CROSSMAGLEN midfielder David McKenna is on course to recover from a back injury in time for their Ulster SFC semi-final clash against Kilcoo on November 15.
The multiple All-Ireland winner was a notable absentee from their eight-point win against Antrim champions Erin Own’s, Cargin in last Sunday's quarter-final, but joint-manager John McEntee has revealed the experienced number nine will return for Crossmaglen’s attempt at reaching the Ulster final for the first time since 2012. Aaron Kernan - himself curtailed by injury problems in the Armagh Championship - was McKenna’s direct replacement against Cargin, but is now likely to revert to his favoured wing-back position against Paul McIver’s in-form Kilcoo side.
It has also been confirmed that the four in-a-row Down champions will enjoy home advantage against Crossmaglen. A coin-toss determined that Crossmaglen will travel to Páirc Esler - and McEntee is philosophical about the turn of events.
“We’ve played in Newry before a couple of times and, obviously, it's an advantage to them because they’re very familiar with it, but I suppose we can’t be unhappy because we agreed to the toss," he said.
“You have to consider the fans who are coming to this match, it wouldn’t be fair for people from Kilcoo and south Down and people from south Armagh to be passing each other heading to Clones to play a match, so it made more sense to have something more central. It was less from our perspective and more from both sets of fans that we agreed to it.”
McEntee’s side shook off any rustiness in a hard-fought encounter against Cargin that bore little resemblance to their 4-14 to 0-9 thumping of Armagh Harps in the county showpiece nearly a month ago. Playing with their renowned intensity and expansiveness, McEntee was pleased with their first win in the Ulster Championship in three years – a life-time in Crossmaglen terms.
“Cargin are a fine side and they brought a big challenge to us, we had to play really well to beat them and we’re happy just to overcome that," he added.
“We’re happy that we kept trying and we didn’t panic because we missed quite a bit and we held our composure and did enough to get over the line.”
Crossmaglen’s task doesn’t get any easier with Kilcoo waiting in the wings. Under Jim McCorry, the Magpies didn’t have long to wait to avenge their Ulster final loss against Crossmaglen in 2012, winning a repeat encounter in the following season’s quarter-final. McEntee readily accepts there is a rivalry between the two sides and claims such rivalries are what makes the Ulster Championship such an unmissable part of the GAA calender.
“They’ve won a couple of club titles in recent years, as have we, so it stands to reason that there’s a competitive rivalry between each other," he said.
“It’s great for the sport, it’s great for each other, Ulster club football is all about that rivalry and it’s a good healthy relationship we have with each other. Both of the clubs respect each other equally, we’ve had great relations with many other clubs over the years and it’s good to have that competition.”
Kilcoo made light work of Cavan kingpins Kingscourt Stars in last Sunday’s quarter-final, cruising to a 3-15 to 0-5 victory in Kingspan Breffni Park - and if they follow that up with another win against Crossmaglen, McEntee will be the first to congratulate them.
“They had a much stiffer competition in Down than we had [in the Armagh championship] and they’re obviously a quality side, they’ve won four county titles in-a-row,” he said.
“In the Ulster Club Championship, you never know what way it goes, you go out and do your best - when you’re up against good quality opposition, you’ve always got the chance of getting beaten, so you have to accept the outcome on the day.”
