Walshy on Wednesday:
In the normal course of a season – particularly this season when their opponents have been sending a few waves around European football – a 0-2 reversal at Oriel Park might be deemed a decent enough result. Even more so when you consider the pasting Dundalk handed out to Finn Harps in Ballybofey a couple of short months ago.
But a gritty performance on Monday night was never going to be enough to end a barren run that now stands at six games played and not a goal registered in any of them. And certainly not against the Lilywhites where the name of the game was defensive rather than offensive.
I caught the brief highlights of the game on the ‘Soccer Republic’ show on R.T.E. and if Harps did create a chance they didn’t show it. Difficult to credit that even a side that had only managed seventeen goals in their previous eighteen fixtures before this dismal run has gone through yet another ninety minutes without finding the target – and without even looking like finding it.
For all I know this may even be a club record – an unwanted one at that – but whatever the case, the alarm bells are ringing loudly around Finn Park. And even the ‘Soccer Republic’ team of panellists, who not too long ago were forecasting (like many of us) a reasonably comfortable end to the season for Harps and another campaign ahead in the top ranks, have lost faith.
“I can see Harps dropping all the way,” former St. Pat’s boss, Johnny McDonnell predicted with some head shaking certainty.
Worse, of course, has been the recovery by Bray Wanderers while Ollie Horgan’s team have been faltering. Once not a handful of games back lagging behind the Donegal side and looking likely to be battling with Wexford Youths to avoid the dreaded play-offs, they have gone on a run that now sees them seven points clear of Harps, the latest being a 2-0 win in Longford.
Harps have two matches in hand on the Wicklow side but that’s a crumb of little comfort on current displays.
This Friday they host bottom side, Longford Town, already doomed to their relegation fate. Nothing less than a win is essential as Harps bid to clamber away from the trap door.
They’ll be keeping a keen eye on their North-West rivals, Derry City and Sligo Rovers, who go into action against Wexford Youths and Bray Wanderers respectively.
But they will need to concentrate on their own game primarily and hope that an attendance matching some of those earlier in the campaign when things were looking a lot steadier will come along to help them return to winning, and scoring, ways.
In that respect, Sean Houston, who missed the game in Dundalk, could prove a key factor as the season edges towards decision time.
BUNCRANA’S PRIDE LAYS IT ON THE TABLE:
If you’re going to exit a major sporting tournament before the business end of things, then there’s no disgrace in doing so at the hands of the world number one and favourite.
Not that there should be any disgrace irrespective of who you come up against considering you’ve done the hard work by getting there in the first place.
Rena McCarron Rooney had lost her opening match in the group stages of the Paralympics table tennis competition to the reigning champion, Liu Jing from China. But she bounced back to clinch a place in the quarter-finals with victory over Maha Bargouthi from Jordan, 11-3,11-4,11-8.
The Buncrana woman, now resident in Galway, faced the top player in the world, the Korean Seo Su-Yeon in those quarter-finals on Sunday but courage wasn’t enough as she bowed out 5-11, 8-11, 3-11.
You see another side of sport in the Paralympics and, I have to confess, it’s only this time out that I’ve taken a particular interest in the whole competition. It doesn’t get the viewing figures that the Olympics itself enjoys but the commitment and talent of those involved should be honoured in the same way.
I’ve watched as many of our participants as has been possible over the past few days and finally – after years of near apathy to it – I’ve found myself as enthusiastic for our Irish performers and performances as I have always done during the Olympics.
No less so than for our own Rena McCarron Rooney. She was just fifteen years of age when she was involved in a car accident back in 1979 – changing as it did the course of her life.
She remained in hospital for a year and when she got back home continued her education at Scoil Mhuire in her native Buncrana. It was when she was undergoing the recovery process at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire that she took up a variety of sports including table tennis.
She met her husband, Ronan, there but it was only in later years that he required a training partner as there wasn’t too many individuals in wheelchairs playing the sport. He is now her coach and has been an inspiration to Rena in her climb to sporting success.
“He is a brilliant coach because he competed at the highest level for so many years. He is a fantastic stragegist and tactician,” she said of her life’s partner in an interview in the ‘Irish Times.’
Winner of a silver medal at the European Para table tennis championships last year, Rena took a career break six months ago to enable her to concentrate on her sport and her appearance at the Paralympics in Rio has been another significant achievement – perhaps the most significant one.
The draw may have been far from kind to her but it’s nevertheless one that pitted her against two of the greatest exponents of the sport in the modern era and that’s something special for her C.V. to register.
McCarron Rooney’s next trip back to Buncrana should be a homecoming to remember.
MARK UP
Not sure if the B.B.C. commentary team – in fact I’m more than not sure – gave enough credit to our own Mark English when he finished second in the 500 metres event at the Great City Games in Newcastle on Saturday.
For starters Steve Cram & Co. reminded viewers of the “two big names” in the race, David Rudhisha and Britain’s Martyn Rooney, forgetting, apparently, that the Letterkenny man was not alone taking part but had actually won the race last year.
The Kenyan, Rudisha, who captured the gold medal in the 800 metres at the Rio Olympics, crossed the line in first place as expected but English, after overtaking the other “big name’, Rooney, was closing the gap on the Olympic champion all the way to that line before the metres ran out.
Rudisha won it in a time of 57.69 with the U.C.D. student striding home in 57.91 and, like I say, eating up the distance with each stride.
I’d hazard a guess that had it been Rooney who had come so close to catching the Kenyan we would have heard a lot more about it.
Anyway, great showing from Mark who can now take a well earned break though I doubt if athletes of his calibre take any sort of break even out of season.
