Important to maintain our high levels- Clogher manager McKenna

JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL PREVIEW

MAINTAINING the consistent levels of performance they have produced all season is what Clogher manager Steven McKenna is demanding from his charges in Saturday’s Junior Final.

The Eire Ogs have only allowed the quality of their displays to tail off once so far in the Championship (a ragged first half showing against Clann na nGael in the quarter-finals), while week in week out in the League they also acquitted themselves admirably.

McKenna stated that apart from the scrappy duel with the Clann men, he has been pleased with the fluency and cohesion in their play for the most part all year.

“ To be honest that night we fell way below the standards we had set for ourselves all year. I wouldn’t say we were totally fluent against Strabane (semi-final) either but there was definitely patches where we ticked and showed what we are capable of.

“ Those are the levels we have to maintain in the final against Drumragh or else we will be in bother.”

Looking ahead to the Final this weekend, McKenna feels that the Sarsfields could also have been locked in a promotion battle alongside Clogher and Cookstown in the league this past season, but for a raft of injuries.

“ We had a couple of great battles with Drumragh this year and their result with Cookstown wasn’t a real shock to be honest as they are at that level. They could have been really challenging closer in the league if they hadn’t lost a few guys through injury.

“ They also lost the Junior Final to Fintona two years ago so they will be out to atone for that and you seen when they are at full strength what a dangerous team they can be. They will pose a real threat to us.”

Clogher will hope to tighten up defensively in the final having shipped four goals against Strabane last time out, though the manager was delighted at how they kept responding to such adversity up at breezy Garvaghey.

“ It was just one of those nights, conditions were difficult and a couple of individual errors caught us out at times. But the pleasing thing was that the boys didn’t panic and we kept bouncing back when we conceded those goals.

“ We talked at half-time about those setbacks and what we had to put right. A semi-final of the Championship is never going to go 100 per cent according to plan. I was delighted with the resilience the boys showed.”

The Eire Ogs suffered last day heartache in the league against Cookstown when pipped to the title, and with it promotion, but the manager is pleased with how his squad have subsequent applied themselves in the Championship.

“ Of course to not win the league was disappointing, we won’t deny that, but the lads have regrouped and we have got to the Championship Final on merit. There is no point harking back to that (league).

“ This team set its stall out at the start of the year to get promoted and hopefully we can take it one step further and deliver on that in the Final.”