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This past weekend, August Bank Holiday, some of our senior squad went on an enjoyable and ultimately rewarding trip to Glenamoy and to Kilcommon GAA club in Mayo to their annual 13-a-side football competition. This is the home parish and club of Carndonagh GAA chairman Anthony Burke.

This year the competition was played among 5 teams, 2 from the host club Chil Chomain, Kiltaine, Crossmolina and Carndonagh in glorious sunshine amidst the beautiful landscape of northwest Mayo on Sunday.

The initial stages were played as a min-league between the 5 teams (4 games each), games were 10 minutes per half and played at a break neck pace. Carndonagh won their first game in the round robin quite comfortably – 3-08 to 0-02 – against Kilcommon ‘A’, the 4 hour bus journey and early start leaving at 6:45am appearing to have no ill effects.

The second game was not as comfortable as they came up a strong and motivated Crossmolina team who inflicted a 1-09 defeat on Carndonagh – this game was Crossmolina’s first in the competition and their freshness showed as Carndonagh faded in the second half of the game.

Great credit to the lads as they took this setback on the chin and came back to record victories in the remaining league games against Kiltane and Kilcommon ‘B’ to book their place in the final of the tournament, playing much better football as the day wore on – learning from their performances in each game.

Carndonagh came through to the final with a record of played 4, won 3 and lost 1 and top of the mini-league. In the final they faced Crossmolina who beat Kiltaine in a game played at a furious pace to book their place and finish the league with a record of played 4, won 2, drew 1 and lost 1.

The final was a 15 minute a half finale to an excellent day’s football and was played in front of a large crowd. At this stage Carndonagh had suffered a few injuries but got ready for the final in high spirits and but light on numbers so manager Kieran Canny, who had been nothing more than an interested spectator all day, togged out as sub for the game, to cover the absence of the players who had picked up knocks during the day.

The game was played at a frenetic pace as both teams sought to close out their day’s work with that final performance to earn themselves a victory and the silverware on offer. Carndonagh appeared to learn their lessons from the first game against Crossmolina, denying them space to attack into, forcing them to kick from distance and moving the ball at pace to create scoring chances of their own.

The halftime score was 0-04 to 0-02, Carndonagh had played the first half with the breeze and some missed scoring chances could have proved costly as they faced into the second half and a stiff breeze with a 2 point lead. The second half performance was immense as Carndonagh worked tirelessly in defence to restrict the space available to the Crossmolina forwards, regularly forcing them to shoot from 45 yards plus. In attack, the middle sector of the team worked the ball at pace up the field repeatedly to keep creating chances for Declan O’Donnell and Kieran Canny in the full forward line.

The game clinching score game from one such move with 5 minutes to go, a shot from Declan O’Donnell was saved by ex-Mayo keeper Brendan Donoghue but the ball was stopped from going over the endline by Kieran Canny, who recycled the ball to Declan and he drove low and hard to the net through a morass of Crossmolina players to put Carndonagh 1-05 to 0-04 ahead at that stage.

Some excellent defending from then until the end prevented Crossmolina from getting the goal chance they were looking for; they had to be content to take points from distance, while some more excellent breaks up field meant that Carndonagh could play the game in the Crossmolina half until the final whistle.

The final whistle was met with relief and jubilation for Carndonagh lad’s whose day had started at 6:00 AM that morning and ended with a well deserved victory in the final of this competition. Every player played their part during the day, and the ability of players to play in more than 1 position turned out to be a distinct advantage as they dealt with injuries to different players during the day.

Congratulations and well done to all the players who travelled down: Darren Burke, Mark Canny, Ryan Davenport, Tony Diver, Cathal Doherty, Dominic Doherty, Emmet Doherty, Paddy McCallion, Christy McLaughlin, Joe McLaughlin, Martin Mooney, Paddy Nelson, Michael Nelson, Declan O’Donnell, Cathal O’Kane and Jerry Simpson.

Great craic was had later on in Glenamoy and we’d like to thank the club and the locals for all their hospitality. The highlight of the evening’s entertainment being Declan O’Donnell’s coronation as king of Kilcommon – though fortunately for the people of Kilcommon this is merely a title and carries no real power or legislative role.

All in all a great weekend was had by all and hopefully we can return in 2008 to defend our hard won titles.

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