Fixtures: Thursday, April 9: Under-16 FL Division One v Truagh (Home) at 6.30pm

Saturday, April 11: Under-14 FL Division Four v Seán McDermotts (Home) at 2pm; MHL v Truagh (Home) at 7pm

Monday, April 13: U-16 HL v Truagh (Home) at 6.45pm

Tuesday, April 14: MFL Division One v Carrickmacross (Away) at 7pm

Wednesday, April 15: SFL v Magheracloone at 7.15pm

 

Monaghan Harps Lotto: Numbers 9, 14, 15 and 22. Jackpot of €1,700 not won. Residual prizes: €100 Séamus McCarville c/o Neil McGinn; €40 Bridie McCoy c/o Marie Farrell; €40 Austin Corrigan c/o Maria McKenna; €40 John Sherry c/o Brian O’Sullivan (Hurling Club). Jackpot for Sunday, April 12 is €1,800 and Mary and Fergus Coyle are on duty. Plans are underway for our Lotto to celebrate its 21^st birthday on the May Bank Holiday weekend and all ongoing support is greatly appreciated.

 

Meetings: The club’s monthly meetings for April take place this evening in the clubhouse; juvenile at 7pm, senior at 8pm.

 

Quiz: Please keep free Friday, April 24 when our Juvenile Club will be hosting a table quiz at 9pm in the clubhouse.

 

Seniors: Our next Senior Football League game at home to Magheracloone, originally scheduled for Sunday, will now be played on Wednesday at 7.15pm, due to Monaghan’s National League semi-final. All support welcome.

 

Reserves: Our McKeown Cup team lost a high-scoring RFL Division Three game at home to Clones last Saturday (2-10 to 3-15). A nightmare first half left us well adrift, although we showed some spirit as the game went on to eat into our deficit, led by goals from Niall Greenan and Dónal McCarthy, we had left ourselves with too much to do.

Team and scorers: Ronan McGann; Paul Smyth, Conor Devlin; Turlough Clerkin, Carl Foentjies, Tiarnán Bramley; James McKenna, Dónal McCarthy (1-0); Francis Lynch (Capt., 0-2), Paul Rushe, Brendan McQuaid; Dessie McGarry (0-2f), Colm Shalvey.

Subs: Mark McCaughey for Bramley, Conor Forde for Smyth, Niall Greenan (1-6, 0-4f) for McGarry, Thomas Bourke for Shalvey, David Carey for McQuaid (inj.).

There is now a long gap without games for both reserve teams, with no fixtures until the RFL Division 1B resumes on May 6, with the O’Duffy Cup first round against Clontibret coming four days later on May 10.

 

Minors: Our minor footballers played Magheracloone on Tuesday – see website for result. Next Tuesday’s game is away to Carrickmacross.

 

U-16: The Under-16 Football League will begin with a home game against Truagh this evening (Thursday) at 6.30. The U-16s reached the shield final of the McElroy/Connolly tournament in Emyvale on Monday.

 

U-14: Our Under-14 Division One team were knocked out of the championship by the narrowest of margins away to Scotstown last Thursday evening. A slow start left our lads playing catch-up and although they worked their way back into the game, they fell just short in the end on a scoreline of 2-5 to 0-10. The rescheduled league game away to Latton has now been set for Saturday week, April 18.

Team: Dylan Ballantine; Tiarnán O’Rourke, Andrew Lyden; Killian Conlon, Annan Connor, Stephen Ward; Conor Devlin, Oisín Fagan; Eoghan McGinnity, Lochlainn Power, Lorcan O’Rourke; Luke Coyle, Erikas Dikmonas.

Subs: Dean Doherty, Liam Conway.

Also on Thursday, a young Division Four team played a league game in difficult conditions in Cremartin. Our lads were unable to turn possession into scores in the first half, but they put the home team under some pressure in the second period, with points by Josh Maguire, Shea Treanor and Adam McGarry, before finally taking one of our goal chances through Shay Cooney to make the final score 2-8 to 1-4.

Team and scorers: Kamile Parszywka; Lukas Virfilas, Mujtaba Gamal; Jamie McCarron, Brian McAteer; Nathan Lavery, Josh Maguire (0-1); Adam McGarry (Capt., 0-1), Jake Power; Shea Treanor (0-2f), Shay Cooney (1-0).