ONE NAME, FOUR NATIONS:
Three medals for Irish competitors at the Paralympics and the possibility of more to follow. We’ve had gold medals for Jason Smyth – the fastest Paralympian on the planet – in the 100 metres; another successful defence of his title from Michael McKillop in the 1,500 metres; and a bronze for Eoghan Clifford in the C3 Individual Pursuit Final in cycling.
We’re undoubtedly fortunate that we have access to competitors from both sides of the border and, indeed, we should have been celebrating another gold when County Down swimmer, Bethany Firth, took the honours in the women’s 100m backstroke S14 Final, breaking the world record in the process. Four years ago, we WERE celebrating her achievement as she was then representing Team Ireland but has since switched her allegiance to the Great Britain team.
Obviously the rules permit such a change but should they? Should competitors be allowed to represent one country and then swap over to another? I find it a bit disconcerting to say the least and firmly believe that if you’re attached to one nation, that should be the tie that never unbinds.
Credit to the 20 year old swimmer for her remarkable achievements but I do have an uneasy feeling about it.
I said earlier that Ireland were fortunate to be able to count on athletes from both the North and the Republic and that has certainly been of benefit to us in both Paralympics and the Olympics.
But what about Great Britain and Northern Ireland? They can choose from FOUR different countries when it comes to competing in the Games. Little wonder that their medal haul reaches such impressive levels but you have to pose the inevitable question – is it right and justified?
And is it not beyond time that we had England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland competing as separate entities when it comes to international competition in the sporting arena?
OMAGH DOWN:
Only made one trip to St. Julian’s Road in Omagh to watch the then hosts play Finn Harps and that was in an Irish News Cup fixture some time back in the nineties.
But it was a shame to read – and view the visual evidence – the state of play at the old venue these days. An article in last Friday’s ‘Belfast Telegraph’ depicted the current status of the ground that just over fifteen years ago hosted the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Institute.
“Stands which used to come alive to the noise and colour of fans on Saturday afternoons are now lost amid a sea of shrubbery,” Adrian Rutherford recorded. Abandoned, he indicated, to the elements and left to ruin.
Omagh Town folded in 2005 and St. Julian’s Road along with it. “It’s once famous pitch is now a riot of weeds and brambles and home to a range of wildlife,” Rutherford remarked, the images with the article confirming the downtrodden state of the ground.
Apparently the plight of the old stadium has “angered many in the town who believe more should have been done to prevent it falling into its current state”, the report revealed.
The anger is justified but what did the “many in the town” who were expressing it do about it over the past fifteen years? Were they not aware that weeds grow and brambles flourish through absolute neglect? And that the ghosts of groundsmen past have long since left for other pastures?
Where were they, too, before Omagh Town F.C. bit the dust? The Telegraph report recalled the club’s final game in the Irish League in April 2005 when around a paltry dozen or so fans attended the 1-0 defeat to Institute. Where were the “many” then? Where were they before that, indeed, when the club urgently required their backing?
Every so often, I pass by Belgium Park just up the road in Monaghan which once, unbelievable as it seems now, hosted League of Ireland football. Monaghan United subsequently moved to Gortakeegan but went out of business midway through the 2012 season.
Another case of a community failing abysmally to support their local club.
HOMECOMING QUEEN:
Due to a Relay for Life commitment, I didn’t make it along to Raphoe for Chloe Magee’s homecoming with a difference on Monday night but I hear an impressive turnout did her achievements justice.
The local woman has now represented her country three times at Olympic Games level and has helped promote the sport of badminton to a greater level of recognition than it has ever enjoyed.
A number of exhibition matches featuring the star of the moment – many moments indeed – and her badminton playing brothers, Sam and Joshua, and others on the brink of national prominence including Paul Reynolds and Nhat Nguyen provided the entertainment on the night.
As I’ve said here before, Donegal County Council should recognise the achievements of all our Olympic and Paralympic performers from 2016 with a special reception some time in the near future.
CAN MAYO DELIVER A KNOCK-OUT?
A bit of irony there that it was actually a Dub that inspired Donegal to claim their first All-Ireland title back in ’92! Or so was the case according to then player and future manager, Jim McGuinness, who in his weekly column in the ‘Irish Times’ recalled Brian McEniff pushing back the team’s training session a week before the Final to enable the players to tune into radio commentary on Michael Carruth’s gold medal winning bout in the welterweight division at the Barcelona Olympic Games.
“ I have this memory of a line of cars parked at the Four Masters pitch and all the players inside them, spellbound by the commentary. All the doors were open in all cars so everyone was connected to each other and to the moment,” McGuinness remembered.
And that significant sporting moment when Carruth disposed of Cuban Juan Hernandez Sierra to claim Ireland’s first ever boxing gold acted as a spur for the Donegal squad with “everyone wired going onto the field for training.”
So who has been wiring Mayo for this weekend’s All-Ireland. Certainly not any of our boxers at this year’s Olympics.
I honestly cannot see beyond Dublin for this one but many might – would – have been saying that back in ’92. Doubtless even Michael Carruth.
MACCUMHAILLS REACH THE TOP:
Victory for Sean MacCumhaills in the county senior hurling final and well deserved by all accounts.
A battling performance throughout saw them edge out Burt – no mean opponents – on a scoreline of 2-13 to 2-9. The latter side had beaten the Twin Towns club in no less than three finals since MacCumhaills sole success in the competition back six years ago.
The celebrations were launched into immediately after the final whistle at O’Donnell Park and may still be going on.
Loved the quote from MacCumhaills captain, Lee Henderson, in Tom Comack’s post match report in the ‘Donegal People’s Press’: “We had cried enough times going up Lurgrybrack hill that there was no way we were going to be going up Lurgrybrack this evening crying.”
You should try walking up it, Lee….
