Kinawley and Roslea clash on Saturday night in the championship and while both had contrasting league campaigns, this could well be a tight affair.

Kinawley reached the Division One final, which they narrowly lost to Erne Gaels, while at the other end of the table Roslea dropped into Division Two, finishing bottom of the table.

However, the Shamrocks were competitive in the vast majority of their games in the league, including the one in Kinawley where they led by three with ten minutes to go only for the home side to finish strongly.

The Brian Borus will be keen to build on that league campaign and their side has been getting stronger and stronger in recent weeks as injuries begin to clear up.

Selector Barry Maguire says that Kinawley are now looking to build on a good league campaign.

“We had a fairly good league and we want to bring that now into the championship. We are very aware though that there are no easy games in the championship,” he said.

Maguire says that Kinawley only have to look back on the league game to understand how tough a test Roslea will be.

“We played them a couple of months ago in the league in Kinawley and we only won it with a few late scores so we know it will be a tough game.”

The goal though for the Brian Borus is to get out of the group stage and see where it takes them.

“Ultimately, that is what every team will be looking to do – to get out of the group and take it from there,” he said.

Roslea are more than capable of turning the form book on its head and they will be looking for a big performance.

James McMahon’s return after a summer in Boston is a huge boost and he, Micheal Flanagan and Conor Quigley will be key figures at the back while they will need big games from Sean Quigley and Niall Cosgrove at midfield.

And then further forward, they will look to Seamus Quigley and Shane Lynch for scores.

Roslea Manager Eamonn Kavanagh knows his side will be the underdogs in the group but he is targeting the knock-out stages.

“Our objective is try and qualify from the group for the knock-out stages of the competition.

“We know that we have a tough group and we will be the underdogs but we feel we have been improving.

“We started the league off poorly and we had a lot of players missing, but we were more competitive as the league progressed and we will go and give it a go and see how we get on,” he said.

And Kavanagh believes that it will come down to performance on the day as he expects there will be a lot of tight contests in both groups.

“I think a lot of the games in both sections will be close, and it could well come down to who is more economical.

“It is all about performing and we’ll just take each game as it comes,” added the Roslea Manager.