SLAUGHTNEIL’S motivation to beat neighbours Glen in tonight’s de-facto Derry Division One league final will be to keep the Watty’s down, believes their boss Jude Donnelly.
The sides are separated by a single point at the top of the table ahead of their final game, with Glen ahead having dropped just one point all year, while Slaughtneil have won 10 and lost one.
The Watty Graham’s side have only ever won one senior league title, back in 1987, and have never won a senior championship, but hopes have been high that this generation will change all that after coming through as four-in-a-row Ulster minor club champions.
Slaughtneil will host the tie – which will be played on their bottom field, rather than the top pitch which has a covered stand – and is expected to attract a huge crowd.
Glen boss Donnelly, an Ulster Club winner as a player with Bellaghy, believes Slaughtneil will be intent on denying their neighbours what would be seen as a significant stepping stone.
“I think so. If that game was any other team, I don’t think Slaughtneil would be caring about it, but because it’s a derby between the two, Slaughtneil would want to keep Glen down in the shadow.”
With club championship just a week-and-a-half away, Donnelly concedes that the management and players had discussed whether they would go full-tilt after the league title, but that they were left in no uncertain terms.
“I left it down to the players whether they wanted to go for it, I was afraid with it being so close to the championship, and they made it very, very clear they wanted a good, competitive game with Slaughtneil.
“It’s probably a bigger game for Glen because Slaughtneil have been up around the top of the league this last three or four years, and won a couple of leagues.
“To win the Larkin Cup [mid-season competition], the night we won it, we were in two minds whether to go all out because it was The Loup we played in it and we’re playing them in the championship.
“We made a decision that silverware was more important than worrying about the championship. Winning that has given them a wee bit of belief and helped build a wee bit of momentum now going for a league title.
“You never knock silverware, really. When we talked at the start of the year, our aim was to try and get into the top two or three in the league, so it’s great that it’s fallen that way.”
The game has been brought forward to this evening away from the rest of the last round of league fixtures, allowing for a big crowd to pile into Emmet Park.
Glen are sweating on, but hopeful of, the fitness of key duo Emmett Bradley and Ryan Dougan, while Slaughtneil will be without Keelan Feeney and Gerald Bradley through injury.
Patsy Bradley is expected to be part of their squad after a spell out with a recurring back injury, having returned to play a couple of reserve games in recent weeks.
The Derry league has seen Dungiven relegated to the 2020 intermediate league for the first time since the early 1980s, while 2007 champions Glenullin could drop to the junior grade if results in Division 1B don’t go their way on Sunday.
