Sigersons captain McGrath hopes to learn from past losses

JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP SEMI-FINAL

BANISHING the painful memories of last year’s semi-final loss to Killeeshil should provide Strabane with all the momentum they need to go one step further this year, captain Oran McGrath believes.

The Sigersons are again knocking on the door of a first appearance in the Junior Championship Final since 1991 when they go up against Clogher this Saturday afternoon in Loughmacrory. Twelve months ago the squad harboured similar ambitions but a limp eight point loss to Killeeshil (0-13 to 0-5) dashed their hopes of making it through to the Pat Darcy Cup decider.

Oran McGrath has certainly led by example in the course of the Sigersons progress to this stage of the competition yet again, producing dynamic displays around centre field against both Castlederg and Brackaville. He is acutely aware though that the success or otherwise of their season very much rides on the outcome of this weekend’s clash with the Eire Ogs.

“ We set out our goals at the start of our season to improve on last year. We finished seventh in the league last year and finished third this year so that was much better. In the Championship last year we came off two good wins over Donaghmore and Tattyreagh and there had been a good buzz at training before the semi-final against Killeeshil.

“ But we just never got out of the traps or showed up. Twelve months on we are back in that position and we want to rectify how poor our performance was that night.”

Conal Crawford, Gary Quigg and Oisin McGillion each hit the net for Strabane in the course of their roller-coaster 3-15 to 3-10 triumph over Brackaville in the quarter-finals a fortnight ago. Similar to the pattern of a few Junior ties that weekend the favourites certainly didn’t have things all their own way, a fact which McGrath concedes.

“ Coming into those games everyone was saying the four top 3A teams would get through handy enough. But even though that was eventually the case it shows the level of competition there is in the Junior division that not one of them had an easy game. There were hard to call for much of the matches until the closing stages.

“ Brackaville for us was one of the tightest games that we have had all season, they brought an unbelievable challenge. You seen it with Augher running Cookstown close; Clogher and Clann na nGael was very tight in the first half; and there was no real difference between Drumragh and Errigal either.

“ I knew we were going to get a big challenge from Brackaville but I didn’t expect that level of performance from them. The likes of Daire Fee and Ronan McHugh were unbelievable for them and brought really big performances.

“ It probably did help in the end up that we have been playing slightly stronger teams week in week out in 3A. That helped us get over the line in the last ten minutes or so.”

The dividing line between favourites and underdogs is a lot more blurred for this weekend’s two Junior semi-finals with little seemingly to separate the sides, though Clogher did take the spoils in the two previous league meetings with the Sigersons. McGrath admitted that those losses stung somewhat.

“ We played them in the first league game down in Strabane and were beaten by a point. We were disappointed with that because we had just come off winning the two pre-season competitions- the Ulster League and McGarrity Cup- so we were going into the Tyrone League in good form.

“ It was a tight game but I felt we never really got going. On another night if we had made one or two fewer mistakes it might have went our way. But losing the first game might not have been the worst thing as it gave us a bit of a reality check.

“ When we played them later in the year in Clogher we had a few men away on holidays and one or two injured too. We lost Oran Sweeney to a serious knee injury that night. So we were always up against it but again we weren’t happy with how we performed in that one either and that defeat stung a bit too.”

Looking at the wider picture in the Junior Championship Oran feels that none of the quartet still in the reckoning will lack any motivation in the coming days.

“ The four teams that are left all will likely feel they have a point to prove in the Championship. We faltered in the league after getting off to a good start so we want to put that right; Clogher fell short against Cookstown in the last game of the league so they will want to make up for that disappointment; Cookstown themselves will be going all out for the double; and Drumragh lost out in the Final two years ago and have shown they have it in them to beat Cookstown. So it is all set up for two very entertaining semi-finals.”