Search Results for 'Brendan Kenny'

“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.

Sunday sees the Mayo league kick off the season with the Charity Shield meeting of Elvery’s Super League champions Ballina Town and Chadwick’s Cup winners Manulla in Milebush Park at 3pm. With the league ready to get back into the swing of things for the new season, Sunday will offer Ballina Town manager Brendan Kenny and the Manulla management duo of Sean Kavanagh and Damien Ansbro a chance to run the rule over their sides ahead of the league kick off. Ballina, who won the title last season after coming close a number of times in the previous seasons, will be looking to put back to back titles together to stamp their authority on the Super League, while Manulla rounded off a good 2009 after they claimed the Chadwicks Cup with a 1-0 over Swinford back in December. However they will be striving to improve on the fourth place in the Super League last year where they finished a full 12 points behind their opponents in the final standings.

Ballina Town will be looking to pick themselves up from last weekends defeat at the hands of Ballinasloe Town in the Connacht Cup fourth round at home this Sunday where they have a place in the FAI Junior Cup seventh round at stake. Standing in their way in Beleek are Shangan Athletic from Dublin who overcame the challenge of Straide and Foxford United in the last round of the competition. Ballina came from three goals down before half time last weekend to pull the game back to 3-2 but were not able to find that third goal they needed to force the game level. Mick Duffy and Daniel O’Hara were on the scoreboard for Brendan Kenny’s men and Duffy in particular will be looked for to spearhead their attack on Sunday against the side from Ballymun. Ballina booked their place in this round of the competition thanks to a comprehensive win over Cashel Celtic in the fifth round with Brendan Lavelle scoring a hat trick, the aforementioned Duffy a brace, and Ross Kenny getting himself on the scoreboard before the end of their trouncing of Cashel Celtic. Shanagan Athletic used their home advantage to see of Straide and Foxford United in the last round by 3-1, they went one up before Straide and Foxford levelled through, Chris Downey on the half hour. But the Dublin outfit had enough class to see off the Mayo men to book their date with Ballina.

A selection of students from Shane Fitzgibbon’s “Connacht Taekwon-do Schools” recently attended the International Irish Championships in Neptune Stadium, Cork. With representation from seven European countries, the standard was extremely high. The local group held their own however to bring back a fine haul of silverware. The Galway instructors who attended were Shane Fitzgibbon (Galway and Oranmore), Lisa Connolly (Labane & Kinvara), Sally Whelan (Barna) and Sandra Doyle (Loughrea). The results were as follows: Black belt results —Shane Fitzgibbon – Gold, silver, bronze; Cillian Howard (Oranmore) – bronze; Shannon Holland (Galway) – bronze; Kenneth Duignan (Galway) – bronze; Cathal Kilbane (Galway) - silver; Jason Costello (Oranmore) - bronze; Sandra Doyle (Galway) - bronze; Ciaran Doyle (Galway) - bronze. Colour belt results

A selection of students from Shane Fitzgibbon’s “Connacht Taekwon-do Schools” recently attended the International Irish Championships in Neptune Stadium, Cork. With representation from seven European countries, the standard was extremely high. The local group held their own however to bring back a fine haul of silverware. The Galway instructors who attended were Shane Fitzgibbon (Galway and Oranmore), Lisa Connolly (Labane & Kinvara), Sally Whelan (Barna) and Sandra Doyle (Loughrea). The results were as follows: Black belt results —Shane Fitzgibbon – Gold, silver, bronze; Cillian Howard (Oranmore) – bronze; Shannon Holland (Galway) – bronze; Kenneth Duignan (Galway) – bronze; Cathal Kilbane (Galway) - silver; Jason Costello (Oranmore) - bronze; Sandra Doyle (Galway) - bronze; Ciaran Doyle (Galway) - bronze. Colour belt results

Last season’s defeated Maher Shield finalists St Pat’s Boys caused a major upset as they knocked out Freebooters 1-0 in Graiguecullen last Sunday.

The Mayo League will see the curtain come down on another season this Sunday (bar one or two re-fixed games), with a number of titles and promotion spots still up for grabs. In the Super League Ballina Town have their destiny in their own hands and on Sunday at 2.30pm on the Pete Murray pitch in Belleek Park, they can wrap up the title with a win over Fahy Rovers. Ballina Town have been leading the charge over the 17 games so far this season, with Westport United nipping at their heels. A win for Brendan Kenny’s side will see them reach 44 points, enough to claim the title as Westport can only reach a maximum of 43 with their two games left this season. They play Iorras Aontaithe this Sunday and have a re-fixed game against Snugboro United also to play, but if Kenny’s men do what is expected of them Westport’s re-fixed game will be inconsequential to the title race.

Eight games out and at the top of the table and with one trophy already in the bag, Ballina Town have it all to play for over the next few months in the Elverys Sports Super League. Last weekend they followed up their Westaro Cup win over Ballyheane with a 2-0 win over Kilmore to keep themselves level on points with Westport United, but ahead of them on goal difference, and maintain the poll position.

When the crunch came and Ballina had to see off the champions to retake the top spot in the Super League last weekend, Brendan Kenny’s men didn’t come up short. They had the game wrapped up and the points in the bag with half an hour to go when Eugene Gorman put the ball into the back of the net after a Michael Duffy effort had come back off the post. That goal put the home side into a 3 - 0 lead and Westport were consigned to defeat. The visitors did pull one goal back right at the death through Vinny O’Malley. Westport’s goal ensured that, while Ballina went back to the top of the table, both sides are still level on points, but it is a very slender one goal in the plus column for Ballina Town that keeps them at the summit.