Beattie: Clann Éireann delighted to have McCambridge back

By Shaun Casey

BARRY McCambridge is back in the orange and white of Clann Éireann and the Lurgan lads are delighted to have him, says coach and former player Mark Beattie.

The 2024 Footballer of the Year nomination missed most of Armagh’s campaign as they won the Ulster Championship for the first time since 2008, having picked up an injury in the quarter-final of the club championship last season.

He returned to the club following Armagh’s All-Ireland exit to get a few league games int eh legs and lasted the entire encounter last week against Carrickcruppen as Clann Éireann opened their championship account with a 13-point win.

“You’re talking about a fella that was up for Player of the Year just two years ago and he’s an absolute fantastic footballer,” said Beattie, a member of Mark Doran’s management team.

“What he brings to our team is something else. He was really annoyed about not getting any game time this year (with Armagh) so he was chopping at the bit to get back.

“To be fair, Barry was literally off a plane at three o’clock on Friday afternoon and he sent the word back that he was ready to play.

“He didn’t want anyone else getting into his spot, he’s trained hard and he got those last couple of games in the league under his belt. He had a bit of a slow start but he’s just improving and improving game by game.

“The fitness is still improving, and he put in a good performance against Carrickcruppen and the more games he gets, Barry’s only going to get better.”

Clann Éireann face Sarsfields in round two of the group stages, and reflecting back on last Friday’s victory on Camlough, Beattie insists they still have stuff to work on.

“We got off to a fantastic start, Odhran McCafferty got a goal and we went 1-4 up at the start. That set the tone for the rest of the game, Carrickcruppen were always going to be chasing,” he continued.

“I thought for 20 or 25 minutes of the first half, we were very good. We had talked a lot going into the game and we got things right.

“It got a bit scrappy as it does when the game sort of gets away from teams so we probably wouldn’t be as happy with the second half performance, but it’s two points and it gets us up and running.”