ARMAGH’S championships begin tonight with the start of the race for the senior crown as Maghery, nearly men in recent seasons, meet Annaghmore.
On current form, Maghery, semi-finalists last year, go into the game as favourites. Their win over Crossmaglen in last weekend’s final round of league fixtures saw them poised to be crowned Senior A champions but St Patrick’s, Cullyhanna beat Ballymacnab to snatch the title by a point.
Meanwhile, Annaghmore finished mid-table in Senior B, signing off with a 3-9 to 1-10 victory over Madden. That win ended a three-game losing streak that saw the club come out on the wrong side of defeats against Dromintee, Grange and Clann Eireann, shipping nine goals in the process.
But the Pearse’s side had beaten all three earlier in the season and have taken some decent scraps in their two previous seasons at senior level. Full-forward and county star Oisin MacIomhair readily admits that Maghery are favourites.
“Maghery are on form and if you look at the last three or four years they’ve been one of the closest teams to Crossmaglen,” he said.
“We’re definitely up against it but we’ve been going very well over the last couple of years. We’ve got a good group of lads and we’ve stuck together. Our tight-knit, close club community has really helped us and we’re delighted to be in the senior championship.
“We’ll go out tomorrow night with that sort of attitude of going at it and doing our best. Maghery are favourites, and rightly so, but we’re looking forward to it.”
Annaghmore were junior champions in 2013 and a restructuring of the Armagh championships saw them skip intermediate level and go straight to senior for 2014. Despite the rapid jump up in class they have acquitted themselves well – in their first season at senior they beat Tir na nOg and then Shane O’Neill’s, but lost to the Camlough outfit by a point later in the competition.
Last year the same happened. Annaghmore beat Ballymacnab first time out but met them again at the quarter-final stage and again lost by a point.
“Traditionally we would have been a junior club but we had a good group of lads coming through at the same time and we’ve pushed on from there,” said MacIomhair, who takes up a teaching position at Annaghmore PS next week.
“Maghery have a wealth of top class players – including Aidan and Stefan Forker and James Lavery – and they are a seasoned championship side.
“They’ll be in with a shout in the overall competition because they’ve been there or thereabouts.”
Meanwhile, Annaghmore will look to the likes of MacIomhair and his brother Ciaran as well as county goalkeeper Matthew McNeice, midfielder Daniel McQuade and emerging forward Conor Cullen in attack.
“We just enjoy our football,” said MacIomhair.
“We concentrate a lot on our attacking play and we enjoy going at it. As our league results show, that leads to conceding a few at the back but we can tighten up on that.
“Hopefully it’ll all come together, we need everybody pulling together. When you’re a small club like we are you need you whole squad pulling in.”
