Ederney v Belnaleck

Friday August 28

Brewster Park, 7pm

Belnaleck and Ederney will battle it out for a place in the semi-final of the senior football championship for a second year in a row when they go head to head on Friday night at Brewster Park.

The Art McMurroughs caused something of a surprise in beating a fancied Ederney side by a point last year and both sides are expecting another close contest this time around.

“We are expecting a tough test as they have quality right across the pitch,” said Ederney’s Chris Snow.

“You have the likes of Darragh McGurn, Darragh McBrien, Conor McAuley and Bryan Owens in their forward line while Che Cullen and Kane Connor give them a strong spine. We know that they are formidable.”

And Snow feels that it is important that Ederney learn from last year’s defeat.

“It would be wrong if we didn’t look to last year’s game and see if we can learn from it.

“Also, I do think we know more about them now, for me personally last year was the first time that I had played them in a senior game and we’ll learn from that,” he added.

Ederney have had a good build up to the game in the league but Snow stresses that they have more improvement to make ahead of Friday night’s clash.

“We would be reasonably happy with our form although there is still things that we would need to improve on.

“Bar a poor performance against Derrygonnelly, we have been consistent enough in the league but as we know, the league is no real test for what championship throws up,” he said.

Last year Darragh McGurn was the match winner for Belnaleck as he hit 2-05 and he believes that the tie is going to go down to the wire again.

“I think it will be a similar game to last year, it will be a tight affair and will probably come down to the last ten minutes,” said the Belnaleck attacker.

Last year was Belnaleck’s first time playing senior championship in 51 years and McGurn says that it whet the appetite for more.

“Playing senior championship was great last year and we know after it that we can compete and we’re looking forward to the challenge again this year.

“I also think that playing Division One football this year has helped us too going into the championship,” he said.

And he feels that the battle in the middle third of the pitch could be decisive on Friday night.

“We would be a physical enough team and it is always a case of trying to get on top around the middle, it is where games are won and lost a lot of the time so it is important to be competitive there.”

The winner of this tie will be considered as strong contenders in the championship but McGurn says that the only focus is on Ederney.

“We can’t be looking beyond Ederney, they have been very consistent over the last few years so our focus is just on this game and nothing else.”