Parke KC Connacht Junior Club Champions

[From the Bunker]

Yep game off, bit of a mess with flights and hotels booked. But sure what can you do? Rumour is that it will be nearly February till re-fixture.

[Farrandeelin]

Best of luck to Parke tomorrow.

[From the Bunker]

St Peter's 2-9 | Parke/Keelogues/Crimlin 0-14

[Farrandeelin]

It would have to happen a Mayo team to lose to the British champs.

[FL/MAYO]

It would have to happen a Mayo team to lose to the British champs.

Farr, the New York and London teams wont be the pushovers they once were with all this immigration going on. I would say there might be quiet the shock in the championship in the next year or two with one of those teams involved. Losing to the British champs is no disgrace these days.

[clarshack]

Are Parke an amalgamation of 3 clubs?

when we played Heston Gaels in the AI junior 1/4 final 6 years ago, they had no irish players whatsoever and we ended up beating them well.

i'd say the british junior team yesterday was probably full of irish players.

[RedandGreenSniper]

Are Parke an amalgamation of 3 clubs?

when we played Heston Gaels in the AI junior 1/4 final 6 years ago, they had no irish players whatsoever and we ended up beating them well.

i'd say the british junior team yesterday was probably full of irish players.

No, Parke is made up of two parishes. Parke and Keelogues. They threw Crimlin on (a half parish of Parke) to keep everyone happy. Known just as Parke though. There was 8 Mayo lads in the St Peter's squad. Parke are a very good Junior team so Peter's must be decent.

[AbbeySider]

Any match reports online yet from the game in Manchester?

[StoneWall]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2011/0117/1224287680319.html

Small piece at the end of the Cross report

[ludermor]

Mayo exiles plot Parke's downfall


Mike Finnerty

DESPITE crashing out of the All-Ireland junior championship race after conceding an own goal in injury-time, and having a player harshly sent off, Parke were 'making no excuses' according to their manager last night.
The Mayo champions were dumped out of the All-Ireland series at the quarter-final stage in Manchester last Sunday by the British champions, St Peter's, after losing by a point after extra-time.
Ironically, the winners were backboned by a cluster of Mayo natives, including Achill brothers Ronan and Donal Gallagher, their club-mate Bryan McGinty, Mayo Gaels duo Jason and Michael Hurst, Eoghan Vahey from Ballintubber and Castlebar's Joe Corcoran.
Speaking to The Mayo News, Parke manager Frank McHale admitted that luck had deserted his side from the outset but was magnanimous in defeat.
"We're not making any excuses and we'll take this defeat on the chin," he said.
"We're very disappointed. It was a difficult assignment on a terrible pitch but the conditions were bad for both teams. It was a fierce battle, nothing was asked or given, and I couldn't have asked for any more from our lads. They were colossal."
"It was a novelty for the Mayo lads in St Peter's to face a club from home, " explained Ronan Gallagher afterwards, " but it didn't really matter who we played today, we were going to give it our all. We never thought our chance was gone, even when they led in extra time."
The game was held up for 40 minutes in the first half after another Mayo-born player, Shane Gallagher, suffered a bad knee injury.
Frank McHale maintained that stoppage didn't help Parke's cause. "We were just starting to get on top when that happened, it killed our momentum. But the luck went against us all day. Dwayne Flynn was out with flu, Kevin Hall's sending-off seemed very harsh, and the own goal was a cruel piece of bad luck at the end."
Meanwhile, Joe Corcoran, whose late shot was deflected into the Parke net for the winning goal, paid tribute to his West Mayo neighbours.
"When they went two points ahead in the second period of extra-time I thought that might be it for us. To be honest, the shot was going wide but games like this are won with one kick." 

[ludermor]

