Football

Queen's seek improvement

AFTER a first Sigerson Cup win in six years last week, Queen's are hot favourites to see off GMIT on home soil this afternoon.

This year's Sigerson weekend hosts made hard work of that two-point preliminary round win over the University of Limerick and assistant-manager Shane Mulholland says there was a "sense of relief" in the changing room after it.

Mulholland and manager Anthony McGrath will hope that with the monkey now off their players' backs, the talented Queen's squad will produce the quality football they are capable of at the Dub this afternoon.

"Last week was Queen's first win in almost six seasons of Sigerson which is incredible," said Mulholland.

"There was definitely a sense of relief to get over the line. We didn't play well enough last week and this is a classic knock-out competition - if we don't perform tomorrow we could be out very easily.

"We have to improve from the last day. We played well in spurts, but our finishing was really poor and we kept UL right in the game.

"We can't take anybody for granted - we're not coming in with any track record or recent history. The Queen's name still says enough but GMIT won't care about that."

Getting past GMIT today would guarantee Queen's a steady run of games which Mulholland feels would allow the squad to gel.

"In the seven to 10 days prior to that first game (against UL) we didn't have the lads," he said.

"We were a wee bit disjointed trying to put everybody together and trying to get them to refocus on Sigerson. We had lads who we hadn't seen.

"If we get through this week then we'll have a game every week for the next three weeks which is fantastic for us.

"When players have multiple managers and teams to play for it's very hard for players to buy into every team so if we can get over the hurdle tomorrow we'll be going in a very positive direction."

Tyrone's Niall McKenna will miss tomorrow's game with concussion, but Armagh's Rory Grugan, Donegal's Martin McElhinney and Fermanagh pair Che Cullen and

Ryan Jones are all fit.

Queen's haven't won the Sigerson Cup since 2007 and, though they are among this year's favourites, Mulholland thinks their poor recent record will keep his players' feet on the ground.

"There's no delusions of grandeur with Queen's at the moment," he said.

"There's no-one thinking 'we're automatically at the weekend'. Our main goal at the moment is just to get to the weekend, so there's no talk about winning anything or what we might do.

"It was a big thing for the squad to get over that hurdle but it's championship football and if we don't perform tomorrow we're off home with our tail between our legs.

"Queen's need to make that weekend, especially with us being hosts this year. There's a little bit of pressure that comes with it but we're happy to take that on."

The Queen's management have done their homework on GMIT. Forwards Michael Lundy and Eric Monahan scored in all three games of the students' FBD League campaign, in which they came within three points of eventual winners Leitrim, and will be closely watched tomorrow.

"We've had plenty of spies in place," said Mulholland.

"We've given them all the respect in the world and there's a couple of key players who will get special treatment tomorrow. We've had them watched, we've seen a DVD, so we think we've done our homework."

* SHIRT SHRIFT: Pictured at the launch of the Queen's GAA Festival at Belfast City Hall are (l-r) footballer Matthew McNeice, camog Shauneen Donaghy, Belfast lord mayor Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, ladies' footballer Sinead McCleary and hurler Cormac McCrory. The festival features the weekend action of the Ashbourne Cup (February 13-16), Sigerson Cup February (20-22), Fitzgibbon Cup (February 27-March 1), and O'Connor Cup (March 21-22)