I WOULD like to start this week by sincerely congratulating Kilcoo on their fabulous win last weekend.

I can only imagine the enormous sense of pride and fulfilment that those players and supporters are feeling this week after achieving the ultimate goal with the club.

It wasn’t their best performance to date, but they hung on and were within striking distance at the end and that’s all you need to do.

Finals are there to be won and nobody gives a damn how you win them, as long as you do.

When the Kilcoo players look back on that game in years to come they won’t cringe at the mistakes but they will smile at the outcome and, to them, that’s all that matters.

At the start of the Ulster Club Championship, when I sat down to look at all teams who would be coming out of the county championships, I just felt that Kilcoo were best equipped this year to go the distance.

Kingpins Corofin were on the road a long time and it was just a matter of time before someone caught them in the long grass.

The Dublin championship always produces a quality team who will always be hard to beat. But with Kilcoo in Ulster, I just felt that the final defeat to Corofin would have driven them on since that game.

With the quality, pace and power within the ranks, I felt they had all the tools to go the distance.

The loss of Paul Mannion was a massive blow to Kilmacud. There is no doubt about that and before the game I just felt in my stomach that Kilcoo would grid this one out.

I’m not a betting man, but for some reason before the game Conor Laverty was stuck in my head as a first goalscorer so I stuck €20 on him at 151. Three minutes into the game the ball landed and Conor’s hands about five yards out from the goal and that miss is something I will bring up with Lav the next time I bump into him.

Kilcoo looked as if they had kicked themselves out of the contest, missing a number of scoreable chances, but great credit to them – they dug deep and got their just reward. Last but not least, a special word of congratulations to manager Mickey Moran and Conleith Gilligan on delivering once again at this level.

Mickey gave me my inter-county debut way back in 2002 and I will be forever grateful to him for that and to watch him achieve his ultimate goal was absolutely amazing.

This week sees the return of the National Football League and after the break I expect to see teams ramp it up a notch or two in terms of where their season is heading.

In Division One it’s safe to say that the likes of Tyrone and Dublin are under a little bit of pressure due to results so far in the competition so this weekend I expect to see a kickback.

Tyrone are at home on Sunday to Kildare, which should make things a little easier. At this point in time, they are still minus the four suspended players from the last game as the situation is currently still under appeal.

Kildare are no pushovers this season and they have shown to date that they have some quality young players coming through, so Tyrone will have to bring their A game if they are to get their season back on track.

The Dubs welcome Mayo to Croke Park on Saturday evening. To say that Dessie Farrell (pictured) is under a little bit of pressure would be an understatement. Should they suffer another defeat this weekend, the drop to Division Two looks to be on the cards for this great Dublin team.

Dessie should welcome some of their big-name players back this weekend – the likes of Con O’Callaghan, James McCarthy and Michael Fitzsimmons – so you would imagine they’ll be up for the battle.

Donegal make the long trek to the Kingdom and with three points on the board they will be a little more comfortable as they head into the Lion’s den.

It will be extremely tough to get any sort of result in Killarney, so Declan Bonner may use it as an experimental outing before cementing his place in Division One with the games that are to come. There is still an injury doubt over Michael Murphy, so he may be rested up this weekend in preparation for the bigger games that lie ahead. There would be no point in risking him for this game if he is not 100 per cent fit.

In Division One, should a few teams at the bottom end of the table pick up points this weekend then it will really make for an interesting finish to the league. By the looks of things, it’s going to be extremely tight at the top and bottom of the table.

In Division Two Derry, Galway and Roscommon continue to set the pace as they make their march towards Division One.

I said at the start of the season that Derry could be one of the teams to look out for this season so it will be interesting to see how they get on for the rest of the league campaign, starting with the game versus Cork this Sunday.

With each passing week the Ulster Championship looks like it will be the best in a long time and that’s exactly what we want to see up here in Ulster.

When you take Tyrone, Donegal and Monaghan who have been up there for the last few years, it’s safe to say that you can now firmly add Armagh to that list of contenders and with Derry threatening to follow them the signs are good.