Search Results for 'Gerry McLoughlin'

By the time that the Galway League awoke from their slumber in this contest with the Mayo League they were chasing the game for a draw which would have sent them through to the knock-out stages of the Oscar Traynor Trophy. It was not to be for the Galway League and in all honestly it never looked like they would threaten Emmett Payton's goal over the course of a bitterly cold 90 minutes in Castlebar.

While Christms is only around the corner the never-ending road that is Mayo soccer continues apace this weekend. Last weekend saw the Oscar Traynor side slip into the knock-out stages of the competition, this weekend the attention turns to the FAI Junior Cup. Both Castlebar Celtic and Manulla will be looking to make it into round six of the competition while Westport United and Mulranny United will battle it out to escape into the national stages of the competition.

It was a bad weekend for the two Mayo sides who were in action in the fifth round of the FAI Junior Cup last week. Both Castlebar Celtic and Manulla took their leave from the competition. Celtic will be the ones feeling hard done by as some strange refereeing decisions cost them their place in the sixth round of the competition. Celtic managed to get the ball in the back of the Rathkeale net three times but two of them were struck off the record. The Castlebar men headed to Limerick with a depleted squad with both Andy Neary and Declan Flynn ruled out through injury. But they thought they had hit the front early on when Peter Dravins fired the ball to the back of the net after a flick on by Sean McHale only for the linesman’s flag to go up. However, 31 minutes in they were rewarded when Sean McHale, was able to direct the ball to the back of the net following a scramble in the box from a Ger O’Boyle corner kick.

Westport United 2

At the time of writing last week, Ballina Town had nudged ahead of Westport United at the top of the Super League on goal difference but the Covies had a game in hand to be played that evening against Snugboro United. Westport’s shock loss at the hands of Ballyheane the previous week would have been seen by many to have been a minor blip in their season, but the Conway Park side had different ideas. Kevin Curry was the man of the day banging in a hat trick inside an hour to set his side off to a 5-1 win. Curry opened the scoring on 24 minutes but Westport were able to draw the game level thanks to a Gerry McLouglinn goal before half time, but it was all Snugboro in the second half with Curry sticking in two more goals and both Johnny Griffin and Paul Walsh sealing the win with goals of their own. Both sides saw men see the line, with Westport ending up with nine men after Dessie O’Malley and David Hoban getting the line, along with Stevie Gavin for the home side.

Only 180 minutes separate Ballina Town and the Super League title, Brendan Kenny’s side have been battling it out for the title with Westport United from the off this season and now with only two games to go their destiny is firmly in their hands. The maths is simple, win their last two games and they are champions, nothing Westport can do about it. But with the title on the line they are bound to be feeling almighty pressure over the course of the next two rounds.