Parke get caught in ambush


Quarter-Final
St Peter's 2-9
Parke 0-14

Graham Clifford
Manchester

MUD-SPLATTERED, dejected and forlorn, Parke's exhausted players fell to their knees at the final whistle. Two hours after referee Con Reynolds from Down had thrown in the ball at the start of this All-Ireland JFC quarter-final, an act of pure misfortune had denied the Mayo and Connacht junior champions a semi-final and a chance to reach Croke Park.
Parke led by 0-14 to 1-9 in Manchester with just seconds remaining at the end of the second period of extra-time when St Peters' Joe Corcoran, a native of Castlebar, fizzed a ball across the goalmouth only for substitute Michael Walsh to somehow send the ball into his own net.
It was a hugely unfortunate incident but ultimately one that would break Parke hearts. The irony was that Walsh had equipped himself well after being introduced. Fading light, awful conditions, a momentary lapse of positioning sense — at the final whistle trying to make sense of what happened seemed pointless for Parke's shattered players.
When the dust settles on this hugely disappointing defeat though Parke's management team will look back on this as a game that they could have easily lost in normal time. With just over a minute remaining at the end of the second half they trailed by two points, but somehow managed to force the game to extra-time.
Despite enjoying the majority of possession, Parke failed to make their superiority count on the scoreboard but had the game not been halted after 10 minutes following a serious injury to St Peter's Shane Gallagher, then perhaps they could have built up the kind of momentum needed to kill this game early.
Achill native Gallagher dislocated his knee when attempting to stretch for the ball and was stretchered off to hospital while both sets of players returned to the dressing room for almost 40 minutes.
Prior to this Parke had settled the faster of the two sides; Niall Dunne pointing well under pressure in the fourth minute.
A quick reply by John O'Neill two minutes later was quickly cancelled out by Simon Cloherty from a free.
Parke seemed to be getting into their groove but then the lengthy stoppage occurred.
Ryan Hannah replaced Shane Gallagher for St Peters and his height in and around the small square was causing a problem for the visitors. Hannah punched his first score in the 14th minute to level matters.
With Seán McHale impressing with his darting and intelligent runs, Parke looked dangerous and Darren Durkan kicked a super score after being released by Niall Dunne in the 20th minute.
Simon Cloherty bagged back-to-back frees soon afterwards and, with two minutes to go in the first half, Parke led by 0-5 to 0-2.
Holding that advantage to half-time was key but when Hannah out jumped Brendan Coyle in the Parke's goal to connect first with a dropping ball, the green flag was raised.
O'Neill pointed again at the start of the second half for St Peters to edge them in front for the first time in the game (1-3 to 0-5) and James Gillespie was called upon to replace Chris Kerins as Parke's sideline sought to steady their rocking ship.
The home side's lead was extended to three before Cloherty pointed another free in the 48th minute.
Far from dead and buried, Parke rallied and two great scores from Durkan and McHale saw parity re-established. Troublesome Hannah nudged St Peters in front again though after pointing from the tightest of angles with seven minutes remaining and Meaney had the home supporters in raptures when his thunderbolt from the right wing pushed Peters into a 1-7 to 0-8 lead.
Cloherty and Meaney exchanged frees and, with time almost up, the St. Peters sideline were preparing to celebrate.
But out of nowhere Parke found the will for one last push in normal time as Pat Lynch pointed from the dead ball with just sixty seconds remaining and, almost on the stroke of full time, Niall Dunne held his nerve and split the posts to send this intriguing clash into twenty minutes of extra-time.
The impetus was now well and truly with the Mayo champions and a point apiece from the Cloherty brothers, including a super score from John from way out on the right wing, saw them end the first period of extra time on a high, leading by 0-13 to 1-8.
Both sides were reduced to 14 men before the final ten minutes with Parke substitute Kevin Hall and St Peters captain Ronan Gallagher both seeing red.
Hall's sending-off was harsh in the extreme as the referee ruled he had initiated a frontal charge on Joe Corcoran but, if anything, the St Peters player was the one who was carrying the forward motion.
Parke were then reduced to 13 players moments into the last period of extra-time when Declan Neary picked up a second yellow card.
Achill's Donal Gallagher picked off a great score to keep St. Peters in the game with five minutes remaining but Simon Cloherty's accurate free a minute later seemed to have wrapped this game up for the visiting side.
With one last push St Peters forced their way up the left wing. The ball came to Joe Corcoran who dropped his right shoulder and jinked his way past two Parke defenders. He aimed, pulled the trigger, and as his shot was veering wide of Parke's left hand post, Walsh was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

St Peters
J Sheehan; P O'Shea, E Hansberry, S Kincaid; E Vahey, S Gallagher, M McKenna; J Corcoran (1-0), R Gallagher; S McGeehan, E Meaney (0-3, 3fs), P O'Brien; D Gallagher (0-1), J O'Neill (0-2), J Hurst.
Subs used: R Hannah (1-3) for S Gallagher (inj); B McGinty for P O'Brien.

Parke
B Coyle; M Marley, J Cloherty (0-1), P Moran; S Duffy, T Walsh,D Hopkins, D Neary, R O'Boyle; D Durkan 0-2, N Dunne 0-2, S Cloherty (0-7, 6fs); P Dunne, S McHale (0-1), C Kerins.
Subs used: K Hall for S Duffy; P Lynch (0-1, 1f) for R O'Boyle; J Gillespie for Kerins; M Walsh for P Dunne.