Enniskillen Gaels manager Brendan Dooris says his side are going to have to raise their performance levels if they are to make it through to the Ulster Club Minor Championship final on Saturday.
The Gaels enjoyed a comfortable victory over Cavan champions Ramor United last weekend but they face a much sterner examination of their credentials when they take on St. Eunan’s Letterkenny at St. Paul’s Belfast this Saturday (12noon).
St. Eunan’s have already beaten last year’s winners Burren as well as this year’s favourites, Clann Eireann en route to the last four.
“We face a big test against St. Eunan’s,” said Dooris. “They have already played two games in the tournament and beaten two good sides, including a Clann Eireann side who would have been rated as favourites. They work very hard as a unit and in centre half forward Niall Hannigan they have an outstanding player so we know that we are going to have to play better than we did on Saturday. It will be important that we learn the lessons from that game and kick on this week,” added Dooris.
One area that Dooris will be hoping to improve on is their finishing with the Gaels manager feeling that they will need to be more clinical in front of goal.
“We can’t afford to be as wasteful with our chances, we missed a bit against Ramor and we can’t do that this week,” he said.
This is the Gaels third successive season playing in the Ulster Club Championship and Dooris believes that the current side is possibly the best equipped of the three.
“We are probably more up to the pace than we have been the last two years. The boys have worked hard to ensure that physically they can meet the challenge and we maybe have more depth to our squad this year,” he stated.
This is an opportunity for Enniskillen to progress to an Ulster final and Dooris wants his side to be on their game right from the throw in.
“We’ll work at certain things this week that we will have to improve on but it is vital that we are competitive right from the first second of the game. We have to try and get a strong footing at midfield and we’ll need to put pressure on their defenders when they have the ball,” he said.