Preview of St. John's opening ties in the Senior & Intermediate championships

Club  P.R.O. Michael McGee previews the opening matches in this year’s Senior & Intermediate ties involving St. John’s.

St. John’s Senior’s up against it while an understrength Intermediate team face a difficult assignment in Enniscrone.

St. John’s take on Tubbercurry in the first round of the Belfry sponsored Sligo Senior football championship in Connolly Park Collooney on Saturday evening. Tubbercurry have the “Indian sign” over St. Johns. In last year’s championship St. John’s were beaten twice by Tubbercurry in the group rounds and in the knockout stage. And more recently Tubbercurry also got the better of the “Saints” in a low scoring league match in Stenson Park last March by 8 pts to 5 in Tubbers favour. Training started in early January for St. Johns and has been going well under the watchful eye of Manager Anthony Brennan

St. John’s are expected to have a near full strength panel to pick from.  Club & County star Charlie Harrison is still unavailable after picking up a shoulder injury in Sligo’s victory over Offaly in early March. Harrison is making good progress and it is hoped that he will be involved in forthcoming championships matches for St. Johns

After an initial early set back in the league the Senior’s are right back in contention with 4 wins on the trot following recent wins over Drumcliff/Rosses Point & Geevagh respectively.  

Tubbercurry last year’s runners up will start as warm favourites however with the Management pedigree of Anthony Brennan in the St. John’s set up this year and ably assisted by selectors Sean Brown & Sean Reilly. The trio have put in countless hours and graft with the team getting them primed for Saturday’s opening blast.

Tubbercurry will be expected once again to prevail over St. John’s. But expect Brennan, Brown & Reilly to orchestrate an ambush in Collooney. A close contest is expected.

Intermediate team to face Castleconnor challenge head on

Meanwhile the Intermediate side face a daunting a trip to Enniscrone to take on what many people consider will be the favourites for this year’s Intermediate title in Castleconnor. A number of key players are unavailable while injury’s have hampered the teams preparations.   Brian McCaffrey is away on honeymoon while David Burke is in China. Robbie Galvin has returned to training but Killian Harris & Brian Keaney are abroad.  Joe Mitchell, Jamie McGovern and Mark Gerrity are expected to return to training this week to bolster an understrength team. Joint Manager Niall Gordon (along with Ray Henry) despite the unavailability of a number of key personnel stated “there is no doubt we can be competitive in Intermediate football but this game may come a few weeks too soon.” “It will be a tough task but we are looking forward to the challenge”, acknowledged Gordon.

(With thanks to contributions from Sean Brown & Niall Gordon)

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