By Shaun Casey

MAGHERACLOONE has been painted black and white for the last few weeks and manager Damian Feeney is hoping that the feel-good factor surrounding the club will hang around for another wee while yet.

The ladies team reached the county final, after ending Donaghmoyne’s dominance on the club scene, but unfortunately for them lost out to Emyvale. This time it’s the men who will aim to bring some silverware back to the club.

Feeney’s side have been in fantastic form throughout the championship having topped their group with four wins from four outings. Magheracloone then backed it up with a victory over Castleblayney to reach the showpiece, where they will face Truagh.

“It’s great to be in the final, there’s a great buzz about the place,” said Feeney. “They were here a couple of years ago and got beat by Corduff, they were up in senior last year so it’s great to get back in the final in our first year in charge.

“The bunting and everything is still up, the ladies were in the county final two weeks ago against Emyvale, so the bunting and the flags are still up flying and we have great support about the place.”

Both sides were relegated from senior football last season, and Magheracloone were in the Intermediate final two years ago, but they lost to Corduff. This Saturday, the target is to get their hands on the Paddy O’Rourke Cup for the first time since 2019.

“A lot of these players have played in county finals, Peter Ward and Gavin Doogan and those boys are still there and they bring great leadership to the fold, they haven’t shied away from doing the hard graft along with the younger lads.

“It’s great to have them there.

“From the start of the year, people probably would have felt that the championship was going to come down to ourselves, Truagh and Carrickmacross. You have a handful of other teams then that could have reached the semi-final too.

“It just happened to be Castleblayney that came through and they’re a very good up and coming team as well. It was always going to come down to this at some point.

“Truagh and Carrickmacross had a very tough semi-final and whoever came out was probably going to be the favourites for the final.”

Just a few days out from the showpiece, Armagh man Feeney is optimistic that he will have a full hand to pick from for the final, although a number of players had sore bodies after their 2-6 to 0-6 semi-final victory.

“We have a good strength in depth there in our squad at the moment,” Feeney suggested. “We have a few injury concerns but that just comes with the territory at this time of the year, I just hope we have a few boys back after the semi-final.

“A few boys missed the semi-final so we’re hoping that we’ve got a bit of work into them now and hopefully we can get them onto the pitch now this weekend.”