September road

Compiled by DAMIAN CULLEN

London calling: Team still get the jobs done

THREE students, a site manager, four engineers, a plumber, two teachers, a technician, an electrician, a quantity surveyor, two carpenters, a property agent and someone working in sports development.

The list comprises the jobs of the players that defeated Fermanagh in the football qualifier at Ruislip on Saturday, with London recording their first championship victory in 34 years (they defeated Leitrim by three points in the Connacht championship in 1977).

Just a cursory look at the off-field specialities of the London players makes it obvious why the exiles are operating at a higher standard of late on the field.

It’s surely a rare positive from the current recession in Ireland.

And where have the players originated from? By our count the team on Saturday included two from Mayo, a Cavan man, two from Roscommon, four Kerry men, one from Sligo, Antrim, Derry and Down, three from Galway, and one from Meath and Tipperary.

ONE-MAN ARMIES

IT’S not unusual to witness a hurling forward rack up a huge individual score in a championship game. At the weekend Patrick Horgan scored nearly half of Cork’s 2-17 in their one-point victory over Offaly and Shane Dooley claimed more than half of Offaly’s 2-16 in the same game.

But scores are usually much more evenly spread out in football.

Jimmy Keaveney scored 2-6 in the 1977 final, while – never to let Dublin get away with anything for long – Mikey Sheehy did the same for Kerry two years later, against Dublin.

Sheehy’s score alone would have been enough to defeat Dublin in that ’79 decider (Dublin scored just 1-8). And, at the weekend, Cian Ward scored enough on his own to defeat Louth in the football qualifier in Cavan, despite the fact that last year’s beaten Leinster finalists (that’s Louth!) scored 2-8.

Girls gone wild: serious trouble in Tyrone

ANYONE who has regularly attended women’s football games know tensions can reach levels comparable to any men’s match.

September Road once suffered the ignominy of being the cause of a women’s football championship tie being halted due to a, erm, disagreement with the manager of the opposing team (it was handbags stuff, so to speak).

But what happened at the recent Tyrone women’s football senior county final in Beragh seems off the scale in seriousness.

Two officials – the referee and a member of the county board – are reported to have been knocked out at the end of the decider, which saw St Macartan’s beat Carrickmore, thanks to a late goal.

The executive committee of Cumann Peil Na Ban Tír Eoghain have wished the two a speedy recovery and said at the weekend that “the county board roundly condemn the perpetrators of the assaults and confirm that a full investigation into the matter has been launched”.

Where will it stop? At a senior hurling game in Tipperary last night an umpire was struck by a sliotar in the head after a player was sent off following a row.