SCOTSTOWN skipper Donal Morgan knows well the heights his club can reach.
An Bhoth have won four Ulsters and reached the All-Ireland Final in 1979, when his father Cormac captained the team. Yet he insists there is no pressure on the current panel, who reached last year’s provincial decider before losing to Crossmaglen in extra-time.
“Luckily enough - or unfortunately enough, depending on how you look at it - it’s a good while ago,” Morgan said.
Indeed, Morgan wasn’t even born when Scotstown had their St Patrick’s Day outing - he’s 31 now: “Those comparisons will certainly be talked about,” he accepts.
“We don’t have the trophies or medals of that those boys have - but we have written our own wee bit of history.”
Morgan and his colleagues ended a 20-year drought in 2013 and they have added back-to-back Monaghan titles this year and last: “The people around the club, and former players, are happy to give us a clean slate - there’s no pressure, no looking down on us," he added.
"That might have been the case before we won any championships but they have full faith in us now. No matter how we play in the Ulster Club, nobody will be putting huge expectation on us.”
That’s an understandable attitude as Scotstown are in the preliminary round against the club that has dominated Down for the past half-decade, Kilcoo. Morgan hails their run of success in the Mourne county as “an unreal achievement, five years is some record, there’s obviously some hard work that has gone into keeping that going.
“We’ve seen what it was to do two [in-a-row]; we couldn’t do two the last time we tried [in 2014]. Teams are really chomping at it you, everybody is trying to overtake you and it’s up to you to keep ahead of them," he said.
“That’s a very hard job, we found it very hard this year, and for Kilcoo to retain it four times and win five-in-a-row is a huge, huge achievement. They have a lot of pedigree in the Ulster Club, have played in a lot of big games. It’ll be very difficult. What a task, what a challenge - but we’re really looking forward to it.”
He’s relishing this Sunday’s clash in Clones and the potential prospect of more matches on the provincial scene: “The Ulster Club is the place to play your football, I’ve never experienced games like it. Unfortunately in our first year Ballinderry beat us, we only got one game," he said.
“Lucky enough, we got more last year and the atmosphere and quality of football were great. You’re playing teams you’ve never played against, they don’t know your strengths or weaknesses. Some of them were great 15-on-15 stuff. Once you get a taste of it, that’s the only place you want to play”.
And Croke Park, of course. But that will have to wait a while.
