LOUGHGIEL Shamrocks manager Johnny Campbell is well aware of the threat posed by Down champions Ballygalget in this Sunday’s Ulster Club Senior Hurling Championship semi-final.
Speaking at the launch of the Ulster series in all four codes at a packed Garvaghey last night, Campbell is relishing his first game in the Provincial series as a manager and he knows that his side will have to play well to reach the decider.
“Ballygalget is a massive challenge,” admits Johnny.
“Like ourselves they have been out of the picture for a couple of years and knowing a lot of their guys I have no doubt the hunger that they will have. They will be doing everything in their power to try and turn us over and we will be wanting to take the next step ourselves. It’s the next challenge in front of us and it is going to be very tough between two sides who know each other reasonably well.
"They have played in division two in the Antrim league this past few years but prior to that we would have met often and while there will be a few new faces on both sides the basis of the sides will be the same that have played against each other.”
Loughgiel will go into the game as favourites after beating reigning Ulster champions Cushendall in the recent Antrim final.
“At start of any year the immediate goal is always to try and win your County Championship and thankfully we did that,” said Johnny.
“The boys have put in a massive amount of effort and work so far and hopefully they have the ambition not to stop there, time will tell. It was a couple of years since we had won the title and you could see a bit of hunger back in the players this year and a bit of freshness. We have had good numbers out at training the whole way through the year and were able to mix things up a bit and keep things fresh.
"Cushendall beat us by a point last year and when you lose by that margin you have a certain amount of jealousy as you would have liked to go on and achieved what they did but fair play to them. If truth be told they probably deserved it and went on to represent the County in Ulster as well as the All Ireland final and that was massive.”
He will hope that his charges can take the next step and tray and keep the title in Antrim for another twelve months.
“There is no point in putting in the hard craft in your County and being lucky enough to win your title and then settling for that,” he said.
“I would say that the four sides left have ambitions to win the Ulster title and rightly so. For now though we aren’t looking beyond Ballygalget this weekend and we know that we are going to have to hurl well to win.”
