WINNING a first county title for your club is a special moment and, while Denis Greene got to experience this feeling as his Derrygonnelly Harps side defeated Roslea in the Fermanagh Senior Championship final, there was other emotions involved as well.
Damian McGovern, Derrygonnelly’s youth chairman was tragically killed in a work accident two days prior to the original date for the Fermanagh final, had been the Harps minor manager when Greene and and a number of his team-mates played at that level.
“It has been a really difficult time for everyone involved and it is still really hard to take in," said Greene.
"Myself and a few of the other younger lads got a text message the Sunday before he died. He had text to say it was great to see five of the first minor team he managed on the cusp of winning a senior title and that we just had to go out and believe in ourselves. There was no way we were going to lose on Sunday.”
The talented wing half-back was part of a Derrygonnelly side which produced a very assured performance against favourites Roslea, who were going for their third title in-a-row: “Every player was in the right frame of mind. I know I had no doubt going out that we were going to win the game and I think everyone else felt the same way. We just were very confident. The parish needed the win and thankfully we got, ” Greene added.
It was Roslea, however, who got off to the flying start, registering a goal inside the first two minutes and Greene conceded this was something which his team had very much planned to avoid: “You never want to concede goals, but that is especially true against Roslea," he said.
"They are known for their ability to score goals, so we really had set ourselves not to concede any. But we didn’t panic and we got ourselves back into it pretty well.”
Derrygonnelly went on to kick the next eight points without reply and landed two goals before the break. Greene feels it was their tactic against the Roslea kick-out that was most important to their cause.
“We felt like we needed to push up on their kick-outs and that, if we did that, then we would have a chance of winning midfield. Our aim was to deny them as much of the ball as we possibly could and it worked well for us,” he added.
Roslea came back and plundered a second goal of their own just before the break, but Greene was to kick the first point of the second half for his side as Derrygonnelly took full control again: “I think their goal and the few points they got before half-time rattled us a bit, but we got in and we talked about how important it was to get a good start to the second-half and we did that and, once we got a few scores, I thought the game was pretty safe,” the 21-year-old said.
Slaughtneill away from home are next on the horizon and Greene knows that, as Fermanagh champions, they will be going in as underdogs, but says there is no fear in the squad: “I think we are pretty confident to be honest. We think we have some really good players in the team and that we all work well together, so we are not going to be afraid of the challenge or anything like that.”
It would be quite a scalp if Derrygonnelly were to take the win, although perhaps not that surprising, especially to the youthful contingent in the squad.
