REACHING the Ulster Club SFC Final remains a “dream” for Errigal Ciaran, says their manager Enda McGinley – and also for their next opponents Clann Eireann.
The former Tyrone midfielder acknowledged that the county champs will be on a similar footing to their Armagh counterparts in the forthcoming semi-final, with both clubs having second goes at the provincial competition in this decade.
“Experience definitely counts in Ulster,” said McGinley. “The two big teams that are there are Kilcoo and Scotstown – if they beat Erne Gaels – but they’re on the other side of the draw.
“We’ll both be thinking of the dream of an Ulster Club Final, the potential of an Ulster Club Final, and what a prize to be playing for in late November.”
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Errigal lost out in a quarter-final thriller two years ago against eventual champions Glen of Derry, while in their only previous Ulster outing, in 2021, Clann Eireann beat Creggan of Antrim before losing to Fermanagh’s Derrygonnelly in the semi-final.
Errigal’s own experience does include two Ulster Club triumphs, in 1993 and 2002, with McGinley himself a player in that second success, but he laughed a little when reminded of that:
“Aye, that history is a long, long time ago, to be honest. Some of the boys were saying they’ve no recollection of 2002, which makes me feel very old.
“We know it’s a phenomenal competition, it’s a brilliant test of teams going through this. The level of football, level of preparation and dedication it needs from the boys to compete at this level, is massive. To see them doing that, to see them surviving and building that wee bit of confidence in themselves is phenomenal.
“We know there’s an opportunity there, a rare opportunity to get a crack at Ulster, because of the nature of our domestic championship, so we have to make it count as best we can.”
Talking of the Tyrone championship, McGinley said “It feels like a lifetime ago…” even though the delayed final was just over a fortnight before Sunday’s Ulster quarter-final win over Antrim champions Cargin – with a preliminary round victory over Donegal representatives St Eunan’s in-between.
With the semi-final game against Clann Eireann on the weekend of November 23/24, McGinley is very glad of the respite, particularly on behalf of his players:
“This is the first time you can breathe out and relax, then look up and see what’s out there. There is plenty of bodies that are going to need plenty of TLC [tender, loving care] so we’ll need to think about the training schedule again. That’s just part and parcel of it, but it’s a brilliant place to be.”
Although they won by eight points on Sunday against Cargin at Corrigan Park, 0-17 to 0-9, that was based on extremely hard work, McGinley pointed out:
“I have to pay tribute to our boys, their effort was excellent and they remained focussed even though they were playing poorly at times in the second half. We’ll look at that surely, but we’re through to the next round and survived in Ulster.”
Ahead of their third game in just over a fortnight, the Errigal management also freshened up the team, with Tommy Canavan and Pauric Traynor getting starts while others began on the bench, McGinley explaining:
“On the run of games we’ve had, we had a couple of boys who’ve been really good for us, Ciaran Quinn and Padraig McGirr, who we decided just to rest initially because they’ve been through a lot and we needed fresh legs to come in. We’re happy that we’ve got a strong bench and we wanted to use that energy.”
Indeed both Quinn and McGirr came on against Cargin, as did Mark Kavanagh, Eoin Kelly, and Ronan McRory, so Errigal have decent options.
However, McGinley insisted that more improvement will be required to get past Clann Eireann:
“We’d made a habit of bad starts but against St Eunan’s we got off to a good start and then didn’t push on… We got three on the board but then missed several chances after that and, to be honest, having watched Cargin so much, I was always worried because I knew what they were capable of. But they never clicked into top gear or anywhere near it.
“It’s the first round of an Ulster Club. Cargin were understrength and underperformed. We’re delighted to survive because that’s the only thing that counts.
“We’re well aware that it doesn’t carry any aggregate into the next game in terms of points on the scoreboard when we’re playing Clann Eireann.”
