By Niall Gartland

LARAGH United have received the perfect lift of a Division Two league triumph ahead of the start of their Cavan Senior Club Championship campaign.

Darren Greenan’s side overcame Mullahoran at the weekend, and that sets them in good stead for their championship opener against Lacken this Saturday.

A native of Monaghan club Killeevan, Greenan was glad to have the opportunity of playing a competitive match a week out from the championship, and winning the game was all the better.

“We had a good league semi-final win against Lavey which was better than any challenge match, and then there was a bit of debate about whether they’d play the league final at this stage with the championship just around the corner.

“Mullahoran have a bye in the first round of the championship as it happens, but we wanted to play the game as otherwise we’d have been looking for a challenge match.

“Winning it is even better as it gives us a boost of positivity heading into the championship. We’ve met our first goal of the season.”

Laragh won the Intermediate Championship two years ago, but they had a poor Senior Championship campaign last year, losing all four of their group stage matches. It didn’t matter as relegation was taken off the table due to Covid-19, but they’ll be hoping for better this time around.

Greenan said: “A young team like ours needs to be operating in Division One as we need that experience to have a good platform for performing well in the Senior Championship.

“There were four or five senior teams in Division Two, so it was quite competitive in fairness. Only one team was going up, so the league final was all or nothing, and it was a target of ours to get back into Division One. Last year the championship didn’t go so well. We lost all four games but luckily there was no relegation. We know we need to be playing in Division One to excel in the long-term.”

Greenan also likes the format in Cavan, whereby there are four rounds of group stage matches before the quarter-finals. They’ve known they’re playing Lacken for a while now, but they don’t know who they’ll be facing in the following matches, and that adds an air of mystery and excitement.

“You could get the top four teams, or four lower ranked teams, but it tends to be a mixture. You don’t know who you’re playing in the second round until the Sunday night before the game so there’s a bit of excitement around that, and then you’re scurrying around and trying to research who you’re playing. We’ve known we’re playing Lacken for a while, they have their two All-Stars (Thomas and Raymond Galligan), but we’re looking forward to it.”

While Laragh are going well at the moment, Greenan, who is in his first season in charge, also envisions that they’re likely to peak in a couple of years’ time.

“it’s a young age profile, one of the younger teams in the county I’d imagine, but I wouldn’t be intimately familiar with all the clubs because this is my first year with these lads. The oldest player is probably 30 and a big cohort of lads around 24, 25. It’s a nice position to be in as those lads will be positioning to peak around 26 or 27. So if they got a couple of years of senior league and championship experience you never know what could happen.”