Teemore Shamrocks v Devenish
Teemore and Devenish meet in the senior championship at 7:00pm on Saturday night in Derrygonnelly in what is one of the hardest games to call of the weekend.
Six points and three places separated the two sides in the league. This meant Teemore qualified for the semi final of the league while Devenish are in the bottom four and are set for a relegation play off after the championship.
For now though both teams will be focused on the championship and with a win apiece in their two meetings thus far this season there is sure to be little between the sides.
Devenish have rarely been able to field a full strength team this season and lost influential defender Shane McAloon to a long term injury a few weeks ago.
“It was a blow losing Shane, he was playing very well but we have to get on with it now. It will be a very tough game against Teemore as it always is,” Devenish boss Malachy Cullen explained.
Prior to this season the Garrison men have been consistently operating in the top half of the league but have never been able to break past the semi final of the championship losing out to Derrygonnelly last season and Cullen believes that they have to produce their best if they are to go through to the last four this year.
“There have been times this season where we have played well and in other games we have not been able to show the same consistency and that has been disappointing. That is the one thing that we have to do, show more consistency.”
Devenish have a very experienced squad with county stalwarts Marty O’Brien and Barry Mulrone central figures for them. They also have a very admirable supporting cast in Anthony McGuinness in defence, Jason Love and John O’Flanagan in midfield while Chris O’Brien and JJ O’Brien add punch in attack.
On Saturday they face a battled hardened Teemore side who are beginning to add some youthful flourishes to their steely backbone. Hugh Brady at full back, Joey Donegan in the half back line and Barry Owens in the middle of the field are still very much the beating heart of this team but with Cian McManus and the very accurate Eoin McManus along with the dangerous Ruairi Maguire all becoming more influential the Shamrocks are a formidable outfit.
Their manager, Tommy Clarke is expecting a close encounter;
“We always have a very good battle with Devenish and there is never much between the teams and I would think that will be the case this weekend,” he explained before adding;
“There is always a bit of a buzz around Teemore when it comes to championship and that has been the case this week. We would be reasonably pleased with how we have gone this year so far and we are looking forward to the championship now.”
Much will depend on the midfield battle and who can supply their forwards with the most ball. Eoin McManus and Barry Owens should square off against John O’Flanagan and Jason Love and who comes out on top in this duel will go along way to deciding the outcome of this game.