Clogher Valley set for crucial clash at The Cloughan

CLOGHER Valley’s first XV face a season-defining month and a half over the next several weeks when the destination of the Ulster Championship division one title will all but be decided, as will the defence of their All-Ireland Junior Cup crown.
Stephen Bothwell’s men travel to The Cloughan this coming Saturday to take on a Ballyclare side who are the only team left capable of stopping their charge for league glory.

After what could prove to be a decisive league match, Clogher journey south to Newcastle West in County Limerick for an All-Ireland Junior Cup semi-final, rearranged following the pre-Christmas cold snap, before taking on Dromore, CIYMS, Limavady, Cooke and Grosvenor, with a clash with Carrick potentially squeezed in midweek.

Ahead of New Year’s Eve’s massive encounter with Ballyclare, the teams are separated by just five points, thanks to the Valley’s bonus point home win over the same opposition at the start of the season.

And while that victory will give his side plenty of confidence, Bothwell knows his men can’t afford to count their chickens just yet as Ballyclare are a different prospect at home and tend to improve as the season goes on.

“Going to Ballyclare is huge in a couple of respects,” Bothwell acknowledged.

“Obviously in the league, in a one-off game away to them, they have managed to win every other game with a bonus point as well to keep that gap as small as possible, and it’s also huge because to win a game like that in Ballyclare will allow us to go to Newcastle West on a high and it makes those subsequent games easier to go from one to the other.

“So it’s huge, but they know it is too and they had a big victory last time out, squeezing past Dromore, so they will be gunning to get points on us and I know they were very frustrated not getting any points at our place, so with a big Christmas crowd there it will be a big game.

“And while we can look back on the win we had over them, it was so long ago and they can put it down to
them not clicking that day and we had a very good defensive effort that day.”

The partisan support at the Cloughan has impacted upon visiting teams before, and Bothwell is hoping his side can silence that backing as quickly as possible on Saturday.

But he knows that is going to take a monumental effort, both physically and mentally, in attack and defence.

“You always know a score early on can get you down and can quickly lead to another so it’s very important that we play by play and take every minute as it comes when we’re away and the longer that we can hold them out and if we can get a score even better,” Bothwell explained.

“We have to get that mental toughness into the boys to work really hard on our ‘D’ and then when we do that we can transition really well to turn that into attack.

“And when we have the ball, we keep the ball so they don’t have it and we don’t have as much defending to do.

“But they will be hugely up for it because they know it’s their last hurrah at the league for this year, so it will be wild and I can’t wait for it!”

Ahead of Saturday’s crunch clash, which is a repeat of last season’s All-Ireland Junior Cup final, Clogher have an almost full deck to play with. Only centre, Reece Smyton, is missing due to a long-standing shoulder injury.