Clogher Valley will renew acquaintances with Newcastle West this weekend as they bid to make it to a second All-Ireland Junior Cup Final in a row.

The sides met at the semi-final stage of last yer’s competition, with Clogher running out comfortable winners before going on to win the competition.

It was a comfortable 47-9 victory last year for Stephen Bothwell’s team but that was with home advantage.

And with his side having to travel to Limerick this weekend he knows the game could be a lot different.

“They’ll obviously know a bit more about us and what to expect and they are well up for us,” said Bothwell.

But he knows that if the club wants to keep progressing they will need to get used to these long hauls: “It’s a bigger challenge but it is one if we want to keep moving on up the leagues too.

“We are going to have to get used to go a bit further away from home and play new opposition so it’s good for us too to get a wee bit different whether we will come out the right side of it is another thing but we have to get the experiences.”

Clogher overcame a tough Cooke test in the quarter-final last time out in the competition and while the Clogher coach did not think his side played to their full potential he has seen improvements in recent games.

“We will have to improve from that round. I feel as if last week there against the City of Derry the second half was very good and we got an improvement. There was more about us.

“Two weeks previous to that we played City of Derry up there and we rested a few boys and in saying that the boys that came in would be boys on the bench so it was really good that they got game time and our bench is good and strong for this week.

“I am delighted with that we are more or less picking from a full deck bar Reece Smyton. A couple of injured boys have come back which has put a bit of extra energy into the club too which is good.”

A win on Saturday will see Clogher one step away from retaining their title.

A final appearance could be even more tantalising if Enniskillen come through their semi-final. And Bothwell knows it would add an extra dimension to things if both sides win.

“It will be interesting if we can come up the road with ours and Enniskillen can do the job at Mullaghmeen it will be definitely spice up the community for a month.

“But we have to get there first, we have a big game first.”

 

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