Clogher Valley joint coach Davy Black has targeted the retention of the Kukri Qualifying League Section One title as one of their primary goals for the forthcoming season.

Black’s Clogher side get their campaign underway on Saturday with an away trip to Ballymoney and while he expects it to be a very competitive league, he is hopeful that the Valley will be in contention once again this season.

“We won the league title last season and we definitely want to try and keep a hold of it. We will be looking to emulate last season and if at all possible to do even better.

“We know though that it is going to be a tight, competitive division and as champions we are the team that everybody is going to be gunning for,” he said.

Clogher’s pre-season has gone well according to Black including a win over local rivals Enniskillen last Friday night at Mullaghmeen.

“The boys have trained well and we had two good games against Rainey and Enniskillen. We would be pleased with how the pre-season has gone for us,” he added.

The Cran based side have added back Jack Stott to their squad for the season but Black stresses that retaining last season’s squad was the big thing going into the new season.

“By and large we retained all of last season’s squad and this is as good as two or three new signings. We have added Jack Stott who is over here working from England and we have a few U18s who have come through and will give us cover so we have a good squad.” Black feels there will be a number of teams vying for the title this season including Instonians who were relegated from senior rugby.

“Portadown are always strong, as are Bangor. Ballyclare had a good season last year and they will be tricky opponents while Instonians came down last season and they will be trying to get back up. It is going to be tough,” commented Black.

And he states that it is key to get a good start to the season.

“We have a difficult start away to Ballymoney and it is vital over the first two or three weeks to get a good start as it sets the tone for the rest of the season,” he said.