‘The aim was to try and win the championship so we’re one game away’ – Hennessy

- Aideen Coyle -

Crosserlough and Lurgan meet in the 2024 Senior Championship final on Saturday in Kingspan Breffni (4.45pm). Both sides come into the tie with confidence having defeated Castlerahan/Denn and Killygarry respectively in the semi-finals.

In what promises to be one of the most intriguing, tightly contested county senior ladies football finals for a number of years, the jury is certainly out among pundits as to who is the pre-match favourites and who will lift the Michelle Keating cup.

Crosserlough last won the title in 2021 with a victory over Saturday’s opposition but have failed to progress to the final since winning their second crown; Lurgan won their eighth county title in 2022 with a win over Killygarry but also fell at the semi-finals stage of the competition to Lacken last season.

Crosserlough manager Fergal Hennessy is optimistic his side can get a result on Saturday after the disappointment of losing last season in the semi-final to eventual winners Drumlane.

“We were very disappointed to lose the semi-final last year to Drumlane by a point after extra time. They took that and ran with it and won the final very well at the end of it and were deserving champions.

“For a number of reasons we felt we hadn’t performed in the championship last year at all and didn’t show what we are capable of.

“At every stage of the way (this season) we have just been concentrating on performing. It was the same against Castlerahan-Denn, we weren’t too concerned about a semi-final hoodoo or anything like that having lost the last two by a point. We were 100pc concentrating on ‘let’s put our game out on the pitch and if we do that have faith that the result will take care of itself’ and that’s exactly what happened.

“So the message all year from our perspective is we concentrate on ourselves and try and get our own performance right and believe. I certainly do believe that if we can perform with the quality we have right throughout the squad that it would take a very good team to beat us.”

Standing in their way is familiar opposition in Lurgan who Crosserlough have beaten twice already this season in the league and championship group stages. However, the Ballinacree man doesn’t place any meaning on the previous outings and does an excellent job in hyping up Saturday’s opposition.

“We know the previous games won’t have a huge amount of bearing. The league game was so long ago that I can’t really remember too much about it. The group game in the championship, look we possibly caught them cold, got a great start and put up a good score in the first 10 or 15 minutes and it was kind of shadow boxing from there till the end of the game. Both sides knew we were already through to a semi-final. It was a bit of a phoney war.

“They have got some terrific players. Catherine Dolan came on in that game, they have the Tolan sisters they have some really, really impressive footballers. They had four or five girls on that county minor team and they all showed up very well. I saw them up close in Breffni two weeks ago in the minor game and they were terrific. They’re big, strong, athletic girls that the big field in Breffni will suit.

“But I’d like to think that the big field in Breffni will suit us too in terms of the way we want to play. We want to play progressive football. We want to try and attack, we want to move the ball and hopefully that will work to our favour.”

The ex-Oldcastle ladies manager heaps praise on his backroom team of Jane Browne, Mark Stuart and Packie Shalvey, who have all linked in with the Meathman in his second season in charge of the Kilnaleck-based side.

“I’m not stupid enough to think I know everything, there’s certainly big gaps in my knowledge. I like to think as a management group we complement each other.”

However, Hennessy knows that when the black and amber ladies run out onto HQ on Saturday, it will be the players and their ability to perform on the big stage that will count.

“Look, I’m sure as any other team would tell you, we can only do so much, it’s the girls that are the winning and losing of it and look thankfully we have a great group of girls who I have a huge amount of confidence in.

“I certainly believe that they’ve got great talent but there’s also great drive and determination in the group as well and some great leaders.

“Neasa, our captain, is one of the leaders but there are plenty of leaders throughout the team and we’ve seen that in big moments throughout the year and hopefully we will see more of that Saturday.’

“At the start of the year the aim was to try and win the championship, we’re one game away from it so hopefully we put in a good performance Saturday and see that through,” concluded Hennessy.