By Shaun Casey

BLAINE Hughes is back in contention for the Carrickcruppen number one shirt ahead of the Intermediate Championship final against St Paul’s.

It leaves boss Barry Flynn will have a decision to make.

Hughes picked up an MCL injury during the warm-up of the All-Ireland final in July and he hasn’t featured for the Camlough side all year but has recently returned to training.

It was notable that he was part of the pre-match warm-up for their semi-final win against Wolfe Tones and even though he has returned, he isn’t guaranteed his place in the team given the performances of Miceal Browne between the sticks.

“In a brilliant way, we’re put in a real difficult position,” said Flynn. “Miceal Browne has been absolutely brilliant for us, and he’s played all year. He had big saves in the group stages against Belleek, Clann Éireann II, Tullysaran and again against Grange.

“He’s improving all the time and his kick-out range has got a lot better. It’s a real headache because he’s in great form and then you have essentially the best goalkeeper in Ireland this year in Blaine.

“He’s coming knocking on the door. He’s been training these last number of weeksand it’s a big decision but it’s a great position to be in. There’s plenty of clubs would take our arm off to have Miceal Browne as their number one.”

Carrickcruppen last claimed Intermediate Championship glory in 2021 but have lost a number of key players since then. While that side was a youthful one, the 2024 team is just as young.

Flynn’s team, who finished second in the Division 2A league table, have had to rebuild in the intervening three seasons and they’ve brought through a number of minors such as Eoin Kane and Micheal Hughes into the starting line-up.

“When we won the championship in 2021, we had a very young team but even out of that team, Blaine has been injured, although he’s back training,” explained Flynn. “Aaron Kimbley got his first game in the championship the last day.

“Our full-back (James Burns) and our other cornerback (James Bennett) are gone from that team. Richard Keenan’s gone, Lorcan McParland’s gone, Stephen (Loughran) has been in and out this year.

“Right up the spine of the team has changed and it’s young lads that are coming in. It’s great, we go down through the club and there’s three or four boys stepping up every year to come into the squad.

“It’s not by accident – we sit down with underage coaches and say we need to develop a certain type of player over the next period of time. There’s a good core of people coaching within the club, and we’re all driven by the same thing, it’s to get us back into senior football.

“We were disappointed to finish second in the league, although the Pearse Óg fully deserved it. They beat us twice and were the most consistent team, so our only path up is to win the championship,” the manager added.