DANGERMAN Teemore’s Declan Fitzpatrick
DEVENISH v TEEMORE
Sunday, 3.30pm, Brewster Park
Devenish maybe the side who have the superior league finishing spot, but they will be keenly aware that Teemore’s indifferent league performance will have absolutely no bearing on how this game is going to pan out.
Teemore have shown time and time again that they are two entirely different animals when it comes to league and championship. The Shamrocks were par for the course again in this campaign.
In the preliminary round they had an apparently superior Derrygonnelly side as the opposition but league form counted for nothing here, the Harps dismissed and Teemore marching on.
Teemore have followed that up with a much more routine success over a Kinawley side that lacked belief and so the Mountain Road brigade are within striking distance of another championship decider.
Devenish have a reasonable championship pedigree of their own though almost two decades have slipped by since they last lifted the New York Gold Cup.
But they have had an encouraging progress so far these past few weeks, a fine win over 2012 champions Tempo in the preliminary and then a rock solid success over closest neighbours Erne Gaels.
All well and good but manager Sylvester Mulrone is keeping his feet rooted firmly to the ground.
“Prior to our meetings with Tempo and Erne Gaels I stressed that on any given day any side in the championship was capable of beating whoever was the opposition and that holds good for this game with Teemore,” he said.
“They have a proud championship tradition in Fermanagh football and this is going to be a very difficult game for us regardless of their league form.
So we will be erring on the side of caution and giving them all the respect they deserve.
They play a direct brand of football, with players well able to contest their own ball and can live off scraps.”
Mulrone too was conscious of the need for discipline in the Devenish defence, “The accuracy of Eoin McManus makes us aware of the need not to concede too many frees.”
Over in the Teemore camp their manager Michael Wallace said, “We will be putting one hundred per cent into this and if we do lose it won’t be for want of effort on our part.
“Defeat here and this will be our final game of the season but we have been encouraged by the way we have advanced so far.
“The Derrygonnelly win was a particularly good result but we know it will take a massive effort for Devenish are a very strong outfit. They have beaten us twice in the league and Sylvester Mulrone will again have them well marshalled.”
Wallace had a few injury problems over the league run in but thinks that he will have a full hand to select from come this weekend.
Which means that Teemore will be looking to a reliable half back line of Declan McDonald, Joey Donegan and Damian Lee to form a solid barrier while a fluid combination of Barry Owens, Hugh Brady and Jason McCaffery provide a midfield base.
Up front Declan Fitzpatrick continues to be an elusive corner forward with newer faces Eoin and Cian McManus now beginning to make a significant input.
For Devenish the main scoring source for them has been corner forward Chris O’Brien who has been chalking up impressive scoresheets while John O’Flanagan, on his day, is more than capable of shooting a tally of over half a dozen points.
Back in the lineout leaving aside some of the more prominent names, personnel such as Martin Doherty and Vincent O’Brien in defence plus Jason Love in centrefield have all been consistent.
Devenish haven’t quite set the world alight but they have in their campaign so far delivered thoroughly competent team displays and another one year should edge them over the line.