Ballyglass and Iorras Aontaithe are destined for a playoff to decide who will be Division 2 champions following an evening of drama and Solar 21 Park last Wednesday night.

Ballyheane, who led both teams by point going into the night, blew their title and promotion hopes following a 6-5 defeat to local rivals Castlebar Celtic. Theron Coghill put Ballyheane ahead early on but brilliant efforts by Stephen Jennings, Declan Flynn and Nicky Canning gave Celtic a 3-2 lead before the break, Arek Tobiaz pulling one back for Ballyheane towards half-time. Canning, Kevin Malone and Sean McHale look to have sealed it for Celtic. Tobiaz netted twice to reduce the deficit and an own goal brough the gap back to one but Celtic held to leave Ballyheane’s fate in the hands of others.

Their chances were ended as Iorras Aontaithe showed their powers of recovers to beat Conn Rangers 8-4.
Conn went ahead three times in the first half through Brendan McShane, Mark McHale and an own goal only to be pegged back each time by Ivan Barrett (two) and Henry Gaughan. Brendan Nallen put Iorras ahead with Conn made it level once again through Aidan Gallagher.
There was no stopping Iorras second half as goals from Mark Gilbert (two), another from Barrett and one from Seamus O’Malley put them top and as champions if Ballyglass failed to beat Achill Rovers in the final game.

Yet Ballyglass would produce a professional performance as they comfortably beat Achill Rovers 11-4 to set up a playoff. The goals from Ballyglass came from John Walsh (four), Alan Plunkett (four), Jimmy Killeen and Alan Larkin. Kris Jablonski (two) and Brian Gill (two) got the goals for Achill.

There were some surprise results in the final round of games in Division 3. Ballyglass B secured their second win of the season with a 6-0 victory over Ballinrobe Town B, the latter missing out on promotion. John Boyle was the star of the show as helped himself to a five-goal haul with Steve Clarke getting the other.

That defeat for Ballinrobe meant Ballyhaunis Town secured runners-up spot after beating Killala 6-1. Keith Robinson scored four with the others coming from Vladimir Gibala and Alan Canny. Alan Murphy got Killala’s consolation.

The final game saw big defeat for newly-crowned champions Straide & Foxford United as they were beaten 11-2 by Swinford. Paul Kenny (five), Pat McDonnell (three), Gerry Henry (two) and Jakub Gawalkiewicz were on the scoresheet for Swinford, Sean Walsh and Michael Prendergast for Straide & Foxford.

On Thursday evening Westport United were presented with the Division One Cup by Mayo League Vice-Chairman after another convincing 8-3 win over Ballyvary Blue Bombers. David Hoban and Danny Scahill both hit hat-trick’s while Austin O’Malley and an unfortunate own goal rounded off the scoring.  Simon Cloherty scored twice for Ballyvary with the other goal coming from Johnny Keaveney.
 
Kiltimagh/Knock United got their first three points of the season with a 6-5 win over Ballinrobe Town. Damien Galagher scored twice with Colm Garvey, John O’Hora, Padraic Noone and James Carty getting the other goals for Martin Canny’s side. The Ballinrobe goals came from a James Colfar brace, Richard Forde, Pat Kelly and JP O’Gorman.

Goal of the week: No shortage of top-class strikes by the likes of Jimmy Killeen of Ballyglass and Castlebar Celtic’s Stephen Jennings. The best of the lot was Jennings’ teammate Declan Flynn, curling in a delightful shot from distance into the top corner.

Goalkeeper of the week: Ballyglass B’s Brendan Walsh kept a clean sheet for his side with a composed performance between the posts.

Player of the week: There were excellent displays by Ballyglass duo John Walsh and Alan Plunkett, Ballyhaunis Town’s Keith Robinson and Ballyglass B’s John Boyle. The nod goes to Swinford’s Paul Kenny, who scored five and played a central presence in their thumping win over the Division 3 champions.

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