Cometh the crisis and cometh the legend!
One of the really big stories of this championship so far is the fact that Ederney are in the quarter-finals despite being short eight starters.
And last weekend they called on their greatest legend in Marty McGrath and, as always, he delivered with a crucial goal in their 1-13 to 0-12 defeat of Devenish in Derrylin.
Their reward is a quarter-final clash with Kinawley, a team with loftier ambitions.
It has been a most difficult season for manager Chris Kelly but he was a happy man after Saturday’s vital victory.
“It is a great relief that we are still in senior football with all the absentees and we have lost Sean Cassidy again to injury so we had to draft in Marty McGrath and boy did he deliver with that goal.
“I know we are now in a quarter-final but our first priority was to ensure that we were in the senior championship for next year.”
Kelly and Co. now play Kinawley in Kinawley this weekend which will be another huge test for Ederney’s young guns who have stepped up very well in the absence of so many established players.
“We won by 1-13 to 0-12 and it was 0-03 each in the first 10 minutes.
“But we got a goal just before half-time from Marty McGrath in his first game all year.
“It was a high ball into the Devenish square and he got his fist to it and put it into the net and that was a crucial score.
“That was a big score for us and it gave us a cushion and we were a few points up at the break.”
But well-known battlers Devenish really came at Ederney on the resumption and it was a hard fought second-half.
“Devenish brought it back to three points going into injury time but we got the final point to clinch it.”
Kelly added that it was a huge win for the club given the level of eight absentees.
“From last year’s team that played Erne Gaels in the quarter-finals, we are missing our full back, our centre-half back, our first choice man marker, our two midfielders, our centre-half forward and our two-man full forward line.
“All of them are out through travelling and a few cruciate ligament injuries in the case of Conor McGee and Lughaidh Donnelly.
“Jacob Britton, Ryan Morris, Sean Cassidy, Michael Maguire, Paul Maguire and Finbarr Gillen.
“At full strength we would make a real attempt at winning the senior championship.
“We have kept our senior status in the SFL and in the championship.
“But being in the quarter-finals will hopefully take some pressure off the boys shoulders and they will go out and express themselves and the young lads who have had to come in have done brilliantly.”
Kelly added: “We controlled the game against Devenish and it was easily our best game of the championship.”
Devenish joint-manager Marty O’Brien said the club were “disappointed with the result after a decent start that we failed to capitalise on and we probably coughed up possession too easily and Ederney punished us.
“The goal was a killer blow before half-time and we were probably evenly matched up to that.
“But Ederney got the goal and they were then good enough to see out the second-half.
“We have to regroup now for a tough game with Belnaleck. Hopefully the lads can lift themselves for that."
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