Search Results for 'Mick Wallace'

Ballina Town are sitting pretty top of the Super League with four wins out of four, but chasing their tales in second place in the league are Iorras Aontaithe who have won their opening three fixtures. But this weekend’s challenge for Iorras will tell them far more about themselves than their three fixtures so far according to their manager Michael S Togher. “Yeah we’ve done well so far in the league, but going to Manulla will be a big test for us and really tell us a lot about ourselves for the season ahead.”

“It’s 18 cup finals we have this year not 18 league games, and the lads know that if you get cut a drift early on from the pack you are probably not going to make it back.” That’s how new Snugboro United manager Mick Wallace sees this years Super League campaign for his side and most of the others in the league, it is all about survival. The pragmatic as always Wallace knows that it is going to be a hard fight to stay in the top division with four teams going down this season, but he is ready for the battle. “Being realistic, you’ve got Ballina Town, Westport, Iorras Aontaithe, and maybe Manulla who’ll be scrapping it out at the top. The rest of us are fighting to survive in the top flight.” When he took the job he knew that this is what the season was going to be like and Wallace said he laid it out to his squad on the very first day. “I said it to the players straight off, that we are going to be in the thick of it. But we’ve got great numbers out training and everyone’s working hard. I’m disappointed that we didn’t take the points of Fahy Rovers last week, I thought we did enough to win the game against a very tough physical side, we need to be winning these games.” This weekend Snugboro United will open their home account for the season when they host Ballina Town who have six points from two games in the bag already. Wallace knows it is going to a be a big ask for his side to stop Brendan Kenny’s men. “They’re the league champions, and if someone came along now and said here, you can have a point from this game, I’d take the hand off them. There a quality side, but we’ll go out and give them a game and not let our heads drop.”

At the start of every season winning the title is the ultimate goal for most sides, but in this years Elvery’s Sports Super League avoiding the drop is a big a concern for a lot of teams. This year will see four sides dropping out of the top division before it becomes a more compact and competitive eight team league for the 2011 campaign. Last year only one team (Kilmore) dropped out of the top flight with Swinford replacing them this season, after Westport United B won the Premier Division title but were not allowed to come up. But this year if you finish between 10th and seventh place in the league and you are dropping through the trap door.

The last chance of a Mayo side bringing national glory at junior level back to the county this season disappeared last Sunday when Ballina Town bowed out at the sixth round stage of the FAI Junior Cup. Shangan Athletic, who had seen off Straide and Foxford United in the previous round, came out victorious once again over Mayo opposition; this time they saw off Mayo’s top side. Despite going one up and being in control of the game early on Ballina conceded three first-half goals in quick succession and were never able to get back into the contest.

Though severely restricted by the absence of its regular central defensive partnership, Galway United will still be intent on landing a victory in tomorrow’s Terryland Park encounter with Cork City.

This was all supposed to be taken care of by now, but the weather set in and Mayo’s Oscar Traynor trip to Terryland was called, off then it was supposed to take place in Milebush and that had to be pulled too. That was before Christmas and now on Sunday, weather permitting, Brendan Kenny’s Mayo side will be able to try to book their place in the knock out stages of the Oscar Traynor Trophy. Mayo have been handed home advantage for the tie, due to the original postponement.