Menlough face daunting challenge at McHale Park

MENLOUGH’S intermediate footballers are hoping that their trip north on Sunday to meet Mayo champions, Kiltane, in the first round of the Connacht club championship will be the start of a long journey in the All-Ireland club series.

Their 2.30 date in McHale Park, Castlebar, with the Bangor Erris outfit has all the makings of a classic encounter – the sides play attacking football and both were highly impressive in their county final victories.

Kiltane were only relegated to the intermediate grade in Mayo in 2012, but have bounced straight back up to the senior ranks following their county final success against a fancied Kilmaine side.

A 2-18 to 2-10 victory over Kilmaine in that decider tells its own story about the scoring power of a side that also made headlines for its subs list in this decider.

Manager Martin Barrett named 28 subs in the programme for the county final, a little indication that emigration hasn’t impacted as badly here as in other parts of the West, due in part to the Shell oil project.

Menlough would be the first to admit that they cannot go anywhere near matching that kind of squad quota but they’ll be hoping that their first fifteen, plus a few more, will be a match for Kiltane.

A rich vein of form in the latter stages of the Galway intermediate championship culminated in a 1-12 to 2-8 county final success over a fancied Claregalway side – it was a richly deserved triumph.

Tomás Mannion, David Reilly, Robert Hughes and Kevin Reilly have formed into a rock solid central diamond – defensively they also did well to curtail a Claregalway attack with very lively performers in Mark Rohan and Danny Cummins.

Pat Carty, the Menlough manager, is hoping to have a clean bill of health in the run-up to Sunday’s game with full forward Hugh Keeley having recovered from the bruised ribs he suffered in a collision with the post in the Pearse Stadium county final.

Peter Kelly will also be pressing hard for a place in an attacking division that looked very sharp in the county final – when the chances came their way, they weren’t afraid to shoot either.

“We know that Kiltane come into this match with a big reputation and they certainly do have a very lively forward line that can score freely if given the space,” Carty told Tribune Sport.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.