Football

Latton and St Naul's to battle it out for right to take on Kingscourt in Ulster final

Latton captain Lavin Connolly (right) during her playing days with Monaghan  
Latton captain Lavin Connolly (right) during her playing days with Monaghan   Latton captain Lavin Connolly (right) during her playing days with Monaghan  

Ulster Club Junior Ladies' Football Championship semi-final:


Latton (Monaghan) v St Naul’s (Donegal) (Sunday, Latton, 2pm)

THE focus may have been on the province’s senior club championship in recent weeks but the county champions in the intermediate and junior competitions have also been out in full force with eyes on their provincial decider next weekend.

The intermediate final will see Armagh champions Shane O’Neills face Fermanagh side Kinawley while there is still one place up for grabs in the junior competition with either Latton or St Naul’s taking on Cavan champions Kingscourt. The Monaghan and Donegal champions go head-to-head for that final junior place tomorrow afternoon in Latton’s home grounds, a week later than planned after some postponements in the earlier rounds.

St Naul’s, who defeated Derry side Ballymaguigan in the quarter-finals back at the beginning of October, had to wait until last weekend to finally find out who their semi-final opponents would be. Latton were meant to start their provincial campaign back in September with a preliminary round game against Fermanagh opposition, but that did not go ahead and they were given a bye in the quarter-finals against Granemore.

However, the game did not go ahead on the scheduled date but at the second time of asking, just last Saturday, they finally got their Ulster campaign up and running with a comprehensive victory over their Armagh opponents. They racked up 8-15 against Granemore and that performance, says their captain Lavina Connolly, was a lot to do with the previous weeks of uncertainty and frustration and they are determined not to it all come to an end this weekend.

“It was very disheartening for us, but we just had to stay positive and keep focused on our goal. The management were great. They never once let us drop our heads over the six weeks and after all the mix up I feel we are now even more determined,” said the former county player.

“We went out against Granemore seriously fired up and the result speaks for that. We were told not to let the foot of the pedal and every girl give it their all. If we play on Saturday the way I know we can play, I believe we're good enough to be make an Ulster final. We know absolutely nothing about St Naul’s. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing but all we can do is to go out on the day and try and have a good all-around team performance.”

For both sides, this is very much unknown territory and with junior and intermediate club football, winners are very hard to predict. Neither side know much about each other. For St Naul’s, Eilish Ward is their most experienced player lining out for Donegal and as much as Lavina Connolly believes Latton has what it takes to see off their semi-final opponents, Ward feels her side are every bit as capable of booking their place in an Ulster final.

Everything seems to have fallen into place this year for the Donegal side. They won the intermediate Gaeltacht title earlier this year as well as the League Shield but their biggest prize was a first ever county championship title. And she feels manager Glen Campbell has had a lot to do with the team’s success.

“It has been 10 years in the making but it has finally all come together this year. Glen has put a lot right. We are a very, very young team but the young girls have come of age and made a big difference this year,” she said.

“We felt that this was our year to win the county championship. We have put together a very good run and you start to build confidence from those competitions and of course that runs into the Ulster club too. We haven't focused too much on Latton, but we do know they can put up high scores and they must be a very good team to score 8-13 on any day.

"If we can keep them from scoring so freely and play the way we have been all year and put in the effort, I believe that we will get the reward.”