Bothwell wary of Armagh threat

HAVING already beaten City of Armagh seconds and done so comfortably in the Conference League will give Clogher Valley confidence ahead of the Junior Cup final at Kingspan Stadium on Saturday but head coach, Stephen Bothwell isn’t reading much into that clash.

He’s certainly not accepting that the decider at Kingspan Stadium will be anything other than a tough task after Armagh twos dispatched the only team to have beaten Clogher in the league all season, All-Ireland League bound Instonians, in the semi-finals two weeks ago.

The very fact that the Orchard County men dispatched Inst 25-0 at the last four stage, means Clogher can ill-afford to be complacent.

Yet Bothwell acknowledges, there were contributing factors to that match, but he feels it shows that Armagh’s second string are in a good place presently.

“They beat Instonians 25-0 in the semi-final, which is a hard one because we played their seconds earlier on in the season and we rested about half our firsts and beat them pretty easily,” he explained.

“But you have to take what they have recently done and that’s what they have done.

“I know Instonians had some injuries very, very quickly, with five of their pack affected. Plus, you don’t know how much Instonians wanted it, they didn’t seem to have a great appetite for it.

“But it’s a final and you always meet the best teams in a final so we’ll try and focus on that.”

Another important aspect for Clogher to take into account on Saturday is the fact that City of Armagh’s first XV tackle Queen’s on the same pitch at 3pm in the Senior Cup final.

“They will be looking to make it a double and they will be working hard,” Bothwell added.

“They will have great support too and I know they will be good with boys eager to impress to get into the firsts and boys who have been in the firsts who have dropped down.

“They have a good mix in their twos with youth and experience, the same as ourselves, only a standard up and they have punched well all year so aren’t about to ease off now.”

But it’s not just Armagh who are hoping for a nice ‘double’ on Saturday. Should Clogher win, they will achieve the rare feat of winning both the All-Ireland, after their thrilling 13-11 win over Ballyclare in January, and Ulster Junior Cups in the same season, which is an achievement Bothwell very much wants to complete.

“It would be remarkable and it would be nice to finish on a high after the season sort of fizzled out about five weeks ago,” he added.

“We got this far, we might as well give it our utmost and we’ll see how it goes.

“It would be a brilliant way to finish the season and it would mean a lot to all of us.”