Corofin on their guard for trip to Ruislip

Date Published: 15-Jan-2009

COROFIN’S Sunday assignment in England’s capital city certainly won’t come under the ‘weekend break’ category as they attempt to complete the first leg of a three part programme to win a second club title for Galway’s most successful club of the past two decades.

Their quarter-final AIB club football championship clash against Tir Chonaill Gaels (Ruislip, 2pm) might be categorised as a routine assignment by some outside observers, but Corofin manager Jimmy Sice has good reason to be wary of the challenge his side will face.

He needs look no further than how the Donegal conceived side, fared in similar fixtures against Crossmaglen Rangers last year, and Salthill in 2006. The London side ran Crossmaglen to a four point margin – losing out in the end by 0-10 to 0-6 – while two years previously, Salthill only prevailed by a similar margin when holding on to win on a 0-9 to 0-5 scoreline.

Tir Chonaill Gaels are a doggedly determined outfit who play hard and mark tight, their Achilles heel apparently a lack of firepower in front of goal, but they seldom concede big scores even against top class opposition.

The roots of Tir Chonaill Gaels go back to a meeting in a Kilburn pub back in 1962, and as their name implies, the founder members were a group of Donegal exiles in London.

Their story, like…