9th August 2010

The Juniors were defeated by two points by Coolera/Strandhill in the first round of the Junior A Championship played in ideal conditions in Ballymote last Sunday. Despite starting with the game with the advantage of a strong breeze, the Gaels failed to take advantage and whilst staging a spirited second half rally, they never really got to grips with the game or their opponents. Coolera/Strandhill started the game very strongly and after seven minutes had raced into a 1-2 to 0-0 lead, the goal coming from very slack defending by the Gaels. The goal spurred the Gaels to life and Vinny Boyd was first off the mark on 11 minutes when he fired over a point following good work by Duncan Ryan.

Paddy O'Grady converted a free four minutes later before Liam O'Connell excellently converted a '45' with a sweetly hit kick on 17 minutes. O'Grady then converted a great free from distance to narrow the deficit to one point and it seemed at that stage as if the Gaels were finally settling into the game. Coolera/Strandhill refused to panic however and went on to score four points without reply before the interval to leave the half-time score 0-4 to 1-6.

Enda Foley opened the second half scoring with a point from an overhead kick from the edge of the square on two minutes, however Coolera/Strandhill raced upfield from the resultant kick-out to send over a good point. Vinny Boyd responded with an excellent point from distance on ten minutes before the Gaels were awarded a penalty two minutes later for a foul on Eoin Mc Dermott. Liam O'Connell coolly converted the spot kick and this again reduced the deficit to the bare minimum. Coolera/Strandhill again rose well to the challenge however and took advantage of some lax Gaels defending to fire home their second goal and the decisive score of the game on fifteen minutes. The Gaels responded with two points from Paddy O'Grady and Peter Henry, however Coolera/Strandhill kept up the momentum and came back to score two more points, one of these from a free. To their credit the Gaels never gave up and sent over two more points in injury time, both of them excellent scores, from Liam O'Connell and Mark Boyd respectively.
Unfortunately they eventually ran out of time and on balance, Coolera/Strandhill were probably deserving winners on a scoreline of 1- 10 to 2-9.

Gaels team and scorers; Donal Tuohy, Raymond Murrin, Noel Jinks, Diarmuid Jinks, Padraig Cassidy, Niall Henry, Niall Brennan, Liam O'Connell (1-2), Eoin Mc Dermott, Brian Mc Dermott, Vincent Boyd (0- 2), Enda Foley (0-1), Kevin Barry, Duncan Ryan, Paddy O'Grady (0-3).
Subs; Niall Craig for P Cassidy, Peter Henry (0-1) for D Ryan, Mark Boyd (0-1) for B Mc Dermott.

The Juniors now take on Tubbercurry in the Championship on 21st August.

The Senior team are in Championship action this weekend against Geevagh in Ballymote - please come out and support the team.

The Minors had a good win over Geevagh in the first round of the championship winning on a scoreline of 4-13 to 0-8. The team was:
Richard Johnston, Shane Barry, Declan Willis, Paul O'Grady, James Burns, Gavin McMorrow, Eoin O'Connell, Adrian Mccann, Jonathan Quinn (1-0), Keith Candon (0-3), Donal Carroll (1-0), Ciarain O'Connor (2- 2), David Quinn (0-6). Subs: Brian Boyd (0-1) for D Carroll, Gearoid McTiernan for J Burns, Jack Gethins (0-1) for K Candon, Robbie Johnston for D Quinn, Dylan Edwards for C O'Connor.

The minors are away to St Pats in the next round on Thursday 12th August.

A depleted U16 team lost heavily to St Marys in the championship last weekend on a scoreline of 5-19 to 0-9.

Congrats to the The U14 Team who won the 'C' Blitz last Friday evening.

The Dominic Quinn Memorial Blitz has been deferred until Saturday 28th August.

The U8's and U10's have a Blitz this Saturday in Coola against Tubbercurry - can all players be in Coola at 10.45AM.

Congrats to club member Shane Quigley and Michelle Scanlon who were married recently.

The club wish to express sympathy with the Tuohy family on the death of Tommy Tuohy, Kiltimagh and also to the Lyons family, Bloomfield on the death of their grandmother, Winifred McDermott, Newtownmannor.