St. Michael’s go into Sunday’s MacRory Cup play-off against St. Colman’s Newry in Dunmoyle (2.30pm) as big underdogs, but manager Dom Corrigan is hopeful that if he can get a performance out of his side then they have the ability to book their place in the last eight of the competition.

Corrigan was clear from the outset of the campaign that the primary goal was to ensure that they did not make an early exit from the competition, and having achieved that with victory over St. Michael’s Lurgan, he is now seeking a big performance on Sunday against a fancied Newry outfit.

“The target now is to get a performance,” said Corrigan. “We have a very tough task ahead of us on Sunday but the boys have worked hard and they realise that big teams really produce it on championship days and days that matter. The only game of significance that we have had this year so far was our play-off match against Lurgan and the boys really raised their game for that. Now they have got to really raise their performance again on Sunday and I feel that level of performance is in them. It will take an outstanding collective effort to get us across the line.” St. Colman’s are traditionally an attacking side and Corrigan accepts that with the forwards that the Newry side have to call on, his defence is going to have to be right on top of their game.

St. Michael’s will be looking to the likes of goalkeeper Colin Copeland and defenders Rory McCaffrey and Conor Carney to keep the St. Colman’s attackers at bay while Keelan Kelly will play an important role in the middle of the park. And if St. Michael’s can contain St. Colman’s, Corrigan will be hoping that the likes of captain Lee Brennan, Ryan Kelly, Peter Reynolds and Shane Rooney can get them enough scores to take them home.

“St. Colman’s are a very good footballing side and traditionally they have paid serious emphasis to their attack and I think they have a really sharp forward line. They have Oisin O’Neill, a nephew of Oisin McConville, as their key man up front and he is a very strong player. You have Ross Carr’s son playing at corner forward who is a very effective operator and James French is another key man at wing half forward. So, we have got to be on our game defensively to stifle them. The bedrock of any team is a strong defence and we have got to get out defence well organised and try to frustrate St. Colman’s and then we would hope to have quality in players like Lee Brennan, Ryan Kelly, Peter Reynolds to get us scores up front,” he said.

St. Michael’s cannot afford to let the Down school get away from them early on, but Corrigan feels that if they manage to keep things tight into the latter stages then they will have a good shout.

“St.Colman’s will probably be hoping to have us put away by the half hour mark but we’ll be looking to keep it tight to half time and if we are in the game with ten or 15 minutes to go then anything is possible,” he concluded.