Monaghan Harps notes (August 30)

Friday, September 2: RFL Division One v Cremartin (Home) at 7pm

Saturday, September 3: Under-12 FL Division One Final v Truagh in Blackhill at 5pm

Under-12 FL Division Four Shield Final v Scotstown in Blackhill at 2.45pm

Sunday, September 4: RFL Division Four v Truagh (Home) at 12.30pm

0-35 Semi-Final v Aghabog in Truagh at 5.30pm

Monday, September 5: Under-12 HL Final v Carrickmacross in Aughnamullen at 6.30pm

Monaghan Harps Lotto: Numbers 2, 13, 18 and 24. Jackpot of €2,200 not won. Residual prizes: €100 Josie Galligan c/o Paudge Connolly; €40 Mary Macklin c/o Maria McKenna; €40 Irene McGinn c/o Neil McGinn; €40 S O’Connor c/o Tessie Connolly. Jackpot for Sunday, September 4 is €2,350. Lotto draw takes place in the clubhouse every Sunday night. All welcome.

SFL: The senior footballers played two games last week. First up was Truagh last Wednesday, which resulted in a 0-15 each draw. The sides swapped points four times in the opening 20 minutes, with Donal Hahessy scoring two of ours, while Ashley White converted a free and Nicholas Scott hit one from play. Points from Donal and Liam Hahessy gave us a two-point lead, but Truagh hit the last three points of the half change ends ahead by 0-7 to 0-6. Donal converted two frees early in the second half, but a string of points saw Truagh move six clear. Our lads came back strongly, though, with frees by Donal and David Hughes and a great point from play by David. Donal tapped over another free before good points by Paul Kelly and Shane Smyth brought us level. Truagh retook the lead in injury-time, but another well-taken point by Shane gave us a share of the spoils.

Team and scorers: Mark Hughes; Conn O’Hanlon, Aidan Óg McAnespie, Ronan Garvey; Mark McCaughey, Conor Galligan, David Hughes (Capt., 0-2, 1f); Peter Coyle, Philip Drohan; Pat Murphy, Ashley White (0-1f), Nicholas Scott (0-1); Donal Hahessy (0-7, 6f), Shane Smyth (0-2), Liam Hahessy (0-1).

Subs: Paul Kelly (0-1) for White (inj.), Niall Hahessy for Scott, Paul Rushe for McCaughey.

We travelled to Scotstown on Sunday, but came away empty-handed after a 0-11 to 0-9 defeat. Our lads started well, with points from frees by Donal Hahessy and Neil McAdam plus scores from play by Paul Kelly and Shane Smyth. Paul kicked a point off his left foot and Ciarán Garvey added a point, before Neil hit two-in-a-row to give the Harps a 0-9 to 0-4 lead at half-time. Mark McCaughey increased our lead a minute into the second half, but that proved to be our last score. Scotstown took over at midfield and with the wind at their backs, they gradually racked up the scores and they overtook us late on, with three points in the last three minutes.

Team and scorers: Mark Hughes; Conn O’Hanlon, Niall Hahessy, Mark McCaughey (0-1); Paul Rushe, Conor Galligan, Liam Hahessy; Neil McAdam (Capt., 0-3, 2f), Aidan Óg McAnespie; Pat Murphy, Shane Smyth (0-1), Nicholas Scott; Donal Hahessy (0-1f), Ciarán Garvey (0-1), Paul Kelly (0-2).

Subs: Gareth Treanor for Murphy (inj.), Fionntán Cassidy for Garvey.

We wish Ashley White and Pat Murphy speedy recoveries from their injuries.

Reserves: The O’Duffy Cup team had a good win over Castleblayney in the league at Blackhill last Friday. The first half was closely contested, with points from Liam Hahessy (two), Mark Mulhall (two) and John McCoy leaving us level before John blasted a powerful shot to the net to make it 1-5 to 0-5 at half-time. Gary Murray added goal number two early in the second half and with Mark hitting another three points and Paul Kelly also on target, we went on to secure an important two points.

Team and scorers: Conall McKenna; Fionntán Cassidy, Ciarán Garvey, Séamus Brannigan; Johnny Sherry, Conn O’Hanlon (Capt.), Pat Murphy; Aidan Óg McAnespie, Paul Rushe; Liam Hahessy (0-3, 1f), Mark Mulhall (0-5, 1f), Paul Kelly (0-1); Gary Murray (1-0), John McCoy (1-1), Finnian McKenna.

