Ardboe eye revenge against St Enda’s

TWO of the form teams in the latter stages of the league meet on Saturday afternoon in the Tyrone Senior Championship- old adversaries Ardboe and Omagh.

St Enda’s took the spoils when the sides locked horns in the corresponding stage of the competition last season, while they also came out on top more recently in the ACL, with Jason McAnulla, Ronan O’Neill and Fionbharr Taggart the goalscorers in a 3-10 to 0-16 away triumph by the loughshore.

Little wonder then that Ardboe sharpshooter David (DD) Mulgrew feels that they owe the Healy Park men one having come out on the wrong side of recent encounters.

“ When you look back at Ardboe’s recent history in the Championship we haven’t been going well at all. Omagh beat us in the first round last year and we lost to Dromore before that in our first game so we are due a run.

“ We played Omagh recently enough too in the league and it was a tough game. We felt we let that one slip away too conceding three goals so we want to make up for that when we play again.”

Both Omagh and Ardboe endured a rocky enough first half of their league campaign, before finding a degree of consistency down the straight to cement a solid mid-table finish by the end. Mulgrew believes that the Rossas benefitted from having a full hand to play from as their results belatedly picked up.

“ We had a number of injuries at a period where we lost matches. With any club team when you lose some of your top players it can be tough. Over the last few weeks we got some of our key players back from injury and everything just began clicking that bit better. Boys are getting the gist of how we want to play and so that has all come together.

“ We have been working hard, tackling, getting in blocks, pressuring men, cutting back on poor shot selection. It sounds simple enough but it makes all the difference when it comes together. You definitely have to be switched on when the opposition get the ball.”

And Mulgrew feels that Ardboe enter the St Enda’s clash now in fine fettle as they go gunning for revenge against Lenny Harbinson’s charges.

“ Every game in Division One is always going to be tough. Towards the latter stages you seen nearly every team had something to fight for and that made for good competitive games as a result. Everyone was fighting for places and the games tended to be close as a result. Building into the Championship we want to be consistent. We needed to get those league wins under our belts to go into the Omagh match in confident mood.”