Search Results for 'Matthew Flanagan'

When Matthew Flanagan drove the ball over the Louisburgh bar five minutes from time from a free well out beyond the 45m line in MacHale Park on Sunday, it looked like the McDonnell cup would be making the short 11km journey out the road to Balla for the Winter. But Louisburgh hadn’t read that particular script and the seasiders dug deep from there on in and through injury time to rally and hit the final two points of the day to seal a historic win for John Kelly’s outfit.

Balla and Louisburgh booked their places in the final of the Mayo Junior Football Championship on Saturday evening in MacHale Park after a double header of semi-finals in the county grounds. The first game of the evening was the meeting of last years Junior B Champions Ballycastle and Balla in a contest that went right down to the wire.

And then there were four, the Mayo junior championship is rattling its way to a conclusion, with last weekend's replayed quarter-final between Ballycastle and Crossmolina sorting out the last spot in the final four. Tomorrow evening a double header of games will take place in MacHale Park to decide the final two in the competition and two thrilling encounters should be in store.

A brace of goals from subs Conor Keane and Sean Gaughan between the 13th and 19th minute sent Mayo back to the All Ireland Junior Football Championship Final for the second year in a row in O’Connor Park in Tullamore. Mayo had led by three at the break, but Wexford reeled off four points on the bounce after the change around to edge into the lead before Mayo’s two goal salvo turned the game in their favour .

Ten years ago Mayo met Cork in the All Ireland u21 final in Ennis, and tomorrow afternoon both sides will meet once more in the same venue for the Clarke Cup at stake yet again. Mayo come into the final on the back of their first provincial title since 2009 and a heroic come from behind win late on against Dublin in the semi-final in Tullamore a fortnight ago.

Goalkeepers are a different breed from the normal, the ones whose mistakes are remembered far more than saves they made, so they have to have a special bit of confidence in themselves, and Mayo's U21 goalkeeper Matthew Flanagan is no different. The Balla man has the strange history of playing for the county's u21 side in championship action before he did the same for the minor side back in 2014 and his have it a go attitude shines through when talking about that occurance. "It was strange, it just happened quickly, I was training with the minors and I got a call two weeks before the championship, they had a few injuries and asked would I come into the group and I said 'sure look, why not' and we hadn't the best day, but it was great to come in and get the game, sure I was only 17 at the time I think."

Michael Plunkett wasn’t the man that you would have expected to pop up and score the winner in this epic encounter in Sligo, but the Ballintubber man showed nerves of steal to edge Mayo ahead in injury time of a dramatic encounter.

The weekend after the nation celebrated the 1916 Rising, Mayo are looking to stage their own rising in the U21 ranks and will head to the ground named after Countess Markievicz in Sligo tomorrow evening to do so. It has been seven years since Mayo last claimed the JJ Fahy Cup, in the same venue, beating Sligo 3-14 to 1-8 in the provincial decider.

Mayo booked their place in the Connacht u21 final for the first time in seven years in Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada on Saturday night thanks to a four goal haul in a 20 minute period either side of half time on a sun splashed evening.

New Mayo u21 manager Michael Solan has named a very strong looking team for his sides outing against Leitrim in Carrick-on-Shannon on Saturday evening. The majority of this years crop of u21s were involved in the All Ireland minor winning campain three years ago with a number of players making the step up to the senior side in recent years.