Latest Scores

[Zulu]

2-7 to 0-15.

[Zulu]

Finished Wex 2-8 Laois 0-16

[Zulu]

Ros 0-5 Mayo 2-4, coming up to half time.

[Zulu]

3-5 to 0-6 now.

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Full Time: Mayo 3-7 Roscommon 1-10.

Well done Mayo

[drici]

Senior Football Championship Round One

Ballinascreen v Slaughtneil

Tonight, 7.30pm, Glen

By Cahair O'Kane

THINK back to 2005, and to 2009.

Slaughtneil, off the back of a first ever county title in 2004 and then a county final defeat in 2008, failed to make quite the same impact as they had the year previous.

2005 took them back to a semi-final but in a thriller, Bellaghy atoned for their defeat in the Emmet's final victory as the Tones dethroned them by a single point.

2008 hit them particularly hard.  They had clawed their way back into a final after that four-year break but in a tight encounter, a vital Mickey C save helped Ballinderry hold on to win John McLaughlin by 0-10 to 0-8.

The following year, it all fell apart.  A draw against local rivals Swatragh didn't appear all that concerning but goals from Seanie McGuckin and Liam Kearney lent themselves to an upset.  Against Coleraine a few weeks later, playing in most unfamiliar red and white hoops, playing most unfamiliarly poorly, they suffered another shock defeat, losing by a point in an eerie, disbelieving Dungiven.

Between 2004 and 2007, and then 2009 and 2011, they made no real headway.  There were a couple of times they looked like it and indeed they had Coleraine half beaten twice in 2010, but couldn't finish the job and ended up out on their ears before the quarter-finals.

So the challenge after last year's county final defeat by Ballinderry, another narrow one decided this time by a piece of magic from Enda Muldoon at the other end, is to ensure that there is no four-year hiatus again.  It is to ensure that they have found their hunger again, their bite.

The signs, though they come from a league that is not always the best of gauges, appear to be that they have indeed gotten over last October, at least as well as can be expected.  League form is not always trustworthy when it comes to August but Slaughtneil did hit the ground running.

Much, though, depends on the fitness of Patsy Bradley.  Having appeared to have come round a bit when Derry met Down a second time, that game set him back no end.  He was visibly unfit against Cavan on Saturday past and the back injury that cripples him was part of why Slaughtneil did fall away in other championship years.

Paudie McGuigan will fetch ball, and indeed he has been fetching it well all year.  Shane Kelly, having just made his return after a long layoff, will do the same job.  But neither of them have that effect of climbing over the top of four men, full-length to catch a ball they have no right to while almost perpendicular to the ground.  That's the effect only Patsy Bradley has.  He is a colossal force for them at midfield, the most driven leader you will find, and they need him so very badly.

They do have the added luxury of a fit-again Paul Bradley though, a different type of leader.  He missed virtually the whole of last year's championship with injury and they missed him in the final.  As reliable a finisher as there is around, had he and an in-form Jim Kelly been able to pair up, it's possible Damian Barton's reign would have ended with the silverware he and the Emmet's both crave.

Kelly didn't play much in the earlier part of this year but has returned to the team in recent weeks.  He hit four points from frees when Slaughtneil drew with Ballinascreen in their dress rehearsal a few weeks ago.  That was a game in which Slaughtneil didn't really show their hand though.  Gerald Bradley at wing-back, the fit-again Sé McGuigan at midfield, Sammy Bradley at wing-forward, Shane Kelly on the edge of the square: it will look a fair bit different this weekend.  Also back for that encounter was Fergal McEldowney, who slotted in at corner-forward.

However, the dismissal of his twin brother Francis in last week's Larkin Cup clash with Ballinderry leaves them shorn their most experienced defender.  They will be hoping that Conan Cassidy is fit to start after injury.

'Screen showed not their full deck either.  As much is to be expected a month before they meet in the championship, but you can be sure that Cathal Corey will have seen 'Screen and that Ciaran Meenagh will know more than enough about Slaughtneil by now.

