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From a Tourlestrane viewpoint i would be very confident going into the game next Sunday but for a spate of injuries over the last forthnight. O'Hara is out with a broken thumb, David Durkin and midfielder are also out with another lad unlikely to start. Fortunately enough we have a strong panel however you cannot replace the experience and class of those injured. Having watched Eastern Harps last week they are very beatable-they have a young mobile team and also have a few injuries themselves.

Its a tough one to call but i still think our lads can win it.

Ye were fortunate to win last week yourselves Stephenite from what i read and heard. Is there another Connaught title in your team?

You have gone too far this time Sligonian-you have been on the edge all year with some of your comments but the latest 2 posts you have inserted on this thread go way overboard.

You have been highly critical of certain county players all year and you have been proved wrong every time which shows how out of touch you are (T Taylor, Quinn, McNamara). McNamara has since got an all-star nomination and Quinn very unlucky not to be recognised also.

Then to criticise one of your own clubmates on an internet site and name his position to make identification easier is cowardly. This lad has been training all year to play in a county semi final and you are hiding behind your keyboard slating him. He is making more of an effort for his club than you are. If you love your club so much-get home every weekend and make the team.I made the trip home from Dublin for 7 years training with the county lads in Dublin winning 3 county titles in the process.

Your attack on Coolera also shows how warped you are. Everybody knows that a team can have off days and i think in fairness to Coolera their focus was on winning a county title their first since..well it was a long time.

Cop on lad and think before you start typing those letters on the keyboard. If you do the same in your working environment your career won't go too far.

Was in Tubber yesterday for the county semi-finals. The fare on show wasn't great with the dearth of scoring forwards in the county clearly evident.
Tourlestrane V Johns game was a good tough encounter with the spoils deservedly going to Tourlestrane. If Tour had taken their scoring chances earlier they would not have had the nervy last 5 minutes until the 1-1 at the death. John's had 2 excellent free takers in Scanlon and Rooney but they only scored twice from play (Scanlon though showed flashes of talent and should be in county squad next year). On our side we had to dig very deep-unfortunately we have got a lot of injuries at the wrong time-O'Hara and John Marren were ruled out, Stephen Henry and David Durcan carried injuries into the game. Unfortunately they had to come off with those injuries along with Stephen Leonard and all 4 are major doubts for next weekend with O'Hara a definate absentee. On the plus side the rest of team raised their game-full back line were excellent and Adrian McIntyre was outstanding at centre back.
Harps, Easkey was over as a contest from early on. Easkey weren't helped  by a number of injuries to Dessie and Eamon Sweeney.

Harps play a very defensive game and Tourlestrane have a good backline so i predict a low scoring county final.

Just to repeat that first score for everybody's benefit, in particular the gutted Tourlestrane contingent , lest one thinks it's a misprint:

Wouldn't be too disappointed from a Tourlestrane viewpoint however i think Curry have had a few problems over the last few weekends and were there for the taking really and i'd say our boys would have liked the opportunity to take care of them in the semi.

Danger now is Tourlestrane have been focussing on meeting Curry in the semi final and will have have to re-focus for the challenge of John's. Johns have built up a huge momentum also over last 3 weekends while Tourlestrane have been sitting idle and have not had a competitive championship game thus far. Having said that the 3 week break has helped a few of the injured lads recover so its a double edged sword.

A lot of Tour lads have been beaten in minor county finals by Johns so hopefully that will be motivation enough to see them through

Tourlestrane really have had terrible misfortune in minor finals over recent years. Still, its good to be getting there but you'll forgive me for hoping ye don't make this one.

Not just at minor level at all levels-unfortunately we always have some exceelent individual players but have to down in age to fill the wings.
I lost 3 county finals underage-2 to your club, the other to Carraroe. These areas have huge advantage at underage level because of the their large population base. Fortunately we make up for our lack of success in underage county finals at senior level!

Big day for our club on Saturday. Home semi final in the minor "A" championship against Tourlestrane at 3pm despite our opponents persistant objections as to the suitability of our pitch. 

I never personally had a problem with the Coolera pitch. Why though is a county semi-final been played in one of the participating teams pitches-surely there are enough neutral venues around the county.

I don't think our minor team is as good as previous years and we have had enough painful memories of losing minor finals over last few years so i would prefer to lose the semi than get betaen by John's again in the final

Overall though I think we're better than 12 months ago though I'm sure the same is true of Tubber.

