It was a battle for Kinawley in their first game back in the Senior Championship against Erne Gaels last Saturday, and manager Ollie Fay was not expecting anything less for his side.
“It wasn’t going to be an easy task but we got over the line,” said Fay.
It took the Borus about 10 minutes to really settle into the game with an Aaron Tierney goal but the Kinawley boss felt his side may have became a bit too comfortable and allowed Belleek to come back into the game.
“We knew in the championship there would be a bit of shadow boxing at the beginning. After the first goal went in it did settle us a wee bit but maybe settled us too much. 
“When Ruairi got the second goal we maybe got too comfortable and fair play to Erne Gaels they came back at us and they pinned us up against the wall for most of the game really but thank goodness the boys showed a bit of character in the second half and kind of got control of it and finished it out with a victory.”
Fay pointed to the introduction of James Allen in the second half as going a long way to taking back control as he managed to nullify the dangerous Barry McCann.
The win sets up a mouthwatering clash between Kinawley and champions Derrygonnelly and Fay knows it will be a huge task for his side but Tomás Corrigan should be available after injury ruled him out of the quarter final.
“The semi final is there to be won but Derrygonnelly will be going in raging favourites and if we can compete against them we will be happy enough. 
“Going into semi final if we get a performance and play the way we can if that happens you never know what way it will end up.
“Going in against Derrygonnelly it’s going to be a serious task to get over the line because they are a serious outfit.”
And speaking about the availability of Corrigan Fay added:”It was a serious job to keep him off the pitch but we thought we might have enough to get over the line and we didn’t want to risk him.
“All going well he will be back for the semi final and that will be a massive bonus.”