could only dream of. After steering his native Galway to u21 All-Ireland glory in September, the two time All-Ireland winner was announced as the new Galway senior hurling bainisteoir. He also found time to guide Garrycastle to a third county title on the trot en route to seeing his side become the first Westmeath club ever to win the AIB Leinster club championship. Not a bad year’s work.

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.