By Shaun Casey

BALLYMACNAB make the journey to Division 2A league leaders Sarsfields this weekend in the final round of fixtures before the July break. There are only three games left in the campaign and both sides are in the promotion shakeup.

Sarsfields are one of three teams at the top of the pile that are tied on 15 points, alongside Keady and Tullysaran. Ballymacnab are just behind the front three on 12 points, with ties against Sarsfields and Tullysaran remaining.

The Nab, with Sean ‘Maco’ Hughes back in charge this season for a third stint, bounced back from a poor defeat to Whitecross with an impressive three-point win over Belleek last week.

“We were very disappointed with our performances against Whitecross,” said Ryan Watters.

“Then that leads into training and there’s nothing better than getting it out of your system by playing another game. If you have a bad performance, the only thing you want is another game.

“We just set our sights on the Belleek game and thankfully we got another two points on the board. There are a few young boys getting bedded in this year and hopefully we can make a good push towards the end of the season.”

A huge two-pointer from Watters helped the Nab land the victory on the night. They led by seven at one stage in the second period, but Belleek battled back to cut the deficit to one before Watters, who finished with 0-8, grabbed the game’s final score.

“I didn’t think I had the energy to kick it from the 14 never mind the 45, but thankfully the breeze was coming in nicely for the right footer, so the breeze took it in at the end. I was never as glad to see it drop in behind the net,” he added.

Ballymacnab played most of the contest with 14 players having picked up a first-half red card but survived that late Belleek onslaught.

“We were down a man in the middle and even without being down to 14, the new rules mean that if you lose the ball in midfield then you’re under the cosh straight away and Belleek seemed to get a bit of a stronghold in around the middle.

“We got a couple of breaks in behind and I think Kieran (Hughes) got a free and then we got another score, so those two breaks were so important because for the last 15 minutes we were under heavy pressure.”