‘Screen have more to do ahead of championship

By Michael McMullan

PROGRESS made with more work left to do. That’s the take of Ballinascreen manager Liam Donnelly as his side parked their league season on Sunday.

Up against a severely depleted Swatragh team, not much could be taken from their 19-point win and Donnelly quickly looked ahead.

He steered Ballinascreen to their last county final, in 2017, and has returned as manager this season, assisted by Kevin O’Neill, who coached the squad last year.

“We’re happy with the league performance,” Donnelly said of where they sit. “I certainly knew coming back for the second time to Ballinascreen that we had a lot of work to do but it’s a good club, good setup and very happy with the backroom team.

“So far so good. We’ve made progress and there’s work being done but there’s no illusions, there’s a hell of a lot of work to do.”

They’ve had to plan without goalkeeper Ryan Scullion who opted for a summer of football in New York, with Reece McSorley stepping into the number one jersey.

Another Derry player, Marty Bradley, faces a “race against time” for their upcoming championship clash with Magherafelt with an injury carried over from county duty.

Donnelly ranks champions Newbridge, recent All-Ireland champions Glen, Sleacht Néill and Magherafelt as the teams to beat. Coleraine, in 2018, were the last winners out the John McLaughlin Cup outside of the four mentioned clubs.

“There’s those four and maybe three or four other teams and we’re certainly outside of that, who can really say, we’re concentrating here on the championship and we’re going to give it a real rattle.”

Donnelly insists they can look no further than their clash with Magherafelt. In a change from the group stages, there is a return to the back door this season.

“We couldn’t have got much tougher,” he said of their draw. “We’ll certainly be preparing as well as we can for it. We’re not just going in to make up numbers, but we know where we’re at going into the match.”

A native of Trillick, he is a fan of the straight knock-out and well familiar with how the O’Neill County have maintained that format.

“You have two bites at it, but that’s it,” he said, pointing to how the Ballinascreen players have to get used to a change from the group stages. You still want to be winning games. You want to be going into the second game with a win under the belt.

“It’s certainly new to me too, because I’m just getting my head around what way it works. It’s certainly different and we just have to prepare and hopefully stay injury free and do the best we can do.”