Derrylin manager Mickey Cadden
Derrylin despite the fact that they produced a scintillating final quarter effort to sweep aside the challenge of Aghadrumsee in the championship semi-final will be coming into Friday’s set to with Maguiresbridge as the outside bet.
The O’Connell’s certainly will have taken great heart from the manner in which they crushed the Aghadrumsee opposition but they will be keenly aware that in Maguiresbridge they will be taking on a side which is right bang on form.
There is an ironic touch to the game as Derrylin manager Mickey Cadden spent several seasons a member of the ‘Bridge selection panel before departing at the end of last year, so he will have an in-depth knowledge of the opposition that he is now plotting to deny a championship crown.
“I wouldn’t read all that much into that however” chirped Cadden. “They will know that I do know something about them but I’m sure they will have their plans to cope with that.”
Cadden accepted that his side would be viewed as the outsiders for the decider.
“They appear to be flying at the moment and I was very impressed by their performance against first division Newtownbutler,” he said.
“They are playing an open and quick brand of football and are creating lots of scoring chances. Against Newtown they had three or four goal chances and they do have a very lively attack overall.
Individually they have a number of very good players, Ciaran Corrigan picks up a lot of possession for them and Ronan Teague is in many ways an unsung hero for them.
“No doubt their confidence will be sky high, perhaps a little too high though I would think that Colm Courtney will be determined to root that out.”
Derrylin have failed to beat Maguiresbridge on the three occasions they have faced each other this year but Cadden isn’t reading too much into that.
“One of the games was extremely close and our last fixture was one in which we had nothing really to play for as the outcome was irrelevant to us but the ‘Bridge were looking to clinch promotion.
You think that you are motivated going into games like that but in reality you aren’t.”
There’ll be no questioning Derrylin’s motivation for this upcoming tie however.
“We’re looking forward to it tremendously,” said Cadden. “At the start of the season given the poor performance of the previous year perhaps not a great deal was expected.
“But we made it into the second division at the midway break and after two hard championship games we are into the final. We are looking on that as a significant achievement in itself.”
Asked to highlight the strengths of the side Cadden was reluctant to isolate individuals.
“As far as we are concerned this has been a full squad effort and over the campaign we have used a lot of that squad.
Against Coa we introduced six substitutes, against Aghadrumsee we used three and everyone has contributed.”
Reluctant to name individuals Cadden nevertheless didn’t dispute the suggestion that figures such as Mark Murphy and Danny Leonard in the centre of the park would be expected to be at the hub of the team’s drive.
And up front an attack that features Barry Murray, Eoin Maguire and Cathair Shannon will hopefully pose a threat too hot for the ‘Bridge rearguard to handle.
Derrylin in the decider fully on merit and they have made major advance this year. They too will be approaching this contest in an optimistic frame of mind.
ROUTES TO THE FINAL
Semi-finals
Maguiresbridge 2-8 Newtownbutler 2-6
Derrylin 2-16 Aghadrumsee 2-7
Quarter-final replay
Maguiresbridge 3-11 Belnaleck 1-3
Quarter-finals
Maguiresbridge 0-11 Belnaleck 1-8
Aghadrumsee 5-6 Brookeboro 0-5
Derrylin 1-12 Coa 1-10
Newtownbutler 1-17 Irvinestown 1-7