Football

Donaghmoyne aiming for 14th straight Ulster final - Lurgan hoping to pull off major shock

Donaghmoyne ladies celebrate after defeating Tyrone's St Macartan's in the final of the 2016 Ulster Ladies Senior Club Championship at Galbally
Donaghmoyne ladies celebrate after defeating Tyrone's St Macartan's in the final of the 2016 Ulster Ladies Senior Club Championship at Galbally Donaghmoyne ladies celebrate after defeating Tyrone's St Macartan's in the final of the 2016 Ulster Ladies Senior Club Championship at Galbally

Ulster Senior Club Championship semi-final: Donaghmoyne (Monaghan) v Lurgan (Cavan) (Sunday, Donaghmoyne, 2pm)

ULSTER and All-Ireland champions Donaghmoyne are vying for an incredible 14th straight Ulster final tomorrow with Cavan champions Lurgan hoping to pull off one of the greatest shocks in ladies club football.

The champions will be favourites to progress to the decider with home advantage and many teams down through the years know just how difficult, nearly impossible, it is to come away from Pairc Fontenoys with a win.

However, Lurgan who played Donaghmoyne at this same stage two years ago, come into this semi-final with nothing to fear or lose and captain Claragh O’Reilly and her team-mates are looking forward to playing the champions. They are at the slight disadvantage of having not played yet in the competition after they had a bye to the last four while Donaghmoyne have had that quarter-final win over St Paul’s and will be keen to hit the ground running.

“We are really looking forward to the game on Sunday,” said O’Reilly. “We have had a good 5 weeks training to prepare for this game since the Cavan county final, so we're looking forward to getting out on the field for the challenge ahead.

“Donaghmoyne are the benchmark for ladies football, not only in Ulster but for the whole country, and they deserve great credit and respect for their achievements. We are aware of their strengths, but we have been focusing on our team strengths and what we feel can cause trouble for Donaghmoyne.

“We'll be looking for a performance that will do us justice, and that's the way we have treated each game this year - try to perform as a team as best we can.”

Many teams throughout the country have asked themselves the question down through the years about what exactly the key is to Donaghmoyne’s success and how as the pressure no doubt mounts with each game and each year they keep going.

“We treat every game the same, be it a league match or championship match,” said captain Joanne Courtney. “We go out to perform and try our best to get the win. The way we look at it is, one more hour of football.”

There have been some changes in faces within the squad this year, most notably the absence of Amanda Casey and Cathriona McConnell, but they are still backboned but their multiple medal winners such as goalkeeper Linda Martin, sisters Sharon, Joanne and Cora Courtney and the impressive youngster Louise Kerley and with Francie Coleman still very much at the helm, this is a Donaghmoyne team that won’t come down from the top easily.

They were glad to have the quarter-final game against St Paul’s in shake out the cobwebs after the lay-off from county final and in the two weeks since

“We were very rusty against St Paul’s especially in the first half, passes went astray and credit to St Paul’s as they made it difficult for us to get scores. We settled more into the match in the second half. There has been a lot to improve and work on from that game.

The personnel on the pitch has changed but the girls that have came in have put in great performances. We have a great panel of players all training hard and fighting for places on the first 15 making it difficult for Francie, Annmarie [Burns] and Noel [Marron] when selecting a team.

“We definitely won't be taking Lurgan for granted. We played Lurgan a few years ago and it was a tough game. Any team at this stage in Ulster are going to be a tough task no matter if home or away.”

Ulster Senior Club Championship semi-final: St Macartans (Tyrone) v Clann Eireann (Armagh) (Sunday, Augher, 2pm)

THESE two semi-finalists are among the most consistent senior club teams in Ulster over the last decade and was it not for Donaghmoyne’s dominance and the emergence of Termon too, no doubt Tyrone’s St Macartans and Armagh’s Clann Eireann would have both won that elusive and prestigious Ulster senior title.

It is a mouth-watering semi-final between two teams who will leave everything out on the pitch as they battle for a place in this year’s final. St Macartans who were beaten finalists in the final 12 months ago, having home advantage, will be favourites to reach a second successive decider but Clann Eireann, under the tutelage of former Armagh and Longford and now Cavan boss James Daly will be hoping to cause an upset in Augher tomorrow afternoon as they aim to book their place in a first ever Ulster final.

For all the teams left, winning the county title is always the first target at the start of the season and when it comes to this competition it is about taking it one game at a time.

For St Macartans, who are under the guidance of former Tyrone All-Ireland senior winner Ryan McMenamin, last year’s provincial final defeat to Donaghmoyne still gnaws at them, and captain Joline Donnelly, hopes they can show they have learned a lot from that.

“Our main aim at the start of year was to retain the championship title in Tyrone and that is never easy now we are just taking it one game at a time in the Ulster series and hope that we can play to our potential in each game,” she said.

“We were very disappointed after last year and felt we could have left it behind us. After that game in Galbally this year seemed very far away but it just shows the character of the team now that we are back contesting in another Ulster semi-final. Hopefully we will have learnt from the hurt and experience of last year.”

The two sides are more than familiar with each other even though it has been a few years since they met on the provincial stage with Clann Eireann coming out on top but only after extra-time.

“There is no doubting the skill and quality of the Clann Eireann girls,” added Donnelly. We have played them in a few friendlies over the past couple of years and they have always beaten us. It's great to be playing at home mainly for supporters and hopefully they will come out in force but if we don't play to the best of our ability it won't matter where the game is played. It will all come down to who is the hungrier team on the day.”

Clann Eireann captain Grainne Carville is equally anticipating a real ding-dong battle against their opponents and hope that they can produce some of the class they showed in their win over Carryduff.

“This will be a tough match between two good teams,; we have played St Macartans in many challenge games before but championship football is a different story, not to mention their home advantage,” she said. “No doubt they will have a sizeable home support but I hope to see a good Clann Eireann contingent their too.

“We had some great pockets of play [against Carryduff], our movement and scores in the 1st half were unstoppable at times, however, we took the foot off the gas a little in the second half, but most importantly done enough to get over the line.

“The girls are very focused and motivated for our semi-final on Sunday, we have been prepared well and there is a great bond in the camp. No better bunch of girls deserve to win this game and reach our first Ulster Senior final.”

FIXTURES:

Today: Ulster Intermediate Club Championship semi-finals: Crosserlough (Cavan) v Newtownbutler (Fermanagh) (Kilnaleck, 2pm), St Naul’s (Donegal) v Latton (Monaghan) (Naomh Brid, Ballintra, 3pm)

Tomorrow:

Ulster Senior Club Championship semi-finals: Donaghmoyne (Monaghan) v Lurgan (Cavan) (Donaghmoyne, 2pm), St Macartans (Tyrone) v Clann Eireann (Armagh) (Augher, 2pm)

Ulster Junior Club Championship semi-finals: Corduff (Monaghan) v Ballyhegan Davitts (Armagh) (Corduff, 2pm), Cornafean (Cavan) v Devenish (Fermanagh) (Cornafean, 2pm)