By Shaun Casey

It’s been a tough preseason for Glenn manager Tony Bagnall. Between county commitments and injury concerns, the Down club have had to build “near enough a new team”.

They began their Division Two campaign last week with an away draw against Saval, 0-8 to 0-8, and host St John’s on Thursday evening in round two.

“Eight each, that was probably a fair reflection of the game. A draw was a fair enough result, both teams probably didn’t do enough to win it.

“We’re riddled with injuries. We had nine missing the other night from the team that played against Ballyholland in the quarter final of the championship last year.

“We have three county men and then you’ve Mattie (Bagnall) and Ronie Millar, they’re in Canada. Padraig Clarke, he did the cruciate. He actually broke his leg and did the cruciate last week against Bryansford in a friendly game.

“A couple of other lads have hamstrings so it’s near enough a new team. You seem to be getting one man back and another two injured.”

It’s a fiercely competitive league and Bagnall is hoping that others in his panel can make the step up.

“It’s always been a close league, that second division. But this year is probably just that wee bit closer when you haven’t got the county men. You’re probably not going to have them for five or six weeks anyway.

“Without the county men, we’re not going to have them, we’re not allowed to have them, so it’s probably an even enough league

Anybody could beat anybody on any given night. Bredagh, ourselves and Longstone will probably suffer the most without the county men.

“You just have to get on with it, it’s as simple as that, you just have to get on with it. You’re hoping other lads will step up.

“If we hadn’t them injuries, we could probably cope alright but once you pick up two or three injuries then you’re struggling.”

Glenn blazed their way to the last eight of the Down Senior Championship last season and are the favourites for promotion this season.

While they’re down a number of regulars, promotion to the top tier remains the goal in a league where four teams will be relegated.

“The target’s promotion but it’s an unforgiven league, you could find yourself in a relegation place, there’s four going down this year out of the second division.

“They’re restructuring the Down leagues and you could find yourself in a relegation battle.

“ There’s two went up last year but nobody came down out of the first. They had done away with relegation last year because of the Covid, there was only one round of fixtures so they’re trying to restructure them this year.

“It’s probably unfair, from our point of view anyway. Looking at this year, we’ve no county men and there’s four being relegated and there’s only ten teams.

“But there’s nothing you can do about it, there’s no point in feeling sorry for yourself, you just have to keep at it.”