Subs: Paddy Connolly for F McKenna, Adam Cullen for McCoy, Colm Shalvey for Cassidy.

The busy schedule continues tomorrow (Wednesday) when the O’Duffy Cup team are at home to Truagh and we have another important game at home to Cremartin on Friday (both at 7pm). The Crawley Cup team host Truagh on Sunday for a 12.30 throw-in.

U-12: Both of our Under-12 football teams play finals in Blackhill this Saturday. The Under-12 Division One team take on Truagh in the Cup final at 5pm, while the Division Four team are up against Scotstown in the Shield final at 2.45pm. Good luck to both panels and their mentors – Michael O’Donoghue, Thomas McCabe, Paul McHugh, Chris Conway and Finbarr Conlon. We urge as many supporters as possible to come along and cheer on the lads in what should be a great day’s football.

U-16: The Under-16s are at home to Killanny in the first round of the championship this Thursday evening at 6.30. Good luck to the team and their management of Brian Lenehan, Mickey Buckley and Seán Morahan. All support welcome.

Minors: The minor footballers finished their league campaign on a high with a big win at home to Emyvale on Monday. An early goal by Aaron Stuart and a Niall Treanor point set the tone, with Paddy Clarke adding a brace of goals and Conor Forde and Darren McMahon getting forward to kick points, making it 3-3 to 1-0 at half-time. Brendan McQuaid got the first point of the second half, which was followed by a point from John Treanor (who started in goals before switching to corner-forward where he hit 2-1!). The scores continued with points from Paddy Clarke and Evan Doherty and a goal by Benin Devlin, before John Treanor found the net twice in the closing stages. The lads missed out on a semi-final place, but we thank the players and the management team of Maurice Galligan, Pádraig Reilly, John McMahon and Gary McAleer for their efforts throughout the year.

Team and scorers: John Treanor (2-1); Pauric Murphy, Darren McMahon (Capt., 0-1), Anthony Croarkin; Conor Forde (0-1), Michael Galligan, Colm Galligan; Evan Doherty (0-1), Colm Flynn; Brendan McQuaid (0-1), Paddy Clarke (2-1), Benin Devlin (1-1); Paul Smyth, Niall Treanor (0-1), Aaron Stuart (1-0).

U-14: The Under-14 Division One team gave unbeaten Donaghmoyne a good rattle on Monday evening, but lost by 4-12 to 3-9. Our league programme is now complete, so we wait on other results to see if our lads have qualified for the semi-finals. The Division Five team also lost to Clontibret on Saturday, leaving them third in the table.

O-35: The Over-35s/receational team played three games in the Truagh tournament last Saturday and with the bare minimum of players, this was a long evening. While playing numbers may have been a problem, quality in the early games was not an issue, with some outrageous scores coming from the likes of Colm Herron, Dessie McGarry, Damien O’Leary and most notable Ciarán Cuddy all rolling back the years. Our semi-final will be played this Sunday at 5.30pm against Aghabog, all support welcome!!

Aido File: Congratulations to Éanna and Fiona Finlay on their recent marriage in Roslea followed by reception in the Hillgrove. While in some people’s eyes it was a long time coming, a great day and night was had by all! This weekend the senior hurlers head to the Kilmacud Crokes mini sevens so best of luck to the lads and we hope they all come home safe! Our Under-12 team play in the county final this Monday, September 5 in Aughnamullen with a 6.30 throw-in. All players are asked to meet in 5.15 in Rooskey. All club members are asked to go along and support. Hopefully we can build on our Under-14 success!

Congratulations: To the Harps ladies, who won the Intermediate Football Championship last Wednesday.

Welcome home: To Nicholas Scott, Niall Hahessy, Gareth Treanor, Adam Cullen and Paddy Connolly, who all returned recently after spending the summer in America.

Club Harps: Our ‘Club Harps’ fundraiser is currently being wrapped up. We very much appreciate all the valuable support received so far and we ask that anyone who still wishes to contribute do so as soon as they can. The next fundraiser will be a poker classic, so keep an eye on the club notes for more details.

Twitter: You can now stay in touch with club matches and news on twitter by following our new page: www.twitter.com/monaghanharps.

Email: I am now using a new email address, so any info for the notes can be sent to pro.monaghanharps.monaghan@gaa.ie.