Derrylin made it through to a first Intermediate Championship final since 1997 as they defeated Aghadrumsee last Saturday evening in Enniskillen on a scoreline of 2-16 to 2-07.

Central to the success this season has been the return of Mark Murphy who had spent the previous six years in Sydney, Australia.

“I came home at the end of April and was back in the Fermanagh squad only two weeks later. It’s a great feeling to know that we have a County final to look forward to and it’s going to be a fabulous day for the town itself.” Derrylin last tasted IFC success when they defeated Belcoo back in 1997 with players such as Justin Gilheaney, Ashton Gilheaney, Colm Shannon and Terry McCarron starring for the O’Connell’s club that day, while they were also to taste defeat just a few years previous as Brookeboro got the better of them in the 1993 IFC final.

Murphy is adamant that his side must take their final chance now as it may not come for a lot of the squad ever again.

“1997 is a long time ago, our last final of any sort was ten years ago, a Division Three final, and we were saying after the Aghadrumsee game that some of the boys would only have been one or two years of age back in 1997 so it just shows you finals don’t come around very often.” Derrylin go into the final against the winners of Maguiresbridge v Newtownbutler as underdogs, but they can look back to former teams such as the Derrylin side of 1986 and 1987 that won the Intermediate title under the stewardship of Vincent Martin who had well known players such as Malachy O’Rourke, Tommy Maguire and now current chairman Fintan McGovern all playing.

Murphy accepts that Derrylin will have the underdogs tag in the Final but that doesn’t bother him.

“Maguiresbridge and Newtownbutler could both be classed as Division One sides and will easily be favourites in the final. We have three or four weeks to prepare for the game, the management team of Mickey Cadden, Ryan Browne and Charlie McKelvey have been superb – they have us putting in the work and training has improved with the standard being raised all the time. We finished in the top half of Division Two this year and we are moving in the right direction.” On the Aghadrumsee victory last Saturday, Murphy commented: “We knew at half time that Aghadrumsee would come out in the second half with all guns blazing and so they did. We conceded two soft goals but thankfully we got our second goal at the right time and never looked back after that. Our fitness showed at the end and the boys coming off the bench really helped us as well with fresh legs. ” The 31 year old has just finished working in Quinn Glass and hopes to go back to Australia after the Championship run has ended which leaves him uncertain about whether he will return to the county colours next season. However, he is positive about the future of football in Fermanagh.

“To be honest, I haven’t really thought of it. It’s hard to know, at the moment I’m going back to Australia – football is not getting any easier, I’m 31 years of age and time is running out for me. Fermanagh have plenty of good footballers and I’m hopeful Pete McGrath is the man to lead them in the right direction.”