AFTER losing their county championship crown in a quarter final replay against Derrygonnelly two weeks ago, followed by a semi final defeat at the hands of Roslea in a relegation semi final last weekend, Ederney’s senior championship standing is in jeopardy this weekend.
Tempo stand in their way though and Mickey Cassidy knows it’s a massive game for his side;
“Senior Championship status is at stake here now and after last Saturday, I’m expecting the players to respond and very little will have to be said to them.
“Last Saturday was a kick in the arse.”
Ederney had only one week to prepare for a relegation semi final after a tough dual with Derrygonnelly the previous week but Cassidy says “there’s no excuses this week”.
Roslea ground out a two point victory over the St Joseph’s side at the weekend and Cassidy says they fell short “everywhere”, adding, “the week before we lost the title and I can understand everybody being down, it take a few days, it doesn’t turn on like a light switch but that’s out of the system, I’ll expect a big response.”
Looking ahead to Sunday’s final with Tempo, Cassidy says;
“I’m expecting a fight. Tempo will know what’s at stake and whoever wants it the most will win it.
“Tempo are very strong up the centre. Aidan Breen and Ryan Breen and then you have Damien Kelly has always been a very good player in my eyes.”
While Ederney will be favourites going into the match, Cassidy is quick to shoot this notion down, saying;
“Favourites means absolutely nothing going into a game like this here. Next Saturday, you could have hailstones, you could have snow- all these things, favourites? It means nothing, all these things are levelers, in fact they could be a disadvantage.”
Tempo manager, Stephen Jackson says “it’s going to be a massive test for us. We’re just going to have to get ourselves together for it this week and get read for it next weekend.
“It’s a one off game now, winner takes all, simple as that, so we just have to get back. I put it to the boys already in the circle there after the match, we need a massive lift this week and we’ve just got to get the result or we’re in Intermediate next season but if you lose three games you deserve to be there.
“I think from performances we put in this year, unfortunately we haven’t seen it out and got the right result but if we can get the right performance and be more ruthless hopefully that should keep our place in the senior championship.”