Charlestown set to capitalise on Knockmore injury woes

The volume of club games has tapered off somewhat as we stare down the barrel of winter, but despite there only being nine games to choose from this weekend, there are still one or two which are of real interest.

Looking today to the football games on offer, the Mayo championship final is the delayed coverage game on TG4, and on paper, it would be hard argue with the current odds which make Charlestown slight favourites at 5/6. Neither Charlestown nor Knockmore have enjoyed the profile of say, a Crossmolina or a Ballina in recent years, but while other clubs have come and gone, these two clubs have been consistently strong, always featuring in the business end of proceedings, even if neither have quite got over the finish line as much as they might have.

Knockmore have lost three finals since their last championship win in 1997, while Charlestown took the honours for only the second time in 2001, but failed in both 2007 and 2008 to add a third championship, despite making the decider on each occasion. Initial odds from the bookmakers made Knockmore slight favourites to inflict a third defeat, but unsurprisingly, the money has come for the Sligo border club and they now trade at 5/6.

Even at these odds, they are worth a bet, purely because of the injuries that have befallen the Knockmore camp. Aidan Kilcoyne sustained a suspected broken collarbone in training in recent weeks, and the Mayo intercounty star will join Damien Munnelly on the sidelines, who broke his arm in the semi-final win over Crossmolina. The loss of two of their best three forwards will be huge, particularly as Charlestown will now be able to deploy Aidan Higgins on Kevin O’Neill and thus should strangle most of the attacking edge out of the North Mayo team.

Charlestown aren’t a free scoring club either, but they can secure enough possession around the middle third of the field, led by Tom Parsons, to edge this game. Charlestown winning this game by 1-3 points at 3/1 is a very attractive bet, but for the purposes of this column, we’re just going to recommend 3pts on Charlestown to win at 5/6. The margin bet would be well advised for those who want a smaller stake, but just in case Charlestown outdo that margin, then punting the straight win would be the safer call.

Of the other games on offer, Portlaoise will almost certainly take out Mattock Rangers but are no value at the 1/8 on offer, while equally Clonguish at 8/13 should be too strong for Horeswood, though there seems to be plenty of allowance being made for the substantial away trip in that price. Clonguish are probably the better team, but in a game where twelve points should be enough to win, a lucky goal or a bad refereeing call could very easily influence this fixture on way or another.

Clara at 5/4 against St Laurences of Kildare is another very interesting price and one which could look very big on Sunday evening. This May we got a clear indication of how Offaly football has fallen a good way behind their neighbours to the east, however a lot of Offaly’s best players are to be found playing for one or the other of the Rhode and Clara clubs, in contrast to the Kildare championship which would be a lot more open with a lot more strength in depth. Home advantage might be worth a point or two to the Larries, but they’ll find the Clara attack to be a very tricky one to handle and if push came to shove, it might be worth siding with the away team here. A 1pt bet on Clara at 5/4 is more than enough, but worth having all the same.

The final game is the Tipperary championship meeting of Moyle Rovers and Aherlow, but this one looks reasonably accurately priced, with Moyle Rovers entitled to be slight favourites, even though no result could be confidently called in this one.

Tags: Charlestown, Clara

Categories: Gaelic Football

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