ODHRAN MacNeilly has paid tribute to Bredagh’s footballers ahead of their clash with Down champions on Sunday (Moneyglass, 2pm).

The Moneyglass manager says his team must be ready to adapt to a tricky challenge from a south Belfast team, that he says they are a classy team of footballers.

“They throw the ball round lovely. They love to move the ball through the hands, and will move you around. We have to be aware of that. They have a ‘keeper that likes to come out the field a bit. That shows their style of football. They will press our kick out aggressively. But it is all well and good being aware of that, the girls have to adjust to it on the day. Can they adjust to Bredagh’s game plan when required?”

Moneyglass have taken some big scalps this season. Beating St Paul’s in the Antrim final was an important win for them. They beat Armagh Harps 3-12 to 3-6 last weekend to get their Ulster Senior Championship up and running.

“We had an excellent performance against St Paul’s. We had 15 plus performances and they don’t happen every day you go out. I didn’t think that we’d get another performance like that. But we ended up winning fairly comfortably. Armagh Harps hung in there with mistakes that we made. But we showed that winning the county final wasn’t just the target. We wanted to push on as well.”

Moneyglass may not be entirely full strength for the game against Bredagh. Aine Devlin was subbed off because of injury during last weekend’s win over Armagh Harps.

McNeilly said that Devlin said she will be fit to play, but he thinks that it is best to wait and see if she can start. There are other niggles, but she is the biggest concern.

“With the quick turnaround from the Harps game to the Bredagh game it doesn’t give us much time to work on things. It is important not to throw too much at players in the week leading up to a game. They lose a bit of focus on what their own responsibilities rather than focusing on the opposition.”

The biggest challenge now is for his team to be ready for a new test.

“They are going to have to be agile. They are going to have to go to the tool box as it will take something different to win this weekend than it did last weekend.

“They have to be able to adjust on the day. Bredagh work incredibly hard and it will take a lot of character. It is winter football, and a heavy pitch. So it will take a lot.”

KEY PLAYER…Moneyglass’s Niamh McIntosh