Young lads are showing the way says Sigersons boss

STRABANE Sigersons boss Richard O’Neill says that their up and coming young stars have been steeled with a real sense of belief ahead of Friday evening’s Junior Championship semi-final clash against Killeeshil.

It will take a mammoth effort to upset the applecart against a Killeeshil side tipped by many to get their hands on the Pat Darcy Cup, but Strabane are in it to win it and they’ve already shown in this year’s Championship that there’s no shortage of resilience in the ranks.

Their quarter-final clash against Tattyreagh went right down to the wire but Strabane held firm in the closing stages to claim a 0-13 to 0-11 victory, a result that was greeted with a great deal of satisfaction from all involved with the club.

Strabane were relegated from the Intermediate ranks last year and many of their elder statesmen have hung up the boots, but their rookie players have fared brilliantly and manager Richard O’Neill says that if they lose out to Killeeshil, it won’t be for a lack of belief.

“We’ll not fear them [Killeeshil] and these young lads now believe in themselves after showing what they can do in previous games. I know they’ll give everything and you can’t ask for more than that.

“It’s bonus territory for us. Our plan was to keep these young lads together for two or three years and then rise up the ranks. We still have a couple of lads away and if they came back it’d give us some lift as well.

“Hopefully they’ve seen how we played against Tattreagh and they’re thinking ‘I wouldn’t mind coming into play on this team again.’ So that’s where we’re at, we’re in transition but we’re feeling very positive about the future.”

It was one almighty battle against Tattyreagh and that was nothing more than the Sigersons manager expected. It could have gone either way, but Strabane finished strongly with the final two points of the game and now they have earned themselves a shot at a place in the final, but it certainly won’t be easy against a Killeeshil team who won their corresponding league encounter by 4-13 to 3-6.

Reflecting on the win over the Tatts, O’Neill said: “In the league game there was nothing in it, there was a point in it. Tattyreagh had a couple of men back, their big midfielder [Johnny Harkin] was a handful, I wouldn’t mind marking him back in the day but that’s beside the point.

“At the start of the season, we recognised that we’re a young team so it was about keeping this thing going in Strabane. We targeted getting to a semi-final so everyone now is a bonus and I’ve said that to the boys. They’re a young bunch of cubs, it’s about keeping them together now. The potential in this team, when you compare it to where we were last year, we’re building and building.”

O’Neill was also delighted with the size of his panel that were fit for selection against Tattyreagh. The Sigersons seem to be coming to the boil at the right team, the pressure is off, and who knows – if they get all their ducks in a row, they may find themselves in a Junior Championship final.

“ Both teams gave it the whole lot. It was probably the first time I’d 20 men to pick from. We were scraping by with numbers.

“A couple of young lads were disappointed with not starting today and that is a good thing, and they came on. Training is intense, the lads are putting in a serious effort and we can’t wait to give the semi-final a rattle.”