Tubber are much better than last year-Anthony Brennan has them flying fit. There were unlucky against Curry-they were ahead for most of the game until Curry brought on a few experienced subs and Curry got the vital scores in the end. Curran, Kelly and a lad called Dermot Walshe are big players for them in forwards. Mark Boland formerly of Pats plays at centre forward. The Walshe lad was very impressive against Curry and i'm sure the watching Tommy Brehony was also impressed. It will be a tough game for ye.

If we look at the current set up in the Showgrounds how many of the Sligo born players would make the county team? Not one of them. Connor O'Grady was there or there abouts at one stage but ultimately not good enough.

He would have been a lot better than forwards playing last week.

Gary Curran and Raphael Cretaro are 2 other footballers who played minor for Sligo and for their clubs and could be playing county football now but for soccer

Very negative tactics from the Sligo team. Playing 12 men behind the ball-then when we got a counter attack the half forwards & midfield were too deep to support the forwards who had enough problems without a lack of support. Where was the belief that was coming from the camp over last few weeks. We seemed to be content with keeping Cork's score down.
The half backs were playing higher up the field than the forwards but on a few occassions when a shot was on they pass the ball to a player in a worse position. We are seriously in need of a few new players in forwards and a few of our existing need to be taught how to run into space and shoot at the goals. Kelly while one of our better players (despite the dreadful ball he was receiving) needs to hit the gym and develop a dummy in his game as speed alone will not get him past his man. Everytime he seems to try to beat his man and then stop and turn back. Curran while a wonderful grafter is not a forward. Why did he bounce ball prior to his goal attempt-he was too close to keeper when he shot anf McPartland screaming for ball inside him for a simple tap in goal. Egan also while impressive foraging deep and carrying the ball didn't threaten the scoreboard.
Overall i suppose we are Connaught champions so we have to be grateful to the players, management etc for that but we could have got much more if we employed more positive tactics as Cork were there for the taking

Shrewdness you bitter Rossie clown-still bitter about what he said on TV about Ross a few years ago perhaps!!

I think Paddypastit has defended Eamon well enough there so i have no more to say-apart from the above.

Team unchanged as expected. For Cork O'Leary is back which is significant-excellent player who can do damage going forward if given the opportunity-he scored 3 points against us last time in Portlaoise. He is prone to committing rash challenges which may yield us a few frees.

It will be interesting to see who kicks the frees on the left hand side for us. It was reported in the Indo that Quinn might take them-can't see this happening myself. Seanie does he take the free kicks for Coolera?

I think its a difficult draw for us-Meath and Cork were teams i was hoing to avoid. Cork were rusty against Louth but now have a game under their belt since defeat in Munster. They will also benfit from the 2 week break since their last game. They seem to have a balanced side and have a set of forwards who can all score.
We are strong in defence and midfield and will give Cork very little space. However our problems are in the forwards-we need Davey, Egan, Curran to contribute a few scores from play to take some of the pressure off Brehony. Also Kelly needs to take some responsibility and have a few shots at goal. He is a prolific scorer at club level so he is well able to do it.
Furthmore i think Sweeney has to start he has scored more than some of the starting forwards with very limited time.

Tom Parsons is a name to watch out for in future years in the Green & Red a Bellaghy man who plays for Mayo, will be a massive loss to you.

Whats the story here Fishhead. I thought Bellaghy was part of the Curry club area?

A charlestown lad played for Sligo minors a few years back-Towey i think his name was

Jeepers that would of destroyed me if that happened. Would he still have played for Sligo do you think?

He would have been able to change county allegiance but i doubt he would have done that

Great performance on Sunday. Fair play to Sligonian for keeping us believing. I had my doubts but team selected and Sligonian kept me going. I fairness Sligonian you do get it wrong occassionally. Tony Taylor, Kieran Quinn and Michael McNamara have all proved you wrong over last few months. I think you should slag off Sean Davey prior to next game-he needs a kick up the behind and whoever you criticise seems to have a stormer in next game.

The lads behing the goals despite their banners and plastic implement were excellent and support in general was terrific. I can't say anymore-hopefully i will be able to string a few coherent sentences later in week.

I heard he nearly ended up playing for Knockmore.

What??? Explanation please

Yes its true Sligonian. He was on the verge of joining Knockmore about 7 years ago. His uncle was manager of Knockmore-they were very good back then and contested an all-ireland club final around that time. His uncle has a business in Ballina and offered (been very diplomatic here) him the business if he joined Knockmore. Eamon of course thought about it and was on verge of agreeing but on eve of first league game of year against Drumcliffe he consulted senior players and management in Tourlestrane and changed his mind.