O’Neills Derry SFC last 16: Magherafelt v Coleraine (tomorrow, Ballinascreen, 12.30pm)
THIS is the game of the weekend in Derry, as 2019 champions Magherafelt tussle with 2018 winners Coleraine to stay in the race to lift the John McLaughlin Cup.
Emmett McGuckin’s goal dumped Coleraine out two years ago in round one and catapulted Rossa towards to the title and Magherafelt manager Adrian Cush is in no doubt about the significance of that result for his team.
“That game was massive,” states Cush.
“There was pressure that they couldn’t beat a big team and all of a sudden the monkey was off the back.”
After an indifferent league campaign, in which squad rotation was the focus, Cush feels it has benefitted the squad.
Players from the victorious 2018 U21 side and back-to-back reserve winning teams were put to the test of senior football, as they used '38 or 39 men’ over the season.
“Once Derry made it clear there was no (league) relegation, everyone had a different focus on the league,” Cush insists.
Danny Heavron’s operation on a shoulder injury picked up in their win against Bellaghy rules him and the suspended Antone McElhone are out of contention.
Darren O’Neill, Simon McErlain and Jared Monaghan hobbling off against Bellaghy, with Cush saying he faces ‘a waiting game’ on some of his player but expects Cormac Murphy to be ‘okay’.
“There are injuries in every club,” he said.
“Everybody is in the same boa and under no circumstances will we be using injuries as any sort of excuse if we lose on Sunday.”
The former Tyrone star feels it is a ‘really tough’ tie, referring to Eoghan Rua as a ‘top, top outfit’ who can control the tempo of a game.
Rossa have been paired with Slaughtneil, Coleraine and Lavey in their opening knock-out games in Cush’s previous three seasons in charge.
“We’re hoping it focuses us and gets us our best performance because we are going to need to get our best performance to get over the line.”
Coleraine supremo Sean McGoldrick, who turned 70 recently, is concerned at the lack of game-time in some of his players after an ‘up and down’ season.
His son Barry, Paul Daly, Gavin McWilliams, Declan and Ciaran Mullan haven’t had much match time under their belt
“I don’t know if its age catching up with the players, or if it was just the lay-off from training and coming back,” McGoldrick said.
His sons Liam and Ciaran sat out last week’s hurling championship with Niall Holly. All are expected to feature tomorrow.
McGoldrick sees tomorrow’s opponents as one of the ‘big four’, that also contains Slaughtneil, Lavey and Glen, who he rated as the best side they faced, albeit admitting the league was not a true barometer.
He feels Rossa have a more youthful feel that will give them a slight edge on his side, but issued a warning of the competitive nature of the Derry championship.
“There is nothing nailed down here. I don’t think anyone, even the top four teams, can take anyone for granted now that it’s going into the sudden death.”
