St Paul’s Minor Tournament semi-final

Enniskillen Gaels v Lavey

Sunday, 1pm, St Paul’s

By Niall Gartland

IT probably isn’t a bad thing that Lavey survived a minor scare against Cavan amalgamation Drumloman Gaels.

Lavey were red hot favourites to prevail, but they hit the front for the first time early in the second-half and only really put the game with a goal on the break right at the very end from Matthew Downey.

Big things are expected from the Derry Champions, but the same can be said of their semi-final opponents Enniskillen Gaels, and manager Michael Hasson says their overriding feeling after their opening day win was one of relief.

“First of all, we’re very relieved. We knew they were going to be strong. They’re an amalgmation and had options to bring on. We’re very relieved to get through it and the final scoreline (1-16 to 0-11) didn’t really reflect how the game went.

“Championship games are hard won at any level so we’re just happy to get into the next round. We didn’t start well and it took us a while to get settled.

“We’re such a young team and we had eight weeks to prepare but I knew once we started getting scores on the board that we could kick on.”

“Different players stepped up for us at different times, there was a strong breeze at pitch level which was tough to deal with, and in fairness that was coupled with some bad shot selections. Different lads stepped up in the first-half and got us through that period when we couldn’t get a score.”

Lavey’s match against Drumloman was on the 4g pitch at Coláiste Feirste, whereas Enniskillen’s win over Cargin was hosted by St Paul’s. Hasson thinks that experience of playing at St Paul’s itself will be a possible advantage to the 2018 champions, while their main priority this week is recovery.

“We’ve a couple of niggles and we’ll just be concentrating this week on getting the bodies recovered. Obviously we’re going into a massive battle now with one of the favourites for the tournament.

“They’re a very strong outfit, we’re going in as massive underdogs and it’ll be a big challenge for us.

“They’ve a couple of players who were there two years ago and beat a very good Cargin team, and they beat us in a challenge match earlier this year.”