FonaCAB Ulster Minor Football Tournament Final – Preview
Four Masters v Cavan Gaels (1pm throw-in) New Year’s Day
By Kevin Herron
Four Masters coach Odie McBride admits that returning to the final of the FonaCAB Ulster Minor Tournament was a goal from the start of the year.
The Donegal Champions are back in the decider hoping to go a step further than last year when they were defeated 2-07-1-08 by Dungiven in the New Years Day showpiece.
McBride revealed that the goal was set on their first meeting back, to return to the final and is relishing another big day out on the Shaws Road.
“Early on in the year when we met, we set ourselves the goal to be back here” revealed McBride.
“We’re here now and we’ll work hard and enjoy Christmas and we’ll look forward to New Years Day. It will be a big day out for the club and hopefully we can do the club and the county proud”
Masters staged a remarkable comeback against Derry champions O’Donovan Rossa, Magherafelt before blitzing Castleblaney in a one-sided semi-final prior to Christmas and McBride hailed their fantastic team performance.
“We’re delighted, we came up to the semi-final and didn’t know what to expect” McBride recalled.
“We watched Castleblaney during the week and we were expecting a big game. The scoreboard maybe deflects the thing because they’d three goal chances in the first half. If they’d have taken them- it changes the whole dynamic. We were fairly ruthless up front and got the couple of goals. It was a fantastic team performance and we’re really happy to be going through to the final”.
McBride would have been an interested spectator on St Stephens Day when Cavan Gaels got the better of Mayobridge in the second semi-final, courtesy of a 1-07-1-05 win over the County Down outfit in extra time.
It is the fourth time that the Cavan outfit have reached the decider with their only win coming back in 1999 when they saw off Slaughtneil to lift the Jimmy McConville Cup.
Manager Ed O’Hanlon was a few years younger than many of his club-mates that lifted the trophy that day and feels that the club have a special connection to the tournament.
“This is the clubs fourth final and we’ve a long association with the tournament” O’Hanlon acknowledged.
“Everything gets very excited with the mention of St Pauls around Cavan Gaels. I would have been a couple of years younger than the boys in 99’ and a lot of those lads would be lifelong pals of my own”.
On their semi-final win over Mayobridge, O’Hanlon admits that their first half showing wasn’t good enough, however- he felt that they controlled the second period and the extra twenty minutes that followed.
“It’s hard to engage how exciting it was” he felt.
“I think that Maybobrdige were set up fairly defensively and they were hard to break down. They brought a real, great physicality to the match. We wouldn’t have been overly happy with how we played in the first half but taking out the goal in the second half- I thought we controlled most of the game for the second half on.
“We were very pleased with extra time, albeit we hit a few wides- again, we dominated possession and albeit there was only a point and two points in it, we looked more of less comfortable in extra time”.
O’Hanlon believes that the excitement is building around the club and is adamant that both clubs will be raring to go come throw in tomorrow.
“It’s been fantastic, the whole club are certainly behind the team”.
“Like all clubs, we’ve people from all over the place are getting in touch to wish the team well. We expect a very big crowd up to cheer us on and I’m sure very similar to Four Masters – there is a huge excitement really and at this stage we’re raring to go and get at it”.