Erne Gaels, Devenish, Roslea and Derrygonnelly all secured their place in the semi-finals of the Quinn Building Products SFC with wins in their respective quarter-finals last weekend.
And the draw for the last four has produced the same pairings as last year with holders Derrygonnelly coming up against Devenish in a tasty derby encounter and Roslea facing Erne Gaels.
The Belleek side were impressive winners over Irvinestown in Derrygonnelly on Saturday night and manager Maurice McLaughlin expressed his delight at having made it through to the semi-finals.
“I really was most pleased with the fact that it was a real team performance. Everyone contributed and that was important for us. Irvinestown were tricky opponents who are well coached and we needed the whole team clued in and thankfully we got that,” the Belleek boss stated before adding;
“And there was a great spread of scorers too which is always good. I think nearly all the forwards scored from play and we would be pleased with that element of things.”
Erne Gaels now go on to meet Roslea in the semi final in what is a repeat of last year’s semi final. On that occasion Erne Gaels had the then county champions on the rack only to give up a lead and although the game ended in a draw Roslea won the replay to secure their place in the Fermanagh showpiece and McLaughlin knows that people will be looking back at last year’s game when trying to pick a winner of this forthcoming encounter;
“Obviously it is deja vu but to be honest we won’t really be looking at last year’s game. We know what we have to do and we know the threat that Roslea have. We have to play good football to put ourselves in with a chance of winning but we are confident that we can do that.”
Roslea were involved in the best game of the weekend when they overcame neighbours St. Pat’s in a high scoring affair. The Donagh side put up a very stern test for the Shamrocks but in the end Brendan Sherlock’s early goal proved decisive as Roslea won 1-17 to 0-17.
Shamrocks manager Brian Gormley was pleased with how his side dug in when they were under pressure but he knows that they will have to improve if they are to get past Erne Gaels.
“That’s championship football, it doesn’t matter how you play, it’s all about getting a result out of it,” he said. “We always want to play nice, fancy football every day we go out but sometimes it doesn’t work like that and at times you have to dig in and thankfully the boys dug in. We got our goal early in the first half and that ultimately proved the difference between the teams.
“Donagh got back to within one point in the second half but we were able to push on again and we are happy to get through to the semi-final. Obviously that’s probably not going to be good enough for a semi-final, we are going to have to improve on it, but it’s great to have wee things to improve on so we are happy,” he added.
Roslea showed that they still have plenty of scoring power but one thing Gormley will be targeting is conceding less scores in the semi-final.
“We know we have plenty of very good scorers all over the pitch so it’s good to score that amount but we are less happy with conceding 17 points in a game. I suppose the important thing is coming out on the right side of the result,” said Gormley.
Meanwhile Devenish will meet Derrygonnelly in the other semi final, which is also a repeat of last year’s semi which the Harps won before going on to secure the championship with victory over Roslea.
Devenish manager, Malachy Cullen knows that his side face a stern test;
“Derrygonnelly will have the added confidence that comes with being champions now but our lads are looking forward to the challenge. They are a very good side but we showed a lot against Teemore and hopefully we can improve on that again,” Cullen stated.
Speaking on that quarter final victory the Devenish boss was very pleased with the resilience showed by his side and the quality of football that they played in the first half;
“I thought we controlled the game in that first half. In fact we probably should have been more than the four points up at half time. And we always knew that Teemore were going to have their period of dominance and they did and when they got it back to all square our lads could have went either way but they showed great character to come back so strongly and secure the win. I thought that was excellent on the part of the fellas.”
Derrygonnelly will be favourites to return to the final when they take on the Garrison side but Harps manager Martin Greene accepts that his side will have to improve on the performance they produced against Ederney on Sunday. “We’re happy to be through to the semi-final, the important thing was winning the game and we managed to do that, but we know that we have to improve if we are to get back into the final. We have plenty to work on over the next week or so and we know that Devenish are going to be a serious test,” he said. On the win over Ederney, he added: 
“I thought the first half was very flat but in fairness to the boys they improved in the second.”