THE hurlers of Armagh are just two wins away from banishing the agony of last year's one-point defeat in the Nicky Rackard Cup final.
Roscommon pipped the Orchard county that day and, if Sylvester McConnell's men can overcome Fingal on Saturday afternoon, they will get a crack at either Donegal or Mayo.
Goalkeeper Simon Doherty has two Rackard Cup winners medals in his pocket from 2010 and '12, but says there is still "a lot of hurt" among the current squad over last year's defeat to Roscommon.
"I suppose I’ve been on both sides of the coin - I’m very lucky to have two winners medals, but unfortunately suffered the heartache of the last minute defeat last year as well," said Doherty, now in his seventh year with the county.
"Certainly within the current squad, there is a lot of hurt from last year - we really want to right some wrongs from last year and do our best to get back to Croke Park on June 4."
Armagh had an 11-point win over Longford in the quarter-final on May 7 and Lurgan man Doherty, who plays with St John's while studying in Belfast, says the team are motoring well at present.
"The intensity in training has certainly stepped up in the past couple of weeks," he said.
"A couple of niggly injuries that we have had have started to clear up, so things are looking good. We’re really looking forward to the challenge that Fingal are going to bring on Saturday - we know some of the quality that they have.
"The likes of the two O’Flynn’s, John Mike Sheridan and TJ Howard - some of the scores those guys have been putting up and the performances that they have been putting in so far have really been outstanding, so we know that it’s going to be a massive test on Saturday."
Doherty played against Fingal for the first time in the Rackard Cup in 2010. That was a win for Armagh by a couple of points. The teams also met in the league in 2014. Fingal were victors in the round-robin stages, but Armagh overcame the Dublin side in the relegation match.
It is clear there is little enough between the sides. Doherty is hopeful the "special bond" between the Armagh players will again come to the fore at the weekend: "I suppose the goal for every Nicky Rackard team is to be competing at Christy Ring level," said Doherty.
"And certainly, I would imagine that every team left in the competition - both ourselves and Fingal, Mayo and Donegal are all striving towards that goal. We would be a very tight knit group. Everybody knows each other from the club scene and having played with each other for so many years.
"There is a special bond among the group - especially over the last couple of years and I think having the success of the league title this year made us even tighter together as a group. We certainly still have some goals that we would want to achieve this year - there are still some big targets out there for us."
Sylvester McConnell's men are hot favourites to progress to the decider and can be fancied with confidence to do just that.
