Westport United come from behind to win

Sun, Jan 11, 2015

A come from behind 5-2 win sent Westport United into the last 32 of the FAI Junior Cup on Sunday afternoon in a blustery Sportspark.

The home team squared off against Wexford outfit New Ross Celtic in a rearranged last 64 game at home. Two minutes before the half-time break New Ross Celtic defender broke the deadlock. It took the hosts 21 minutes to level the game up a ball into the danger area from David Cameron found the back of the net. The visitors went back into the lead 17 minutes before time when O'Connor bagged his second goal of the game, but it was only the start of a goalfest in the final 15 minutes. Westport United leveled the game up through Danny Scahill after Philip Keegan was fouled on 75 minutes, eight minutes later Westport United went into the lead for the first time when David Hoban applied a finish to a Phil Keegan cross. Martin Geraghty bundled the ball over the line from close range not long after and Danny Scahill completed the comeback win with a headed finish from a David Cameron cross just before the final whistle. Westport United will take on Kilkenny side Freebooters in the last 32 at home in a few weeks time.

Goal blitz puts Mayo on winning path

Sat, Jan 10, 2015

Mayo picked up their second win in the 2015 Hastings Cup in a windswept Ballina on Saturday afternoon. Niall Heffernan made six changes to the side that started against Westmeath the previous week in Tubberclair, with Kevin Lynch, Stephen Coen, Matthew Ruane, Adam Gallagher, James Quinn and Aidan O'Sullivan all given their chance to impress. Both Coen and Gallagher came back into the u21 side after lining out for the Mayo senior team last weekend against NUIG.

Second student exam next up for Mayo

Fri, Jan 09, 2015

“Work hard, that was it, simple as that. We wanted fellas to work hard.” That was the mantra to his players before the game from Mayo joint manager Pat Holmes last Sunday after his and Noel Connelly’s side had seen off the efforts of NUIG in the opening round of the FBD League.

Farney challenge for u21 stars

Fri, Jan 09, 2015

Mayo u21 manager Niall Heffernan got his sophomore year in charge of the inter-county team at this grade of football off to a winning start last Saturday. Mayo opened up their Hastings Cup campaign with a 3-7 to 0-5 win over the Lake County men in Tubberclair. Heffernan and his backroom team will be looking this year to reverse what has been a poor half-a-decade for Mayo at this level, not since the last of a four-in-a-row of Connacht titles put together by the current senior management team of Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes in 2009 have Mayo managed to win or even compete in a Connacht final.

This year’s crop of u21s features a large number of the minor team that won the All Ireland in 2013, with half-a-dozen of them starting last Saturday. Claremorris’ Marc Mulligan started in goal with Aghamore’s David Kenny and Breaffy’s Michael Hall in the full-back line, while Balla’s Val Roughneen and Ballintubber’s Diarmuid O’Connor made up the midfield, with Breaffy’s Liam Irwin starting in the full forward line, all graduates from the 2013 All Ireland winning minor class. James and Patrick Durcan from Castlebar Mitchels have in the past shown their class at the top level of the club game and both started on Saturday, with James scoring 1-2 from the centre-half forward position.

Just one change for Connacht ahead of Edinburgh test

Fri, Jan 09, 2015

Connacht coach Pat Lam has made just one change to the starting 15 for this evening’s Guinness Pro12 clash with Edinburgh from the side that beat Munster in the Sportsground on New Year’s Day.

Final push kicks off this weekend

Fri, Jan 09, 2015

It has been four weeks since the Mayo sides were in action in the Connacht Junior Leagues, this weekend sees the final leg of the league season kick off as the season hits crunch time and enters its final rounds.

The last round of action in Division 1A before the Christmas break saw Westport do the double over Ballina in the Mayo derbies this year thanks to a 16-3 win in Carrowholly. That win had put Westport into fourth place in the table, just one spot off a place in next year’s All Ireland junior cup. However after a catch up game last weekend Corinthians managed to pull a point ahead of Westport in the table thanks to a 20-18 win over Galwegians. On Sunday Westport will welcome OLBC to Carrowholly in what on paper looks like a banker for the Bulls and a game that could see them pick up a bonus point along with the win against the basement boys who have not managed to win a game all season long. When the sides met in October last year in Galway Westport were 12-6 winners. Westport coach JP Walsh will be hoping to see his side cross the line a few more times on Sunday to get their quest for an All Ireland Cup place back in full tilt.

Hurlers look to keep up winning start

Fri, Jan 09, 2015

It has been a far from ideal pre-season for the Mayo senior hurling team with manager Christy Philips resigning just before Christmas. But last weekend they got 2015 off to a winning start in the new Connacht Senior Hurling League when they saw off the challenge of Leitrim by 2-13 to 0-5 in Ballinamore. The Mayo management team of JP Coen, Derek Walsh, Tommy Feeney, and John Waldron fielded an experimental side but will have been pleased with what they saw from their side in their first outing, with only a very small bit of training behind them so far.

On Saturday at 2pm the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence in Bekan will see Mayo host Sligo in round two of the competition with Tribesman Phelim Shaughnessy the man in the middle for the game.

Connacht Cyclo-Cross Championships wraps up series

Fri, Jan 09, 2015

The inaugural Connacht Cyclo-Cross Championships were held in the grounds of Westport House, the coastal seaside town was the perfect setting for such a championship with open green undulating fields surrounded by mature woodland.

Castlebar BC hosts first tournament of the season

Fri, Jan 09, 2015

Castlebar boxing club is to hold the first tournament of 2015 in Breaffy GAA clubhouse this Sunday, January 11.

Westport United left to fly the flag

Fri, Jan 09, 2015

It is all down to Westport United if the Mayo League are to have an interest in the FAI Junior Cup in the latter stages of the competition. The aristocrats of Mayo soccer are the last side left in the competition after both Iorras Aontaithe and Ballyhaunis Town bowed out at the fifth round stage a few weeks before Christmas. This Sunday Westport United will take on New Ross Celtic in a game re-fixed from mid-December, with kick-off in the Sportspark at 2pm on Sunday.

Mayo pick off students to get year up and running

Sun, Jan 04, 2015

Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly got their senior management tenure off to a winning start in Elverys MacHale Park on Sunday. The fare on show wasn't anything that will be remembered for long, but it got a few miles in the legs of a a couple of new and some returning faces in green and red.

Management happy with win, but a lot of work still to be done

Sun, Jan 04, 2015

Not long after they had overseen a win in their debut contest as the joint managers of the Mayo senior football team, Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes came out of the dressing room to speak to the local press corp in the concrete tunnel under the bowls of the stand in Elverys MacHale Park.

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