By Niall Gartland

THEY were favourites before a ball was thrown-in but Knockbride have certainly had to work for their place in Saturday’s Cavan Junior Championship final against Belturbet.

Aidan McCabe’s side operated in Division One in the league and lost last year’s Junior Championship final against eventual All-Ireland champions Arva, so it’s no surprise that they were backed by all and sundry to make amends in this year’s competition.

But they definitely haven’t had it all their own way. They finished top of the pack in the group stages but could only muster a draw on their first day out against Drung, a major surprise at the time, and their knock-out victories over Munterconnaught and Redhills were by no means one-sided affairs.

They’ve still managed to make it back to another county final but forewarned is forearmed and their manager McCabe knows they’ll get nothing easy against Belturbet this weekend.

“I suppose there was a perception that we might blow everybody out of the water, but championships don’t work like that.

“There’s no phony wars, especially after the group stages, everybody’s fighting for their seasons.

“Then there’s the fact we were beaten in last year’s final and played in Division One, that meant we definitely weren’t coming in under the radar and teams have probably set up differently against us than they would normally.

“We’ve had very competitive games, we’ve been happy with certain elements of our play but we haven’t troubled the scoreboard enough in our knock-out matches and some of that’s down to ourselves, and some of it’s down to the way teams have set up against us.”

Knockbride could have no complains about the manner of last year’s Junior Championship final defeat to Arva. They were a distinct second best on the day, and while the experience may stand to them in a positive sense, McCabe points out that Belturbet aren’t newcomers to the scene either.

“We’re not ploughing new ground and I suppose we have a little bit of familiarity about what a county final is like in terms of the hype and so on.

“But at the same time that doesn’t mean we start a point up on Saturday.

“Then there’s a good crew of about 11 of 12 Belturbet players who played in an Intermediate final five years ago, so they’re not exactly babes in the wood either.”