Enniskillen head coach Stevie Welsh wants his side to make their mark on club history by becoming the first team from the club to secure the Towns’ Cup since 1937.

Skins have contested a number of finals since then, including three in the last 12 years but they have lost them all and Welsh says that if they want to be remembered at the club then they have to go on and win it when they face Ballyclare at Kingspan Stadium on Easter Monday.

“The Towns’ Cup is big to the club and when we set out at the start of the year one of the goals was to win it. People have come up to us when we have reached finals and congratulated us on getting that far but that’s the wrong attitude.

“Yes, it’s a great day out getting to Ravenhill and all that but it’s about actually winning and none of us know how that feels. My generation have had some cracking players but they have won nothing and you will never be remembered past your generation unless your picture is up on the wall with a trophy. No-one remembers a finalist when that team is finished,” he said.

Indeed, Welsh himself has tasted final defeat in the competition on a couple of occasions.

“I played in the final in ‘07 and in ‘16 and I was involved in ‘17 which was my last year but I broke my foot a month before the final.

“There is a lot of unfinished business in terms of the competition, there are a few boys about who have been on the wrong side of it too many times now and we would love to go one and win it” he added.

Welsh took over the head coach role this season from Willie Gibson and after a sticky period in the middle of the campaign they finished strongly to pull away from the bottom of the Championship Division One table.

“When you look back now, it’s not been a bad year,” he said. “We had a rocky spell in the middle but we have pulled it together since mid January. We got the results going, we had a settled team and have been relatively injury free and pushed on from that.”

And that fine conclusion to the season that saw them win eight of their last nine games will have Skins entering the final in a positive frame of mind.

“I knew the boys had it in them, I said that all along. We knew we had a good team and we started to get results and maybe that wee bit of luck that we were missing in the early part of the season. I don’t think anybody wanted to play us in the league towards the end of the season. The pack were formidable and we were putting a lot of pressure on teams to get to where we wanted to be,” he commented.

A tough run of fixtures though hit the squad with injuries although Welsh is hopeful of having close to a full hand to select from for the final.

“We had three games in seven days over the last week of the league and that was brutal and took its toll. We have only really got training properly this week as we had maybe 12 guys in the physio room on a night at training. John Arnold will be touch and go, Jack Rutledge broke ribs against Clogher but is back training and Nicky Finlay and Adam Lendrum should be good so we are looking like we are going to be nearly fully fit,” said Welsh.

Skins will go into the final as underdogs against a Ballyclare side that beat them twice this season as they finished second in the table but Welsh states that suits them.

“We are the underdogs and that is probably the way we want it. With Enniskillen, you always sort of be the underdog and we like that. It’s like Ireland to a certain extent, they never held the favourites tag well and we are the same. We like to be plucky and take it to them. I don’t think that Ballyclare will underestimate us but they have beaten us twice this year so hopefully they will get a touch of complacency and we’ll start out of the blocks quick and take it to them,” he stated.

Welsh knows that his side face a massive challenge but he is confident that if they perform then Skins are capable of winning the game.

“Ballyclare are a quality team but we know what we need to do to beat them.

“We are not focusing a lot on them, if we turn up and play the way we can and stick to things then I’m confident. They are a good side but I know we can put pressure on them,” he stated.