By Shaun Casey

THIRTEEN months went by without a win for Aughlisnafin, but once they clocked up a victory, the wheels kept rolling and that momentum has carried them through to the Junior Championship final against Dromara.

Promotion to Division Three last season proved a difficult step up in 2024 and Mark Copeland’s side struggled in the early stages of the championship as well. But a final round win, their first since July last year, kick-started their run to the decider.

Aughlisnafin, who won their first ever Junior Championship title in 2021 after two failed attempts in the previous two seasons, will hope that experience of the big day will stand to them on Friday night.

“Division Three was a tough, tough season for us,” explained former Kilcoo and Down coach Copeland.

“We went through the whole league without winning a game and the start of the championship wasn’t too fruitful either.

“It took us to the last group game before we got a win and before that, the 21st of July last year was the last time we won a game. Funny enough that was against Dromara. We lost our last league game last year, but we still got promoted to Division Three.”

Dromara were also their opponents in the opening round of the group stages and the Division Four league champions, who are unbeaten throughout the campaign, won easily in the end with 19 points to spare.

“That was the 16th of August when they beat us in the first round. I’d take nothing away from Dromara, they were excellent that day and the scoreline reflected that,” added Copeland on his side’s 3-14 to 0-4 defeat.

“We definitely feel that we’ve regrouped and are a lot closer now. We probably have three starters back into the team that wouldn’t have played against Dromara in the first round.

“The two Matthew brothers (Jack and Conor) and Thomas Beckett never played against them, and we were poor in that first round.

“We were poor against Glasdrumman (in the group) as well, so we’d like to think that we’ve improved.”

Everything changed in round four of the group stages, with a win over Aghaderg and they’ve gone on to beat East Belfast and Ardglass as well.

“That wee bit of confidence in winning games has brought us to a higher level and hopefully we can reflect that in the final.”