Junior B Football Championship Saturday 18th September 2004 District Final Starlights 1-8 Monageer / Boolavogue 3-7 Unfortunately our Junior B footballers exited from the Championship yesterday evening in Oylegate being beaten by Monageer 3-7 to 1-8.   Despite the defeat I want to compliment our footballers for their fine performance - they are a very young side and kicked some marvellous football throughout the game and were a bit unfortunate not to have gotten a couple of goals.   The last time we met this Monageer team in the first round of the Championship they beat us 4-10 to 4 points so our improvement was remarkable and this was mainly due to the fitness and skill of many of our young minors - not forgetting some of our loyal veterans like the evergreen Padraig Doyle, star goalie and Captain Tomas (Mackers) McVeigh and the inspired Jack Redmond who stood in for us when two of our key players got injured Padraig Doyle and Ciaran O’Connor.   Fran O’Gorman and Tony Mackey were outstanding at middle of the field finishing with a total of 5 points between them, Brian Murphy and James Newe and Stephen Murphy were strong and sound in defence - Cathal Murphy gave a solid and gusty performance at half back - winning the ball well and pushing forward to lead the attack up front - and scoring a fine point in the process - Peter O’Sullivan tried hard and did extremely well considering that he hasn’t played football at all this year and just came to make up the numbers.   John Daly was commanding in the centre back position and is blossoming into a fine footballer, Brian Newe used his speed and skill well to keep pressure all throughout the game on the Monageer defence - as did Mark Kenny with some very fine runs at goal and Eddie Shallow another player who wouldn’t have played a lot of football ended up scoring two very fine points, and Sean Russell and John Tyrrell for all their fine efforts.   As a selector with this side I want to say thank you to all the guys who have turned up for us throughout the campaign particularly Mark Kenny and Pa O’Brien who never let us down - and Padraig Doyle and Tomas McVeigh for their marvellous loyalty to the Club in general - we’ve had a good run with you and I have no doubt having seen the skill and determination of our Minors that we can win the Minor Championship - and I would encourage all of you to now to continue to show up for training and go all out to secure this one. Many thanks lads on behalf of Management - and we look forward to working with you all again next year. Maria Nolan (Secretary)             Friday 20th August Starlights 2-9 Bunclody 1-11 A marvellous performance by our Junior B footballers in a game that had everything on Friday night last in Monageer puts us through to a District Final clash. Our very young side apart from Captain Ciaran Began, star goalie Tomas (Mackers) McVeigh, our versatile bar Manager Benny Mythen and the evergreen Padge Courtney gave some very fine displays of football to beat Bunclody by the narrowest of margins that came right down to the wire with Bunclody's Seamy Kelly gaining a free for his side directly in front of the goal with only seconds to go - fortunately the gods smiled on us and it was driven wide as the full time whistle sounded - putting us throught to the District Final on a score of 2-9 to 1-11. As a Selector with this team I am delighted with the commitment and interest from many of our young players in the Club we could not have fielded in this grade this year except for the Minors and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them and their selectors for the co-operation throught the season. It augurs well for the future of football in the Club when you witness the skills of Fran O`Gorman, Tony Mackey, Rory O`Connor and Brian Newe and the solid preformances of Stephen Murphy, James Newe, John Daly and Brian Murphy who was excellent in defence. The final will be difficult as Monageer have a very young fit side but if our lads continue to preform as they did on Friday night they are in there with a fighting chance! Maria Nolan Friday 4th June Starlights 0-15  Ballyhogue  0-13 A marvellous win over football specialists, Ballyhogue in Bree last Friday night kept our Championship hopes alive and chalked up the Club`s first win in football to date in any grade in this year`s Championship. It was a great game to watch with lots of good football, plenty of scores and the right result.  There were some fine performances but none more spectacular than from our new found goalkeeper - Thomas McVeigh or Mackers as he is known to one and all.  Our new recruit Ciaran Began played a Captain's part, scoring 4 points and kept the side pushing forward to the end. We had some very fine football from Derek Whelan and Daithi O`Brien and some of our younger players Rory O`Connor, Brian Newe and Tony Mackey who scored three very fine points in the second half - these guys are fine footballers and should do extremely well at their own grade of Minor. Lovely to have David O`Brien back with us again - and even thought he hasn`t played much football in recent times its good to know he hasn`t lost it. All our backs played well including our Bar Manager Brendan Mythen and with a final score of 15 points to 13 it was a most enjoyable game. Our sincere thanks to all who showed up particularly our Minors and I would like to take this opportunity to wish any of them doing the Leaving Cert the very best of luck in the coming weeks from the Junior B Management.   Junior B Football Championship Saturday, 15th May Bellefield Starlights 0-4 Monageer 4-10 Unfortunately we recorded another defeat in the football championship this weekend with our Junior B footballers losing the first round to Monageer on Saturday, 15th at 4pm in Bellefield. We fielded a very young side in the game as out of the 17 who turned up for us all bar 3/4 were Minors - some of whom played very well and as a Junior B Selector I would like to thank all those who showed particularly these Minors and hope that they will continue at Junior A and Junior B  - as they are the future of the Club.   We began well but when we lost our full back Stephen Murphy early in the game we were under severe pressure - we had some very fine performances from Eddie Tobin and Cathal Murphy from the middle of the field and Fran O`Gorman and Rory O`Connor, Damian Breen and our Bar Manager Brendan Mythen and veteran Padge Courtney both did very well in their return to football.   Unfortunately Monageer were stronger and wiser and with only 14 men for most of the game we lost 4-10 to 4 points - very disappointing for the young players who did their best for us - it was such a pity that we didn`t have a few older heads on the day to encourage them and add a bit of strength and experience to the team.   The fact that Communion took place on Saturday in St. Aidans certainly would have affected some of our older players that we know we will have the next day but still it is disillusioning to have so few turn up when we notified so many.   A combination of some of these older players with our enthusiastic Minors could make a big difference the next day - so its all still there to play for lads - but in a bit of effort over the next few weeks and we could be recording a victory.