IT'S the last chance saloon for sides in the Armagh Senior Football Championship this weekend, with a number of ‘back door’ ties that will see the losers eliminated from this year’s competition.
Steven McDonnell’s Killeavy play Wolfe Tone's on Friday night and the county legend feels there will be little to separate the sides at Armagh Harps.
“It’s probably a good draw for both teams as both will feel they can go in and win the game," said McDonnell, whose young side are still fighting for survival in Division One of the Armagh Senior League.
"We played each other in the league earlier in the year and it was a draw and both teams had chances to win it at the end. We’re two evenly matched teams, although their league campaign has been much stronger than ours. When we go out against Wolfe Tone's at the weekend, it’s win at all costs, as will the last league game. We won’t sacrifice the Championship match to stay up in Division One. The fact that we are such a young side, an extended championship run will do no harm at all.
“It’s important that, when you’ve got talent as good as Killeavy has, that you blood those boys as early as possible and give them a feel for championship football. Over the two games to date, I think we’ve given eight or nine debuts in championship football. That will stand to those boys in the future and they’ll be only stronger.”
With all that talk of the young guns leading the way for the St Moninna’s men, has the 2002 All-Ireland winner been tempted to slip on the boots once again this season?
“They’ve been polished since January, but they haven’t been getting much use,” McDonnell joked.
“It’s hard to know what I’ll do, but the one thing I do know is that you can’t juggle both. You can’t manage and play and expect to get good results doing both things. But I have a couple of guys on the line that will be capable enough if I am on the pitch. Where I am at the minute, I’m happy enough to let the young lads at it and I’m confident in their ability. If we can build and improve on the performance against Crossmaglen last weekend, then we won’t be too far away this weekend.”
The other qualifying matches in the Armagh Senior Championship see Granemore take on St Patrick’s, Cullyhanna on Friday, Dromintee v Pearse Óg on Saturday and Ballymacnab v Sarsfield's on Sunday.
This weekend also sees the last eight in the Fermanagh Senior Football Championship battle it out for a place in the semi-finals. First up on Saturday is Devenish v Donagh, ahead of Belleek v Tempo, before Ederney take on Derrygonnelly and then Roslea face off against Derrylin on Sunday.
Meanwhile in Antrim hurling, huge favourites to retain their Senior Championship title, Loughgiel, face St Gall’s at Corrigan Park on Saturday at 6pm in what is a repeat of last year’s final, with O’Donovan Rossa and McQuillan’s going head-to-head at the same venue at 4.30pm.
The following day, it is the turn of Dunloy and Clooney Gaels at Loughgiel, ahead of the clash between Ruairí Óg and St John’s at the same venue.
