Red-faced Peter Sweeney last night broke his silence on his dramatic late howler against Erin Go Bragh at the weekend.

On Saturday day night the horrified hack failed to make contact with a simple effort in front of goal, when an easy tap-in would have won the game against the Division 8 pace-setters.

The home keeper made a smart stop from Johnny Conlon’s low effort and all Sweeney had to do was toe-poke home from the edge of the square.

Instead, the mortified media man took a fresh-air shot and missed the ball entirely.

It was moved up the field and Erin Go Bragh scored a goal to set them on the way to a two-point win that had seemed unlikely just a few minutes previously.

Manager Liam O’Hagan would have taken him straight off, but he only had 14 players available and one of those, Conor Fingleton, was involved in a brawl with the opposition manager and another, Denis Doolan, was giving the referee a piece of his mind at the time.

“I don’t know what to say,” muttered Sweeney sheepishly afterwards.

“In fairness, the lads were great about it and Ian Naughton was the first one up to me to offer words of consolation.”

Naughton is, of course, the only man in Ranelagh Gaels history to score against his own team. He noted: “It was one €50 million Fernando Torres would have been proud of.”

Sweeney (pictured above falling over, as usual) added: “That was the turning point in the game. That and the three goals we conceded in the last five minutes.

“Let that be a lesson to you kids – drinking isn’t big or clever.

“I have been celebrating ever since Dublin won the All-Ireland and I didn’t take the wise advice I was once offered – if you can see three balls in front of you, always aim for the middle one…”

RANELAGH Gaels lost their first game of the year in a friendly to Kilmacud Crokes at Bushy Park on Sunday, but it was still a good workout before the start of competitive action.

Crokes started the more confident and quickly established themselves on the game.

Within a matter of moments the visitors had notched up points on the scoreboard while the Gaels struggled to get the ball over the bar, which was reflected in the 2-6 to 0-2 scoreline.

With a number of changes by manager Liam O’Hagan in the second half Gaels started to come into the contest.

Kilmacud dropped their tempo at 12 points up, which allowed Gaels opportunities to get back into the game. Both teams had brief spells of dominance in front of goal but failed to convert.

Ranelagh, who have only recently been promoted in to Division 8, managed to hold the Division 7 team to just two points after the break with hard working performances in defence.

Barry Prendergast and Micheal Power showed great efforts in the second half and were amongst the Gaels’ star performance.

It was an ideal game to clear the cobwebs as next week Ranelagh Gaels take to the field in their first competitive game of 2010 with their debut in the Stacy Cup against Naomh Barrog on Sunday 14 (throw-in 11.0).

On such a fine day for football Ranelagh Gaels and Ballyboughal could only muster a friendly as the ref decided not to show up. The game lacked the intensity from last February when Ballyboughal showed the Gaels the importance of taking chances but with both teams suffering from injuries and suspensions it seemed the opportunity of missing a weekend’s football possibly was a blessing in disguise.

Ranelagh found it tough to get to grips with the heat and strong breeze in the first half and so Ballyboughal easily won possession around midfield and worked hard to score some great points. Playing long balls in on top of the Gaels defense was effective and Ballyboughal produced a goal with a quality strike of the ball beating defender and keeper from close range. Strong performances from Ken and Eamon reminded the visitors that they weren’t going to have it all there own way.

In the second half midfield and half forward line worked endlessly to creating scoring opportunities. A super goal from Doc was a possible turning point for the Gaels, turning it from a friendly to training ground wave after wave of attacks. On many occasions in the second half Big Pat created absolute havoc for the Ballyboughal full back. The Fairfax native showed that the Kieran Donaghy tapes are working a treat. Guess at the final score might have been 1-12 to 1-7.

The Gaels won’t take any real notice of this result and know a tougher test is awaiting them in the re-fixture.

The usual scribe never mentioned the Gaels on TV3 at the weekend and this issue will be taken up at the next AGM.

Ranelagh Gaels will need to drastically improve in a lot of areas if they are to challenge Erin’s Isle in the AFL Division 9 top of the table clash next week.

The Gaels were completely outplayed / outmaneuvered and outclassed by a committed and lively St Brendan’s team. This challenge game was the chance to see some of fringe players to claim a place in the starting 15, but after last night one could say that almost all positions are up for grabs.

The brilliant diamond combination that Brendan’s utilized (only because the Gaels were completely ineffective in this department) allowed them to constantly attack up through the centre. Ranelagh’s kickouts played into their opponent’s hands, as they won all the breaks and some impressive clean catches. Time and time again the backs were chasing shadows as their opponents outplayed them for every ball.

The use of the ball by Ranelagh was terrible as they constantly put it onto the plate for the Brendan’s lads to feed off. Several inaccurate passes were gobbled up by Brendan’s and allowed them to outscore Ranelagh in the first half by only 3 points – should have been a lot more!! On the night, it was hard to believe that Ranelagh are unbeaten in this league and the Brendan’s have only won one match all year.

One would imagine marking will be the main theme in training over the next few nights, because last night some Gaels didn’t understand the meaning of it especially in the half back line, which saw the Brendan’s centre forward score an impressive 6 points from play. And the usual hassling we associate with the Gaels forwards completely vanished.

On a positive note, no there wasn’t any last night I’m afraid, only lets just hope it was one of those nights and some players will use it to spur them on to improve for the vital fixture next week!

The Gaels lead at the break 5 points to 1 but should of lead by more with a strong wind to help them along.

A good spell in the second half seen the Gaels take some great scores with a goal from Paul O’Mahoney and points from Johnny Conlon and Enda Marren. The game conditions were awkward for both teams with strong winds and sunlight.

Emmets emptied the bench in the second half and some fine fielding seen them take convincing scores with well converted goals and points.

The teams came to a near dead lock with only a few points dividing them, until Gaels took advantage of a fortunate defending error which seen Ronan Rasdale link up with Enda Marren to play through Alan Toolan for a screamer finish from 3 yards (possible square ball).

Final score 2-10 to 2-5.

Gaels would like to thank Emmets for a game which was played in good spirits and some fine football from both sides.

Click here for a Google Map to Perrystown Community Centre, the pitch is be hide the centre.

Lets hope for good weather and a good game. If you’d like to go watch the game, lifts leaving Ranelagh at 10:15am Sunday morning from Smyths Pub.

Ranelagh Gaels will play Scoil Ui Conail on Sunday at 2pm at their home ground in a friendly. Lifts leaving Smyths’ Ranelagh @ 1:00pm

Directions to Scoil Ui Conail. “Basically if you take the coast road through Clontarf on the way out of town, you pass a pub called The Yacht on your left hand side. The pitch is a little under half a mile after that on the left hand side. There is a sign-post on the right hand side of the road pointing towards the entrance.”

Directions on Scoil Ui Conail website click here.

Come and support your local football team.