Rossa manager Hugh McGettigan
By Kevin Herron
Rossa Minor football manager Hugh McGettigan is excepting a ‘great contest’ as his side prepare take on Ballinascreen in the semi-final of the FonaCab Ulster Minor Football Tournament.
The Shaws Road side square off against Ballinascreen on St Stephens Day at St Pauls (1.30 throw-in) for a chance to make to the January 1st decider. McGettigan insists his side are relishing the battle with the Derry champions but believes they must approach it with their heads right if they are to down a strong Ballinascreen side.
“We’re really looking forward to the game on St Stephens Day” admitted McGettigan.
“It should be a great contest; I know we won our quarter-final relatively easy in the end after a hard struggle throughout the game but it was played at the 3G down in Woodlands. Now we’re up in St Pauls and Ballinascreen have a really good advantage in that they played there last week, they were very, very impressive in their game against Errigal Ciaran. We’re up in the grass pitch now, it will be a really, really hard struggle. It will be real winter football so it’s going to be important that we get our heads right and we’re up for the contest”.
McGettigan believes Ballinascreen have a slight edge – given they faced Errigal Ciaran at St Pauls last Sunday and feels that any team with a realistic chance of winning the Ulster Minor Football Tournament needs to defeat a Derry club along the way.
“I think Ballinascreen playing at St Pauls gives them an advantage – absolutely” McGettigan believes.
“They had a real keen contest that was played to the last minute, they might have surprised some people by beating Errigal Ciaran but certainly with Derry’s club record in this competition – it didn’t surprise us. Derry clubs have won the competition fifteen times so they are normally the kingpins and until you beat a Derry team, I don’t think you’ve any realistic chance of winning the competition”.
McGettigan was a vigilant spectator at Ballinascreen’s quarter-final win over Errigal Ciaran and left St Pauls very impressed with Derry champions set-up throughout the field.
“I was very impressed with the way they set-up their team” reflected McGettigan.
“They’re very strong in defence and they’ve a great goalkeeper in Ryan Scullion the Derry minor reserve goalkeeper, he is very impressive in his kick outs. They’re impressive in their physicality around the defence and they’ve a great midfield with the Derry minor star in Martin Bradley, he is a great catcher of the ball and a great football all round”.
“Of course they have some top class forwards including young Cathal Donnelly, who was very, very impressive and Emmet Duggan, who was outstanding on the day. That laid the foundations for a tremendous result against an exceptional Errigal Ciaran team”.
Although Ballinascreen possess plenty of worries for Rossa, McGettigan feels that his side must look after their own strengths and admits they may need to tailor their normal game in order to adapt to their first outing on a heavy winter pitch.
“It’s important that we look after our own strengths and play our own game” said McGettigan.
“In winter type football, it’s a very, very simple game and we know we’ve played well in the Championship in Antrim. We played very well the day we beat Cargin and again against a brilliant Creggan team and in the final against Aghagallon. They were all in the summer time and good pitches, now we’re into a heavy winter pitch for the first time”.
“It might change our game a wee bit so we have to focus on getting the right game and getting our players playing in the right way, winter football is completely different from what we have been playing up to now”.
Rossa will go into the clash without Tiarnan Murphy who was harshly dismissed in their quarter-final win over Killanny of Monaghan, but McGettigan believes they must readjust and admits it would be motivation to advance to the final so that Murphy will be available for selection.
“We just have to readjust” said a disappointed McGettigan.
“Tiarnan was playing very well all year and was very unlucky to find himself with a red-card; I think he did very little. To find himself with a red-card was very unlucky for Tiarnan but from our point of view – we know he isn’t available and we just have to readjust. It would be motivation to win the game and have Tiarnan available for the final – absolutely. We’d all be delighted to get through and to enable Tiarnan to be available for selection in the final”.
McGettigan is confident that his squad will be disciplined in the run-up to the clash – with Christmas being a possible distraction and praised St Pauls for their organisation of the tournament and readjusting the schedule after the snow cancelled a week of games – including the original date of this semi-final clash.
“Our lads are well used to playing top class football and many of them played in the U-21 campaign right through November” McGettigan praised.
“They are hardened from that point of view and many of them also won the Minor hurling league this year – where they went through the whole league undefeated. They’ve been playing top class sport all the way through the year so we expect them to prepare themselves properly for the semi-final”.
“In terms of preparations, you always understand when entering this tournament that anything can happen. St Pauls have done their best to readjust the fixtures and get everything back on board again after losing a full weekend of fixtures. Credit must go to St Pauls for A – taking on this tournament and organising it in such a professional way and also the way they’ve managed to move the fixtures around so that hopefully all the games can be played in preparations for the January 1st final, which is the traditional finals day”.
