I’m back home after another football-fuelled trip to the west where I caught four matches between yesterday and today. It was a weekend in which the major contenders for championship honours announced themselves, as the final four at Senior, Intermediate and Junior levels were all confirmed.

My first port of call yesterday was Ballaghaderreen, where the home side enjoyed a surprisingly comfortable win over Ballintubber. As Shairoze Akram explained to me afterwards – he’s one of the voices that’ll feature in our In Their Own Words podcast show which will be online tomorrow – Ballagh’ targeted a fast start and, once they got that, they were on the high road to victory.

The road I took next was the one to Ballinrobe and I arrived at Flanagan Park at half-time. Ballinrobe were level with Ardnaree at that stage but they pulled clear effortlessly enough on the resumption and ran out seven-point winners at the finish.

Rob and I then hopped into the car and headed out the road to Garrymore, whose rural pitch was lit up in the darkening South Mayo countryside. The setting for this contest was perfect – justifying, as all the weekend’s matches did, Mayo GAA’s decision to go with home quarter-finals for the group winners.

Sadly, though, we got a non-contest under the lights, with the home side conceding three calamitous first half goals and butchering the same number of clear goalscoring chances themselves at the other end. Despite not playing all that well, Knockmore weren’t at all flattered by their twelve-point margin of victory.

My final port of call was in Foxford early this afternoon for the meeting of Moy Davitts and Hollymount/Carramore. The wind blew strongly and the rain fell for much of the game but what the big crowd got to see was a cracking contest, with the result in doubt right to the finish. The visitors, playing into the wind in the second half, were four clear midway through that half but were undone when Moy Davitts reeled off 1-3 without reply coming down the stretch and then withstood a late Holly/Carra rally to win by two.

Those weren’t, of course, all the matches played this weekend, with the result of the weekend coming in Breaffy where the home side once again outfoxed Westport. I’ve been really impressed with the way Breaffy are going this year – they’ve yet to lose a game under Seán Deane – and they now, yet again, have a real chance to go all the way.

This was meant to be a quick round-up of all the weekend’s results so I’d better get onto that. Here they are:

SENIOR FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Quarter-finals

• Ballaghaderreen 2-8 Ballintubber 0-8
• Garrymore 0-5 Knockmore 3-8
• Breaffy 1-10 Westport St Patrick’s 0-12
• Ballina Stephenites 0-8 Castlebar Mitchles 0-7

Relegation play-offs

• Charlestown Sarsfields 2-10 Béal an Mhuirthead 1-10
• Mayo Gaels 1-11 Kilmeena 1-11 (AET, Mayo Gaels win 4-3 on penalties)

INTERMEDIATE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Quarter-finals

• The Neale 0-8 Crossmolina Deel Rovers 1-8
• Ballinrobe 1-14 Ardnaree Sarsfields 1-10
• Davitts 0-17 Kiltane 1-12 (AET)
• Moy Davitts 1-11 Hollymount/Carramore 0-12

Relegation Play-offs

• Kilmaine 0-13 Kiltimagh 0-10
• Lahardane MacHales 0-13 Islandeady 0-12

JUNIOR FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Junior A quarter-finals

• Eastern Gaels 1-14 Northern Gaels 2-7
• Cill Chomáin 1-11 Tuar Mhic Éadaigh 0-3
• Ardagh 1-8 Bonniconlon 0-13
• Swinford 2-13 Killala 0-8

Junior B semi-finals

• Achill 2-2 Shrule/Glencorrib 0-5
• Moygownagh 0-5 Kilmovee Shamrocks 1-12

The draws for the Senior, Intermediate and Junior football Championships were made earlier this evening and this resulted in the following final four pairings.

In the Senior Championship it’s Ballina Stephenites against Ballaghadereen and Breaffy against Knockmore. In Intermediate it’s Ballinrobe against Crossmolina and Moy Davitts against Davitts. In Junior it’s Eastern Gaels against Bonniconlon and Swinford against Cill Chomáin.

There were also a load of games on this morning in the LGFA Championships. The main headline there is that it’ll be Knockmore against Westport in this year’s Senior final, while Louisburgh and Castlebar Mitchels advanced to the Intermediate decider.

Here are this weekend’s LGFA Championship results:

SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP

Cup semi-finals

• Westport 1-8 Burrishoole 0-10
• Knockmore 2-9 Carnacon 1-7

Shield semi-finals

• Kilmovee Shamrocks 4-16 MacHale Rovers 3-11 (AET)
• Charlestoewn Sarsfields 3-7 Hollymount 2-5

INTERMEDIATE CHAMPIONSHIP

Cup semi-finals

• Louisburgh 3-5 Claremorris 0-13
• Castlebar Mitchels 1-8 Moy Davitts 1-2

Shield semi-finals

• Kilmoremoy 3-5 Davitts 1-7
• Ballyhaunis 1-21 Swinford/Killasser 5-8 (AET)

JUNIOR A CHAMPIONSHIP

Cup semi-finals

• St Brigid’s 3-11 Breaffy 1-9
• Aghamore 1-10 Parke/Keelogues/Crimlin 2-1

Shield semi-finals

• The Neale 5-19 Cill Chomáin 0-1
• Kilmeena 0-9 Westport B 1-5

Right, that’s the lot. Podcast listeners should know that our Sunday’s results round-up show, which we recorded a little earlier this evening, is a free show and will be available on all platforms shortly. Our Senior and Intermediate Teams of the Week will be out tomorrow.