Football

Toss of a coin between Aghagallon and Portglenone

Aghagallon's Eunan Walsh has been in great form
Aghagallon's Eunan Walsh has been in great form Aghagallon's Eunan Walsh has been in great form

Northern Switchgear Antrim Senior Football Championship semi-final: Roger Casements, Portglenone v St Mary’s Aghagallon (Tomorrow, Dunsilly, 12.30pm)

AGHAGALLON and Portglenone are two teams that have been knocking on the door of the senior final over the past number of seasons. One of them will experience kicking it down at Dunsilly tomorrow afternoon.

Aghagallon, managed by Kevin Murray, have been on the championship cusp for the last few seasons and appear to have learned from a couple of hard defeats.

They showed plenty of guts and guile to overcome St Enda’s on home soil to reach the knock-out stages and game-managed their quarter-final against St Brigid’s exceptionally well.

It’s not exactly now or never for St Mary’s as it’s their first semi-final appearance in the club’s history – but, nevertheless, it’s a golden opportunity for this talented group of players to strike while the iron is hot.

For the Portglenone players, the ‘now or never’ scenario might be more applicable. After all, this is the club’s third semi-final appearance on the trot – no mean feat by manager and Derry native Barry Dillon.

As a result, there might be a little more pressure on them to get over the line but, equally, they are armed with more experience of these types of games than semi-final rookies Aghagallon.

Ask anyone in the county about this semi-final and they’ll all say the same thing: a toss of a coin.

Having key men fit and available can often be the deciding factor on championship Sundays.

Crucially, Portglenone will be without Niall Delargy after he received a straight red card – a career first - in their brilliant quarter-final win over Lamh Dhearg last weekend.

However, Casements decided not to appeal Delargy’s red.

Although there’s no official confirmation of Adam Loughran’s absence tomorrow, Aghagallon’s precocious attacker has been struggling with injury and it would be a major surprise if he saw any action in Dunsilly.

The respective absences of Loughran and Delargy probably even themselves out.

On paper, Aghagallon have scores in other places – perhaps more so than tomorrow’s opponents - with Gareth Magee, Eunan Walsh and Ruairi McCann all in fine form this year.

In particular, county ace Walsh has excelled and has penetrated nearly every defence he’s come up against. It’ll be no surprise if Portglenone’s trusted trouble-shooter Ruairi Hagan saddles up to Walsh in what could be an intriguing duel.

Portglenone would probably admit themselves that they don’t possess the same kind of marquee quality in the final third of the pitch and have also had some free-taking issues – but they are the kind of team that never knows when they’re beaten.

They’ve turned resilience into an art form. Last week, they trailed Lamh Dhearg by four points and won by six. The way they finished their quarter-final reinforces their greatest strengths: legs and big hearts.

Dermot McAleese, who had a brilliant year with Antrim, remains the heartbeat of Dillon’s side.

Despite suffering a broken jaw and contracting COVID, McAleese has been a key player for Casements and will be again tomorrow.

Neither side can be accused of being shrinking violets. This semi-final really is a toss of a coin.

In such instances, you look to who has the biggest well of experience. On that basis, Portglenone to edge it.