This Week….
Well Sports fans!
This week I will talk about Achill’s Promotion Crushed!
At Davitt Park last Saturday evening, Achill took on local rivals Islandeady in a very important League clash. For Islandeady nothing was at stake only pride, but for Achill a win would mean a huge step towards Promotion to Division 2.
However, for the second week running, the Mayo GAA failed to send down a Referee to the game and with Achill becoming very impatient a deal was struck between Islandeady and Achill to play the game that night with a referee from Islandeady. This was cleared with the County board and the game went ahead.
Achill started very slow with Islandeady getting the first number of scores, Achill battled back into the game and were just a few points behind but then in a matter of 5 minutes, Islandeady struck twice with to very well worked goals which just cut straight through the Achill defence.
Achill were stunned and a number of rushed substitutions were made immediately. Although the substitutions did settle the team Achill were still failing to get a grip on things. The game proved as in years gone by to be a very physical and dirty game with one Achill player in particular coming out worse in a malicous challenge.
At Half time there were 6 points between the teams and Achills’ hope was fading slightly but there was still optimism there and Achill went out in the second half with hearts full of fire.
Islandeady cooled that fire down almost immediately with the first score of the second half. After swapping points Achill started to pull themselves closer to Islandeady and at one stage were just 2 points behind, until a bit of an incident happened in the middle of the park resulting in the dismissal of an Achill Player.
Achill seemed to be finished but deep runs from Darren Lavelle and Ray McNamara from the middle of the field, almost resulting in goals kept Achill’s hopes alive. Shane Gallagher and Barry Dever swapped points with the visitors before a goal mouth scramble in the Islandeady box saw Achill robbed of a Penalty.
After that it was all down hill. Islandeady ran up the field and scored a goal which was the killer blow for Achill and shortly afterwards the whistle blew. So close but yet so far. Achill play their final game of the campaign this weekend but the game will serve only as a challenge as Ardnaree are already 4 pts ahead of Achill going into the game.
In other news the County Football Intermediate Final takes place this Sunday in Garrymore between Shrule/Glencorrib and close neighbours Balinrobe which will prove to be a very close match.
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