Search Results for 'Robert Hennelly'

The speculation as to who would captain Mayo this year was ended by Mayo manager James Horan who announced his team for Saturday nights’ encounter with Down in McHale Park on Wednesday afternoon. Ballintubber’s Alan Dillon was given the captain’s armband for the game, with Andy Moran the vice captain.

It’s not to often that when you go to a game, two goals have gone in before you settle into the contest. But that’s what happened last Sunday night when Castlebar Celtic hosted Dundalk in the Newstalk A league in Celtic Park. In a game which saw nine goals go in over the 90 minutes, two of them hit the back of Robert Hennelly’s net before some of the crowd had even arrived, two minutes into the game. In what was at times a lopsided game, Celtic did manage to pull the gap back to only two goals with minutes to go, despite being 5-1 down at one stage midway through the second half.

Castlebar Celtic are facing into a their opening game of the Newstalk A League this weekend with a injury crisis on their hands. Celtic will be without the services of Shane Hynes, Gary Price, Stevie Gavin, Ashley Stevenson, and Pat Fitzgerald on Saturday due to injury. But more importantly it looks like they will be without goalkeepers Danny O’Leary who has a groin injury and Robert Hennelly leaving them without a recognised number one between the posts. Castlebar Celtic manager Declan Kilkelly told the Mayo Advertiser this week, “ Danny had a great game last weekend against Carlow, but he played with a groin injury, he’s seeing a specialist, but we don’t know if he’ll be able to play any part in the game.” With no recognised goalkeeper available, Kilkelly could be in line for a place between the sticks himself for Celtic. “At the moment it looks like it could be me or an outfield player, but I’d prefer not to have to play, we just have to wait and see for now.”

Castlebar Celtic 2

Breaffy 2-12       Castlebar Mitchels 2-11

Castlebar Celtic will be pushing on for a place in the Newstalk Cup semi-final over the next six days, when they entertain both Sligo Rovers and Galway United in the group stages of the competition. Declan Kilkelly’s men have Sligo Rovers first up on Sunday evening at 7pm, with Galway United making the trip north on Wednesday evening in a rearranged fixture. It’s a hectic few days but Celtic manager Declan Kilkelly is hoping that his side will face into another tie the following weekend in the cup semi-final. “It’s good to have the games, we’ve had a break since the Finn Harps game in the league cup because the Galway game was put off, but I’d rather we didn’t. The semi-finals of the cup are down for the weekend after the Galway game and we’ll be looking to be there.”

Roscommon 2-9

The next two weekends of action for the Mayo senior footballers have a more challenging and appealing look to them than the previous two weekends fare against the students from Galway and Sligo. Games against Roscommon this Sunday, and Galway the following week, in the opening round of the national league is the early season competition for which Mayo supporters have been waiting.

With the senior side bowing out of the championship in Croke Park last weekend, Ray Dempsey’s minor side will be looking to build on their Connacht championship win over Roscommon when they take on Monaghan on Saturday in Longford in the All Ireland quarter-final. Dempsey was able to mastermind Mayo’s first Connacht minor title in seven years thanks to a narrow win over a battling Roscommon side in Castlebar back in July and this Sunday’s game against the runners up in the Ulster Championship could send Mayo back to Croke Park. While they rode their luck at times in the Connacht final especially in the first half when Roscommon kicked themselves out of the game with some poor shooting, Mayo never let their opponents superiority on the field during the opening half get to them and kept plugging away before they took off on in the second half. Dempsey knows it’s going to be a big ask on Saturday and there is a lot of pressure on his side. “It’s nice to be here but as each game goes by the pressure builds up on you and your team. But this is where we want to be and that’s what comes with it.”

I recall a few short months ago writing in this paper about the poor fare we were witnessing in the majority of games at the start to this year’s championship. I had witnessed some fairly ordinary fare in every province and the general perception was that football was at a very low ebb. It was hard to argue at the time and I kept my fingers crossed that things just might improve as the season progressed. Wexford created their own fairy tale and did produce some magic along the way as they shocked us all by making it all the way to the All Ireland semi final. But the magic for me in this year’s football championship came in the last two weekends. The All Ireland final displays from the minor and senior final were magical. The quality of play and the excitement generated in the minor final was terrific.