The Junior Championship started this evening at a blustery Louisburgh GAA ground but it was the home team that blew Swinford away with a goal in each half.

The named teams saw one change for each side with Jason Carney starting for Stephen McDonnell and James Gibbons replacing Eugene O’Toole on the Louisburgh team.

Once the ball was thrown in Austin O’Malley dropped back to play in front of his defence in a sweeper type role. The home team started off playing into the wind with two wides before Kevin McDonagh got us off the mark with a pointed free.

Kevin Gibbons then scored two points for Louisburgh before he pulled a shot wide when straigh through on goals. Louisburgh extended their lead with a 21 yard free.

We then took a hold of the game and scored the next three points from Paddy Ward, Darren Campbell (f) and Sean Brady. The pick of the three been Paddy Ward’s point as he was fed by a great ball by Kevin McDonagh.

Unfortunately that ended our scoring for the half as Louisbugh scored 1-3 without reply with the goal from corner forward Pearse O’Malley giving Sean Kavanagh no chance.

Half time came as a relief to us with the score at Louisburgh 1-6 Swinford 0-4.

Management made two changes at the break with Stephen McDonnell and Caoimhin McLoughlin came on for Johnnie Pidgeon and Paddy Ward.

A great move from one end of the pitch to the other produced a fine point for Gerry Callaghan but then two poor decisons from the referee gave Louisburgh two soft frees to extend their lead to six points.

We had a chance to change the game when a fine shot from Kevin McDonagh was cleared from the goal line by the Louisburgh defence with their goalkeeper beaten.  A few minutes later Pearse Walsh was fouled on the 21 yard line when advantage could have been played the referee gave the free which was dispatched by Kevin McDonagh.

Moments later the game was got from us when Gerry Callaghan was sent off by referee Sean Conway which was soon followed by a shot into the bottom corner by Kevin Gibbons to make up for his miss in the first half.

Kevin McDonagh who never gave up, won a free and knocked it over the bar to keep our score ticking over. This was soon canceled out by a free from Kevin Gibbons before Kevin McDonagh repeated his score from minutes earlier.

The game creeped into injury time which saw Louisburgh finish off the scoring with two further points to end the game Louisburgh 2-11 Swinford 0-8.

Louisburgh were the stronger team with good performances from Austin O’Malley and Kevin Gibbons while a young Swinford team saw good performances from Jason Carney, Kevin McDonagh, Ryan Convey and Darren Campbell to name a few.

It is now on to another away trip to Killala next Saturday evening who enjoyed a one point victory away to Kilfian this evening.

Swinford: Sean Kavanagh, John Gerard Kelly, Sean Brady, Alan McLoughlin, Aiden McLoughlin, Kevin Barry, Jason Carney, Gerry Callaghan, Pearse Walsh, Paddy Ward, Kevin McDonagh, James Lavin, Johnnie Pidgeon, Ryan Convey, Darren Campbell. Subs used: Stephen McDonnell, Caoimhin MCLoughlin, Jason McLoughlin, Aaron Kinsella.

Scorers: McDonagh 0-4, Paddy Ward, Darren Campbell, Sean Brady, Gerry Callaghan 0-1 each.