Ballinascreen have come in very much under the radar.  Just cruising along nicely in mid-table, not upsetting the order of the world, but not bowing to it either.  They would have been disappointed by the manner of a couple of their defeats, not least the home beating by Lavey early in the season or a heavy defeat by the Loup, but they have also run Ballinderry to a point, won in Bellaghy and Dungiven and drawn with Kilrea (away) and Slaughtneil (home).

In some ways, you could construe all that as a good sign, that they have produced their best performances of the season against some of the teams who will realistically challenge for the league.

They were decidedly unlucky in last year's championship.  Maybe had the game against Bellaghy been taken out of an arena as tight as Slaughtneil and into a coliseum that allows football to trump warfare, they might have won it.  Maybe they wouldn't have either, but it wouldn't have been as physically taxing as that night was.  It drained every ounce from every sinner, and when they went to play Lavey eight days later, the legs just wouldn't motor.

The fastest of those legs may or may not be available.  Kieran Conway's pace and energy running at teams will be sorely missed if he isn't home from America in time for the game.

They will also be without reliable defender John Scullion and forward Johnny McKee, who has really broken into the team this year and has been scoring fairly regularly for them.  Also out is the experienced Eunan Murray.

Seamus Bradley has the year under his belt after returning from injury but hasn't quite rediscovered the talismanic touch that made him such a feared marksman a couple of years ago.  His namesake Philip has grown into a hugely important player for them, be it from midfield or half-forward.  Sean Woods, who missed parts of last year's championship, has been going well around the middle.

Benny Heron improves all the while, and while he's suffered a few niggles and knocks in recent weeks, he will be available and vitally important to his side's hopes come the weekend.

It is a massive game for both teams.  Slaughtneil cannot afford to lose and stare down the barrel of a 2009 all over again.  Ballinascreen have been talked up at times in the past few years but now that no-one is looking at them, this may be their best chance to shine.

'Screen have struggled with the attacking side of their game in the last couple of years, even adapting their style last year to play one man inside and run it from deep.  Slaughtneil, by contrast, have added Sammy Bradley and Sé McGuigan, both serious scoring options, to a forward line that already contains Paul Bradley, Jim Kelly and Fergal McEldowney.  That's not to mention Padrig Kelly, who makes so much happen for them in a playmaking sense.

As Ballinderry have shown in the last couple of years, it is forwards that win championships.  Slaughtneil have the better forwards.  Slaughtneil, then, should win.

Verdict: Slaughtneil

[Syferus]

Why does Derry have all the good club championship writers? Why can't they share them with the rest of us?

[theticklemister]

Why does Derry have all the good club championship writers? Why can't they share them with the rest of us?

Hard to beat lad.

Each senior game has a full page spread and the  intermediate is split into 4 games a page.

The reports of the matches will result in 2 full colour pages for senior club and 1 full colour page for intermediate mext week no doubt. Great bit of reading. It gives the average club player in the county great recognition.

[rodney trotter]

Who is worth backing is these games at the weekend Tickle, http://www.boylesportsucp.com/betting/?gi=20&sID=286.1

[theticklemister]

A lot of close calls like lavey v bellahy and dungiven v kilrea. And then a lot of bankers like bderry and coleraine

For a bit of in between I would do banagher to beat craigbane and sneil tonight to beat bscreen.

But as Drici and Hardstation would tell ye.... Im a shit betting man.

[drici]

Senior Football Championship Round One

Ballinascreen v Slaughtneil

Tonight, 7.30pm, Glen

By Cahair O''Kane

The fastest of those legs may or may not be available.  Kieran Conway's pace and energy running at teams will be sorely missed if he isn't home from America in time for the game.

Looks like he made it back.

[drici]

[drici]

Derry Senior Football Championship
Ballinascreen 0-00  Slaughtneil 0-01

[drici]

Derry Senior Football Championship
Ballinascreen 0-01  Slaughtneil 0-01

[drici]

Derry Senior Football Championship
Ballinascreen 0-01  Slaughtneil 0-02