Fixtures: Saturday, September 15: MFC Division One Semi-Final v Scotstown in Truagh at 3pm; Under-14 FL Division One Semi-Final v Scotstown (Away) at 12pm; Under-14 FL Division Five v Aghabog (Away) at 12pm
Monaghan Harps Lotto: Numbers 5, 6, 11 and 13. Jackpot of €7,900 not won. Residual prizes: €100 Isabella McCaughey c/o Ronan McCaughey; €40 Aoife, Jamie & Rory McCarville c/o Séamus Treanor; €40 Mickey Grealy c/o Séamus Treanor; €40 Aisling Greenan c/o Colm Shalvey. Jackpot for Sunday, September 16 is €8,050 and Rose Hughes and Noel Hennessy are on duty. Lotto draw takes place in the clubhouse every Sunday night. All welcome. Please continue to support our club lotto. If you’re not in, you can’t win!
Meetings: The club’s monthly meeting for September takes place this Thursday at 8pm, preceded by the juvenile meeting at 7pm.
Minors: The minor footballers play Scotstown in the championship semi-finals in Truagh on Saturday at 3pm. Good luck to Maurice, Pádraig, Paddy and the lads. We send our best wishes to Kevin Loughran, who underwent an operation recently, and Paddy Kelly, who also had an operation on an old war wound!
U-14: The Under-14 Division One team play their league semi-final away to Scotstown, this Saturday at 12 noon. All support welcome. Best of luck to Michael, Thomas, Ciarán and the players. Meanwhile, the Division Five team have a league game away to Aghabog.
Recreational tournament: Plans are well underway for our hosting of a recreational/Over-35 football tournament on Saturday, September 22 in memory of deceased club members. All members are asked for their support for what promises to be a great club day, when we will be raising money for North Monaghan Cancer Treatment Support Group. Eskra, Clontibret, Scotstown, Truagh and Éire Óg are confirmed to be taking part. Keep an eye on the notes, website etc. for more information.
SFL: An understrength senior team fell to a 3-11 to 0-11 defeat at home to Magheracloone last Sunday. Despite conceding a goal after five minutes, four points from Donal Hahessy and one from Nicholas Treanor kept us in touch in the first half, by the end of which we trailed by 1-4 to 0-5. Shane Smyth opened our second-half account, but Magheracloone’s second goal helped them go seven up. Points by Donal, Nicholas and Conor Galligan kept us in touch, but Magheracloone converted a penalty to kill the game off and late points by Donal and Neil McAdam were all we could manage in response. We wish a speedy recovery to Johnny Sherry, who joined our growing injury list when he was forced off, but we welcome back Gary White. The next SFL game is currently scheduled for September 22 against Castleblayney in Oram.
Team and scorers: Mark Hughes; Paul Rushe, Stephen Driver, Johnny Sherry; Niall Greenan, Conor Galligan (0-1), Aodhán Óg McAnespie; Peter Coyle, Neil McAdam (Capt., 0-1); Pat Murphy, Shane Smyth (0-1), Ronan Garvey; David Loughran, Nicholas Treanor (0-2), Donal Hahessy (0-6, 1f).
Subs: Gary White for Loughran (41 mins), Stephen McAleer for Sherry (inj., 43).
Reserves: The O’Duffy Cup team await details of the play-offs for semi-final places in the RFL Division One.
U-16: The Under-16 footballers exited the championship in spite of a battling performance which saw the lads come from seven points down to take Scotstown to extra-time at Gavan Duffy Park last Thursday. Scotstown led by 1-3 to 0-1 after just eight minutes, with our only point coming from an Evan Morahan free. Points by Evan and John Mulligan kept our lads in contention and Ciarán McQuaid scored a penalty to leave just a point in it at half-time: 1-3 to 1-4. Ciarán equalised with the first point of the second half, but Scotstown hit back with 1-5 without reply. A point by Ramunas Ramanauskas and a free by Evan were followed by a superb goal, which was emphatically finished by James McKenna at the end of a great team move. Ramunas then punched to the net and Evan converted a free to level it up at full-time on a scoreline of Monaghan Harps 3-8 Scotstown 2-11. Extra-time got off to a bad start when our lads conceded a penalty and even though Darragh Hannon kept us on terms with a double save, Scotstown kicked a series of points to lead by 2-16 to 3-8 at half-time and they added the first four points of the second period. Ramunas cracked in a powerful shot to close the gap to six, but Scotstown hit back with a well-worked goal almost straight away, and they went on to win by 3-22 to 4-8. Hard luck lads and thanks to Brian and Gearóid Lenehan, Gary White and Nicholas Scott for all their efforts with the Under-16s this year.
Team and scorers: Darragh Hannon; David Lowry, James McKenna (1-0), Adam Treanor; Kevin Lyden, Tiarnán Bramley, Daniel Kelly; Mustafa Gamal (Capt.), Ramunas Ramanauskas (2-1); Marc Brennan, Evan Morahan (0-4, 3f), Niall Duffy; Thomas Bourke, Ciarán McQuaid (1-1), John Mulligan (0-2).
Subs: Ruairí Forde for Brennan, David Carey for Lyden, Shane McKenna for Bourke.
Sponsored walk: The juvenile club’s annual sponsored walk takes place on Saturday, September 29 and sponsorship forms have been handed out. All support welcome.
Aido file: Congrats to the hurlers who travelled to Dublin for a sevens competition on All-Ireland weekend. The lads would like to point out it’s the taking part that counts… A great weekend was had by all who made the effort plus we got to know a few neighbours along the way! Truagh Harps are through to the Minor Hurling Championship Final … more details to follow
All-Ireland tickets: The club’s four All-Ireland hurling final tickets went to Gerry Lynch, Paddy Kelly, Charlie Shalvey and Rosalind Smyth in last week’s draw.
By michael Tue 11th Sep
