Campbell bidding to collect his first F&W winners’ medal in Mulhern Cup Final

RYAN Campbell may have terrorised defences and scored goals for fun at all levels of the game but he has yet to collect a winners’ medal in Fermanagh and Western football.

The nearest the ace marksman came to winning a medal was when Killen Rangers finished Division One runners-up to Shelbourne in the 2002-03 season.

Since then the man affectionately known as ‘Rocket’ has enjoyed much success at a higher level with Dergview, Institute and Ballinamallard United before returning to the local league when signing for NFC Kesh at the start of the season.

Campbell’s arrival at Crevenish Road had many people predicting that Scott Robinson’s team would win the Mercer League however it didn’t quite happen and when the North Fermanagh outfit were knocked out of the Irish Junior Cup by eventual winners Coalisland Athletic in the quarter-finals, Kesh’s last shout at glory was the Mulhern Cup.

Kesh’s one and only success in the Mulhern Cup came in 2002 when they defeated Castlederg outfit Barrowfield 3-1 at Ferney Park. Now Campbell and his team-mates return to the Championship venue tomorrow (Friday) evening bidding to bridge that 20-year gap.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” said the Castlederg native.

“It’s nice at my age to get the opportunity to play in my first Mulhern Cup Final. I thought I wouldn’t be eligible to play in the cups when I stepped down from Ballinamallard but the club checked it out and I got the go-ahead.

“We beat Augher in the semis, it wasn’t pretty but we got through. It goes without saying we’ll have to be a lot better if we are to beat Rangers in the final.”

As predicted Campbell, now 40, has made quite an impact since returning to the junior game. The sharpshooter netted 28 goals in the league to finish top scorer in Division One and has also registered a number of times in both the Mulhern and Junior Cup.

Campbell has helped himself to at least three hat-tricks but insists he has been impressed by the standard of the teams and players competing in the league.

“Before joining the Fermanagh and Western a lot of people were telling me I’ll get kicked from pillar to post and there’ll not be much in the way of football played,” continued the veteran hotshot.

“In fairness that’s not the case. The quality of the league is very good and a lot of teams want to play football the right way. Even teams battling for survival, they still want to play football. It surprised me to be honest. There are a lot of good teams in Division One, your Towns, Rangers, Tummerys and so on. There’s a lot of good players in the league.”

Looking forward to the showpiece decider itself Campbell knows all too well what to expect from opponents Rangers.

“They have a lot of good players and they are going well themselves,” he added.

“But then so have we. We’re on a good run but we’ll have to be at the races if we are to come out on top.

“We feel we have a lot of quality going forward, guys like Lee Walker, Danny Wilson, Nathan Cashel, Mark Jones, Ryan Beatty and myself. If we can keep things tight we know we will always create chances and will be there or thereabouts.

“Before signing for Kesh, Scott told me about the club’s ambitions to try and win some silverware. Initially the priority was the league but that was blown out of the water in the first couple of months with injuries and so on.

“We haven’t been beaten in the league since November and we have had a good run in the cups, hopefully we get over the finish line on Friday night.”