Aughavas set to receive walkover

Leitrim champions Aughavas seem likely to be handed a walkover in the Connacht club football championship unless there is a speedy resolution to the fixture wrangle involving the Galway football board and the Connacht Council.

The Galway county final between Corofin - they include Galway county stars Ray Silke and Martin McNamara - and Killanin is fixed for next Sunday, the same day that Leitrim side Aughavas are scheduled to face the Galway champions - whoever they be - in the first round of the Connacht club football championship.

The Connacht Council have not received any official communique from the Galway football board since last Friday although contact was anticipated.

However, unless they offer a team for Sunday's fixture against Aughavas then the Leitrim champions will be handed a walkover into the next round.

The choices open to the Galway board are either to ask Corofin and Killanin to play their match on Saturday and then play the Aughavas match the following day or nominate a representative to take on the Leitrim side. Neither option is likely to prove palatable.

It is not the first time that Galway football finds itself in such a predicament.

Two years ago, when the county won the All-Ireland Football Final, Corofin managed a successful appeal to reschedule a Connacht club championship fixture, the Galway side offering up home advantage and travelling to Ballina instead. They drew that day but lost the replay.

Pat Charles, chairman of the Leitrim club, stated that Aughavas would be travelling to Tuam on Sunday. "We have booked transport, a hotel and informed our players on the understanding that the game is going ahead," he said.

Meanwhile, Longford champions Abbeylara have defied the formbook on a couple of occasions already this year and will be hoping to complete a hattrick when they face Dublin's Na Fianna in the Leinster football championship on Sunday.

They reached their first ever senior county final by beating strong favourites Fr Manning Gaels - the latter had won the previous four finals - by 2-6 to 0-4, denying their opponents a single score from play.

In the first round of the Leinster championship they defeated Laois champions St Joseph's by a single point, during which their goalkeeper John Joe Reilly saved a penalty.

However team manager Declan Rowley, a former Longford inter-county player, concedes that they face a significant step up in class against a Na Fianna team that boasts current Dublin players Jason Sherlock, Dessie Farrell and Senan Connell.

Rowley admitted: "It's a daunting task as they are a quality team. Any side that loses just one club match, the All-Ireland club final, in 18 months has to have great quality. At the same time I have tried to instil a positive mental attitude in our team.

"In winning our first ever county final we got a monkey off our backs (they had lost senior finals in 98 and 99) and that was important.

"There is a confidence now within the squad and that has been apparent in the last two matches.

"I think they really believe in their ability to be competitive on Sunday."

Abbeylara's last two successes have come on wet, windy days and as Rowley conceded he won't be too upset if the weather is poor on Sunday. "It can be a great leveller, a heavy, wet surface."

Abbeylara have a sprinkling of inter-county players including the Ledwith brothers, Donal (full back) and Enda (centre back), Niall Sheridan (full forward), Peter Lynch (centre forward) and midfielder Terry Drake.