There is another Division Four league game at home to Seán McDermotts this Saturday at 2pm.

 

U-12: Our three Under-12 football teams had a busy weekend, with all three winning Spring League games on Saturday. Our Zone C teams won a competitive game away to Carrickmacross. Liam Conway, Jamie Coyle, Jake Power and Shay Cooney got points in a good first-half performance, while some strong defensive work backboned our second-half efforts, with Daragh Croarkin, Jamie and Shay adding the scores to secure a hard-earned win.

Team and scorers: Kevin Moran; Ryan McSkeane, Liam Conway (0-1); Daragh Croarkin (0-1f), Mark McManus; Tiarnán O’Rourke, Nathan Lavery; Jake Power (0-2), Jamie Cooney; Jamie Coyle (0-2, 1f), Shay Cooney (2-3).

Subs used: Luke McManus, Josh Kelly, Michael McMorrow, Jake McConnon, Che Treanor.

The Zone D team had already seen off Carrick in another keenly-contested game. Our lads recovered from a slow start to get going with scores by Luke McManus, Ross Finnegan and Liam McCabe. Luke, Ross and Josh Kelly were on target in the second half,

Team and scorers: Aidan Cunningham; Jordan Crampton, Patrick Dooley-Duffy; Jake McConnon, Gary Devlin; Michael McMorrow, Kevin Moran; Josh Kelly (0-2), Luke McManus (0-6); Ross Finnegan (1-2), Liam McCabe (1-0).

Subs used: Conor Treanor, James Curley, Dean Conlon, Che Treanor, Gregory O’Connell, Ryan Scott, Dermot O’Riordan, David O’Reilly, Karol Parszywka.

Meanwhile, the Zone I team had a convincing win in Oram, with an all-round team performance putting our lads on the front foot throughout.

Panel: Ethan Ballantine, Cian Bradley, Seán Callan, Mark Clerkin, Dáire Conlon, Mark Corrigan, Morgan Coyle, Senan Cudden, Ali Galligan, Shay Kelly, Lukas Krisciuncas, Max Mallen, Fionán Ó Gallchóir, Eoin O’Hanlon, Oisín Reilly, Shea Swift, Oisín Treanor.

We then hosted Skerries Harps for an U-12 challenge match on Sunday, when the teams served up an entertaining display of football before the Monaghan v Dublin National League game. Thanks to everyone who helped out and to our guests, who have invited us to make the return journey at a later date. Round three of the Spring Leagues is on Saturday week (April 18).

 

Membership: Membership for 2015 is now overdue and must be paid as soon as possible. Fees are as follows: €20 per adult, €10 per child or €50 for a family of two adults and any number of children. Money can be paid in the clubhouse each Sunday night, or any time to registrar Dermot Coyle (086 0734098) Jimmy Croarkin (087 1249635), Peter Coyle (087 9700858), or in Terry’s Bar or the Cosy Bar.

 

Saturday-morning coaching: Our popular Saturday-morning coaching for U-6s, U-8s & U-10s is up and running again for 2015. Anyone who wants to volunteer to help out is encouraged to do so. We are due to host a double blitz on April 18.

 

Darkness into Light: We are preparing to host the second Darkness into Light Monaghan 5km walk/run in the early morning of Saturday, May 9, with online registration currently available and the launch night to take place on Thursday, April 16. Anyone who wants to get involved is more than welcome – next meeting is on Monday, April 13.

 

County teams: Good luck to Neil McAdam and the Monaghan senior footballers in their NFL semi-final against Dublin at Croke Park this Sunday. Hard luck to Kevin Loughran, Fearghal McMahon and the county Under-21s, who exited the Ulster championship with a semi-final defeat against Donegal.

 

Pitch bookings: All pitch bookings for matches and training sessions this year must be made via 086 1957155. Training times have been allotted and any changes must be notified.

 

Clubhouse: The Monaghan Harps clubhouse is available to book for functions. Contact Jimmy Croarkin on 087 1249635 for more information. Free Wi-Fi is now available in the clubhouse. See website and social media for details of opening for the Easter weekend.