Search Results for 'Pat Holmes'

Round four of the Allianz football league threw up a host of bizarre results last weekend. Form went out the window in many games and I am sure many punters were left scratching their heads while the bookmakers laughed all the way to the bank. I expected Tyrone to get the better of Kerry after watching the Kingdom fail miserably the previous week in Castlebar, such a hiding Tyrone got losing by 15 points in the end, James O’Donohue grabbing a hat trick for Kerry. I expected Galway having been hammered by Laois to be doomed to division three, taking on an in-form Down, Galway were comfortable 7 point winners. Cork almost coughed up a nine point lead against Derry and clung on by the skin of their teeth. Donegal were meant to cruise home against Meath in Ballybofey, (1/5 in the bookies before throw in) a late Michael Murphy point securing a draw for them. In the lower divisions Carlow turned over Antrim who were overwhelming favourites, how on earth can you try to pick winners for round five? Cheltenham may be a little easier and I know nothing about horses.

GAA

Castlebar Mitchels are 60 minutes away from the holy grail of club football. To join the elite clubs like Nemo Rangers, Crossmaglen Rangers, and indeed our own Crossmolina Deel Rovers and Ballina Stephenites would be nothing short of a miracle. It took them 20 years to win the elusive Moclair Cup, now their eyes are firmly set on the Andy Merrigan. Castlebar have beaten the three hot favourites for the competition along the way to the final in Corofin, St Brigid's, and the dead certs until last Sunday, Dr Crokes of Kerry. There will not be a dry eye in Mick Byrne’s if they succeed.

Castlebar Mitchels 3-13

While driving to Hyde Park in Roscommon last Sunday there were two things on my mind. The first, I was wondering what Santa Claus would bring me, the second, whether I would rather be at home watching the All Blacks against Ireland in the rugby where the All Blacks were bidding to make history by being the first team to go unbeaten in a calendar year. By all accounts the rugby was pulsating, but with GAA in the bloodstream I was definitely in the right place. The Connacht club final between reigning All- Ireland champions St Brigid’s and Mayo champions Castlebar Mitchels was one of the most intense and exciting games I was ever present at. It literally had everything. Brilliant goals, superb defending, disallowed scores, unreal goal keeping, dubious refereeing, and for the week that is in it a scene out of Monty Python when Shane Curran had to be man handled off the field, red cards, and last but by no means least, the last kick of the game levelling scores. I am sure everyone present will take a different memory home with them.

Twenty years ago he did it as a player with Castlebar Mitchels and on Sunday in Hyde Park, Pat Holmes from the sideline guided Castlebar Mitchels to their first Connacht title since the manager was lining out on the field himself in the red and yellow of the county town. Immediately after the game, Holmes said he was just happy to have got the win in the titanic struggle. “It ebbed and flowed up and down, it's hard to remember all the events that went on in the game. We're just delighted to have won the game.” Going in at half-time five points down and then managing to work themselves into a big lead midway through the second half, many would have expected that Holmes' gave some rousing speech at half-time to get his side riled up for the second half, but the main man himself said there was none of that at all. “We just knew that we hadn't played to our potential in the first half and we also said we'd been five points down against Corofin and we had won the game. So we knew that it wasn't insurmountable and that if we went out and played to our potential and the idea was to try and go out in the second half and work harder.”

The game was on the line, it was all or nothing when Neil Douglas stepped up and leveled the game up in Hyde Park on Sunday afternoon for Castlebar Mitchels. While it looked a simple free that any senior club free taker would slot over the bar, there was serious pressure on Douglas' shoulders as he did it. After the game we spoke to some of Douglas' team-mates and his manager as to what was going through their heads as Douglas placed the ball, took a few steps back and connected with the ball. Mitchels manager Pat Holmes, even admitted he did briefly consider bringing in veteran Kevin Filan to take the pressure kick for a few seconds. “My heart was in my mouth because he hadn't been hitting them all day and Tom had been hitting them and Tom had gotten the thing (knock in the build up to the free).We were considering putting on Kevin Filan to take it, but he would have been coming in cold and 'Duggie' in fairness took on the responsibility and buried it over.”

Castlebar Mitchels 3-13

Finally getting over the 20-year-old itch and winning the Moclair Cup looks to have freed this Castlebar Mitchels team from the nagging doubts that many had about their ability to press on and mark themselves out as one of the truly great Mayo club sides. They have another opportunity to kick-on again this Sunday, when they go toe-to-toe with the current AIB All Ireland club champions, St Brigid's in Hyde Park. While bookmakers may have the Roscommon men as 4/7 favourites and Castlebar as 15/8 outsiders, those numbers will been have paid little heed around Páirc Josie Munnelly, as Pat Holmes along with his management team of Alan Nolan and Shane Conway put their players through their paces in preparation for Mitchels first provincial final since 1993. Last Sunday, the Mitchels wrapped up the Mayo double with a comprehensive 2-15 to 1-2 league win over the previous holders of the Moclair Cup, Ballaghaderreen. In 10 league and seven championship games they have gone into battle in this year, Mitchels have only been overturned once, on the opening day in the league, when the side they saw off in the county final (Breaffy) edged past them on a boggy and misty spring day.

Kiltane are the 2013 Connacht Intermediate football champions after a very professional performance against Boyle of Roscommon last Sunday in Elvery's McHale Park. They were never really in danger in this game, albeit for a sloppy patch midway through the first half in which they conceded a goal and a point on the spin but that was as good as it got for Boyle. Kiltane are keeping the tradition going by being the third Mayo team in a row to win the Gene Byrne Cup. Little did they know the favours Davitt's and Charlestown did for them the two years previous by playing almost all of their games away from home resulting in the Mayo champs having three home games in this years provincial series. You cannot beat home advantage when you are entering the unknown. It is hard to believe this team could have been out of the championship if Drumcliff/ Rosses Point substitute Colin Ginty kept his head instead of fluffing his lines in the dying moments of the semi final when it looked easier to score. Upon such outcomes All-Irelands are won, most All-Ireland champions have a little bit of luck along the way and that most certainly was Kiltane’s. Their ambition now certainly has to be to claim more silverware in early 2014, a feat which Davitt’s and Charlestown failed to achieve.