Castlebar Celtic return to summit of Mayo football with 19th title
Castlebar Celtic have reclaimed the Elverys Sports Mayo Super League title after an absence of two seasons.
Stevie Gavin's charges became champions for the 19th time when they lifted the Tom Kelly Cup following a 3-0 win over Conn Rangers at Mountfalcon.
Celtic are unbeaten so far this season in the league with 15 wins from 16 games and are more than deserving champions once again with two league games still remaining.
They got an early goal to settle their nerves as Colm Nevin finished from the edge of the area after Johnny Cocozza set him up following a tricky run inside the Rangers penalty box.
The second goal arrived on the half hour mark and was a terrific team goal involving Ben Murphy, Colm Nevin Jordan Loftus and Oran Groarke.
Murphy fed Nevin inside the area and he laid the ball off to Loftus who in turn set the ball up for Groarke who let fly from twenty yards and his unstoppable shot flew past Brian McMahon in the Rangers and into the bottom right hand corner.
The third and final goal of the day was also a quality strike as Dylan Edwards struck a freekick from 25 yards that he curled past the wall and into the bottom right hand corner of the net.
Rangers were better in the second half but there were to be no more goals and soon after the final whistle Tom Kelly presented the Tom Kelly Cup to Celtic captain Ioseph O’Reilly as the celebrations began.
Also in the Super League, Crossmolina continued their record of not drawing a match this season as they got their sixth win of the game with a 2-1 victory over Kiltimagh/Knock United in Abbeyview.
Kevin Campbell gave them the lead at the break with a goal on forty minutes and despite Jack O’Connor getting an equaliser midway through the second half it was the home side who won it through a goal from Vlad Gordetskyy.
Westport United made it ten games unbeaten with a 4-2 win away to Glenhest Rovers on Saturday evening.
Cian Halpin got the only goal of the first half when his well struck free-kick from twenty five yards found the top left hand corner of the Glenhest net.
The second also came from a free-kick after just two minutes of the second half as Paul Mee curled an effort from twenty yards past the wall and into the bottom left hand corner of the net.
Glenhest got themselves back into the game ten minutes later when Ethan Barrett cut out a clearance from Westport and his header found Keith Mulchrone who finished well from just inside the area.
Kevin Kitterick restored Westport’s two goal advantage midway through the second half and then Darren Browne added a fourth from the penalty spot after Paul Mee was pushed over in the area with twelve minutes to go.
Glenhest had a penalty of their own in the final ten minutes and Keith Mulchrone made no mistake from twelve yards to finish off the scoring for the day.
Ballyheane moved back into third place on Sunday morning with a 4-1 win over Straide & Foxford United.
Three first half goals had them in full control at the break with the first two coming inside the opening ten minutes through Jude Lavin and Nathan Reilly Doyle before Robert Callaghan added a third on 25 minutes.
Michael Guilfoyle did pull a goal back on forty one minutes but Dylan Stevenson goal on the hour mark made sure of the points for Ashley Stevenson’s side
Ballina Town had a 2-1 win over Manulla in an incident packed game in Belleek as both teams finished with nine men.
Manulla took the lead on twenty-five minutes through Sean Corcoran but the talking point of the first half was right on half time when Matthew Hamilton and Dylan Padden received their marching orders for a coming together off the ball to leave both sides with ten men and Sean Corcoran was also sent-off for a second bookable offence in the same incident to leave Ballina a man up heading into the second-half.
Ballina took advantage by scoring twice in the opening ten minutes of the second half as Oisin Tighe and Benny Lavelle found the back of the net.
Ballina themselves then were reduced to nine men with 25 minutes remaining as Chris Maughan saw red and there were to be no further goals as the home side held on to move further clear in second place.
Castlecourt Hotel Premier Division
Claremorris are the CastleCourt Hotel Premier Division Champions after a 3-0 win over Ballyhaunis Town in Station Rise.
Paul Burke’s side had already secured promotion back to the Super League at the first attempt and added the Premier Divison title to their Tuohy Cup success in July.
Rokas Mikuckis gave them the lead at the break and second half goals from Ryan McLoughlin and Danny Broderick ensured they didn’t slip up and on the final day of the season
The two games in the Premier Division on Saturday evening had little relevance so it was no surprise to see plenty of goals in the final round of the season.
In Attymass Moy Villa had a 6-2 win over Ballyglass with doubles from Kyle McLoughlin and Luke Ruane and the other goals coming from Ryan Moran and Andrew Ruane. Darren Reilly and Oisin Moran got the goals for Ballyglass.
In Drum, Kilmore finished off their campaign with a 4-3 win over Fahy Rovers in a very entertaining end to end game where Jamie Flannery was the star of the show with a hat-trick for the men in green.
Kilmore took the lead after just six minutes as Pat Sweeney got on the end of a cross from John McAndrew to find the net from two yards out.
Patrick O’Connell levelled matters just two minutes later and he gave his side the lead inside the quarter of an hour mark when he capitalised on an error in the Kilmore defence.
Kilmore always looked dangerous at the other end and Jamie Flannery had them level just before the break with a wonderful solo goal.
Flannery added his second of the day after just five minutes of the second half with a neat finish from just inside the area.
Flannery then completed his hat-trick on sixty six minutes with another calm finish from eight yards out and even though Fahy pulled a goal back through Rian McNally in the final minute it was Kilmore who held on to take all three points.
Ballinrobe Town went into their final game knowing they could win the title if Claremorris slipped up but they were unable to keep their side of the bargain as they drew 5-5 with Kiltimagh/Knock United B.
The equaliser did come deep in stoppage time for Kiltimagh/Knock and at the stage Ballinrobe probably knew it wasn’t going to be their day with Claremorris doing the business in Ballyhaunis. Kiltimagh/Knock took a two goal lead in the opening quarter of the match with Tadhg Caulfield and Rafael Costa finding the back of the net for John Tarpey’s side.
Ballinrobe though hit back and went in ahead at the break as Jamie Kelly scored twice JP O’Gorman tucked home a penalty in between Kelly’s two strikes.
Dylan Webb then equalised for Kiltimagh/Knock after ten minutes of the second half but Ballinrobe went back in front just two minutes later through Tomas Joyce.
In a real end to end game Kiltimagh/Knock once again got back on level terms through Ethan Hosty with fifteen minutes to go but JP O’Gorman hit his second of the day five minutes later to give Ballinrobe the lead once again.
The final goal came late into stoppage time as Rafael Costa got his second of the day to earn a point for the away side.
Ted Horan struck four goals to end the season as top scorer in the division as his side Westport United B had an 8-2 win over Swinford in their final game of the season.
Swinford did lead 2-0 early on with goals from Ewan Murphy and Zack Stone but it was all Westport after that as they had their second big win in a week.
As well as the four gaols from Horan the others came from Daniel O’Malley (2), Matthew Staunton and Jack Murphy.