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Carn seek Junior title
09.10.08
Robert Emmet’s provide
the opposition on Sunday
by Damian Dowds
CARNDONAGH are gearing up for the Junior
Championship final against Robert Emmet’s in
MacCumhaill Park on Sunday and hope to claim their
first adult championship since winning the 1997
Intermediate.
Last season Carn were beaten by eventual winners,
Naomh Mhuire, in the championship semi-final and
also lost out to the men from the west in a
promotion play-off. The team is determined to make
up for that.
“Promotion has been our main aim all year, and that
remains the case,” said team manager Kieran Canny,
“but I’d be lying if I said that we don’t want to
win on Sunday.”
With two games each remaining, Carn and Robert
Emmet’s are locked together at the top of Division
3, both vying for the automatic promotion spot that
comes with winning the league outright.
But for now, all the talk is of Sunday’s
championship final.
Canny is hopeful that injuries to key players like
Gerard Doherty, Darren Burke and Mark Canny clear up
before Sunday, but he’s confident that whatever 15
take the field that they will give a good account of
themselves. |
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“Our squad has become
stronger, with players coming through from minor and
under-21,” Kieran Canny said. “Whatever players are
involved – the first 15 plus the subs – we know we
have a good side and we hope to get the right
result.”
Carndonagh have faced their Castlefin opponents
twice in the league this season, squandering a seven
point lead before drawing at home in April and
seeing a team depleted with injuries lose out by
five points three weeks ago.
“Robert Emmet’s are a very strong side – we’re both
in contention for promotion |
– and they took their
chances in both games against us,” Canny says. “We
know we’ll be facing into a very tough challenge on
Sunday.”
Drawn in the preliminary round of the championship,
Carn opened their championship with two wins over
Naomh Pádraig, Iskaheen. “Between league and
championship, we played them four times in six weeks
and those games really brought us on,” Canny
reckons. “The first time we really played as well as
we could and took all our chances was in the second
leg in Muff. We showed a real cutting edge that day
and gave our best performance of the year.”
A dominant first round first leg display away to
Naomh Colmcille helped set up a semi-final meeting
with Naomh Ultan. And while Carn won by six points,
Canny and his players weren’t altogether pleased
with the performance.
“We squandered a lot of chances that day, and Martin
Mooney did well to save a penalty, but after the
game we were probably more disappointed with our
performance than we were happy to reach the final,”
Canny admits.
With no competitive match for the past three
weekends and several of Carn’s young squad already
back at college, preparations for the final have not
been ideal but the entire club is looking forward to
the big day.
“It will be a great occasion for the club,” said
Carn stalwart Elizabeth Doherty. “The 1997
Intermediate championship win was tremendous, but
we’ve had little success at adult level since and
have been rebuilding from underage. Kieran has been
involved with that since it started, and has brought
several of the current squad through from under-12,
and he’s held in tremendous respect by players.”
“The underage success has been great, but your
senior side is your most visible team and if it’s
going well it brings a great buzz to the whole
club,” Doherty continued. “The boys want to play at
this higher level and we believe they’re well
capable of winning on Sunday.” |
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