Clogher captain Shields sets sights on a decent run

JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP FIRST RD

ALL isn’t lost for Clogher Éire Ógs after they narrowly missed out on the Division 3A title with their defeat to Cookstown in a winner-takes-all showdown in the final round.

While acknowledging that it was a tough one to take, Clogher skipper Conor Shields recognised that they still performed very well over the course of the league, and they still have two more bites of the cherry in the form of the Championship and the promotion play-off series.

They get their Junior campaign underway tomorrow evening (Friday) against Omagh Thirds at Fintona, and Shields stated that hopes are high of a productive campaign.

“We lost twice in the league, both to the eventual champions, so there’s a lot of positives to take from how it went.

“Things are probably a wee bit raw and there’s a lot of hurt but our performances were relatively decent for the majority of the league, we just came up short twice against Cookstown. They were definitely the number one team in the Division so we just need to regroup and focus on the task on hand.”

Now 27 years old, Conor became accustomed to operating in the Intermediate ranks in an unbroken six-year spell between 2019 and 2024. They want to make a swift return but the talented half-back, who was part of the Tyrone’s All-Ireland winning panel of 2021, isn’t looking beyond tomorrow’s Championship opener.

“We’re putting a big focus into the Omagh game, you take every game as it comes. We’re not sure what lads will line out for Omagh, it’s a complete unknown, and on top of that, it’s an open draw this year so you don’t know who you might get down the line. Hopefully we can get past Omagh and get focusing on the next round.”

While numbers at underage level has been an issue for Clogher in recent times, Shields is confident that there’s talented young players coming through the ranks at the South Tyrone club.

“We don’t have a massive amount of numbers, but there’s good youth coming through and we seem to get one or two good footballers in every year and that keeps pushing the thing on.

“The likes of Vincent Lowry [a Clogher minor footballer] came on against Eskra. We were struggling that night, he came on and got a goal, which was the difference between winning and losing.”