While Clogher came away with the narrowest of victories to secure their place in the All-Ireland Junior Cup final, their coach Stephen Bothwell felt his were full value for the victory as they were the team which tried to play rugby.

It was looking comfortable early in the second half as Clogher made it 18-0 but with a worsening of weather conditions, Newcastle West fought back to leave it 18-17 at the final whistle.

But a win is a win and that was all that mattered for Bothwell.

“It was brilliant to go down there, away from home. It was a tough game to come out on the right side of. They were well up for it,” he said.

“We were well up at a stage but with the type of day it was we knew they’d come back at us so it was always going to happen.”

Bothwell felt the build up to the game went well for his side and it showed in the first half as they took a 13-0 lead at the break.

“Everything went really well in our preparation going down.

“Everybody was in good form before the game.”

With the wind at their back the Valley coach would have liked a bigger cushion at half time: “I would have liked a few more points. We knew turning round we left at least 5 - 10 points on the pitch at half time.

“We were 13-0 and the weather was just the same on the turnaround as it had been at the start which was windy but dry so we were still able to play a bit of rugby when we turned around.

“We scored a really good try at the start of the second half 18-0 then there was a big rumble of thunder and the place went black and there was a hail storm that would have cut you in two.”

After this Bothwell described it as “Munster rugby” as Newcastle West put the pressure on in difficult conditions.

“It’s Munster rugby and they kicked to the corner and maul you to death and it is exactly what they did and very hard to get out of it.

“They tapped the ball and it goes 50 metres we kick the leather of it and it goes 10/15 there is only one winner.

“We knew they were going to come into it and thank goodness we held on.

“It was matter of just defend and hit everything and when we had the ball try and keep it as long as you could but it was very difficult to do that too.”

Bothwell paid tribute to his scrum and bench which added freshness to his side which were under a lot of pressure.

And they held on and while there were nerves as Newcastle missed a late penalty, Bothwell felt his side deserved the win.

“It was a really good squad effort so it was. I thought all in all we were the ones who tried to play the rugby so we were the ones who deserved the game.”

The win now sets up a final with familiar foe, Enniskillen. Bothwell knows this will be at the forefront of many players’ minds but his job is to get them to focus on league matters this weekend.

Dromore away is next up and Bothwell knows his side cannot afford more slip ups to let Ballyclare get closer to them at the top of the league.

“It’s not going to be easy and we have to keep the pressure on and we can’t drop points.

“There are a few irons in the fire and it is watching them all and that is the hard bit,” added Bothwell who knows a win on Saturday will help keep the momentum up for the club going into the All-Ireland decider against their nearest and fiercest rivals.