Morgan Fuels Down Senior Football Championship: Bryansford v Mayobridge (Saturday, Kilcoo, 5.30pm)
MAYOBRIDGE beat Bryansford home and away in the league – and by sizeable margins too – so the Newcastle outfit have a lot of ground to make up in Kilcoo on Saturday.
The ’Ford finished second-bottom in Division One and were relegated alongside Longstone but their form did at least improve during the latter stages of the league with just one loss in their last four games. It wasn’t enough to save their skins, but at least it will have improved morale for this championship campaign.
“We picked up a couple of injuries at the start of the year and we never got any momentum going,” explained manager John Kennedy.
“It was a difficult season but you get them, don’t you? If you don’t get the points over the season, you deserve to get relegated.”
Ryan O’Higgins was among the absentees but he has returned and played in two challenge games since the league ended and will be fit for the championship opener. Former Down forward Danny Savage missed the early stages of the league but is fully fit although Conor Maginn is an injury doubt.
Mayobridge did get the better of Bryansford twice but they blew a little hot and cold in the league. There were some impressive wins but Stephen Poacher’s side didn’t always click and, without key forward Corey Quinn (who remains an absentee) they registered single-figures scores too often to challenge the pacesetters.
“They are a good team, very well set up,” said Kennedy.
“This is Stevie’s second year with them and they defend very well and then counterattack well so they’re a good side. They have quality in every line and they beat us handy-enough in both games in the league so we have it all to do.”
Bryansford went winless for their first nine games in the league so the threat of relegation was hanging over the team for the majority of the season. When their fate was finally sealed, Kennedy’s men were relieved to switch focus to the championship and, although his team are underdogs, the Glenn native said: “You have a chance in every game.
“It’s not a foregone conclusion, it’s championship football and we’re not going there to make the numbers up. If you’re looking at the formbook, they’re obviously the favourites – they beat us twice this year and we’ve had a bad year, we’ve been relegated.
“When you’re in a relegation battle it sort of consumes players and you’re up against it every week. But it was done-and-dusted with two games to go so we started to plan for the championship.
“We’ve done well this last four-or-five games and, if we play like we can play, we’ll have a chance. Once the relegation thing was sorted, the pressure was lifted off everybody and we were able to play a bit of football again.
“So we’re going out in good enough form. I wouldn’t say we’re confident, they’ve beaten us twice this year, but they’ll know they’re in a game.”
There are three more games in the Mourne County senior championship on Sunday. Glenn take on neighbours Saval at Burren (2pm), then Longstone clash with Castlewellan at Bryansford (4.30pm) and there’s another derby clash when Warrenpoint and Burren do battle down the dual-carriageway at Pairc Esler (7pm).
