By Shaun Casey

MADDEN joint-manager Adrian O’Donnell was delighted with how his side came through a titanic tussle with Maghery last weekend to win by the minimum of margins and qualify for the semi-finals of the Armagh Senior Championship.

The Raparees needed to kick six of the last seven scores to survive an upset and Maghery put them under real pressure, with Ronan Lappin’s second-half goal helping to put his side four clear at one stage.

But Madden showed their resilience and battled back with their big players like Niall and Conor Grimley, Donal Rafferty, Niall Smith and Darragh McMullen all standing up to be counted late on.

“With ten or 12 minutes to go it wasn’t looking good, we were four down at that stage and they’d clipped a number of two-pointers and then they got the goal which was a big score in the second half,” said O’Donnell, who manages the team alongside Mark Harte.

“We dug deep, and we won kickouts that we needed to win, and we got ourselves back into the game with single scores and thankfully we did just enough and won enough ball. It was such a battle which we knew we were going to get.

“We finished strong, and I would say if Maghery got maybe one more score late on it would have been too much for us. When it was four between us, if it was five it would have been very difficult because we were against the breeze so two-pointers weren’t really an option.”

County champions Clann Éireann now await Madden in the semi-final showdown and the Lurgan club are aiming to reclaim the Gerry Fagan Cup and complete back-to-back successes for the first time in their history.

Madden’s target is a completely different one as they are aiming to reach the final for the first time since 1998, their one and only appearance in a county final to date.

They’ve come close over the last number of years, reaching the last four in 2023 and 2024, but they came up short against Crossmaglen and Clan na Gael respectively. Now though they’ll have their eyes set on going one step further.

“When you get to the semi-final, obviously you’re down to the last four so all of the teams are there on merit and any one of them would be in with a shout of getting to a county final,” added the Errigal Ciaran native after their quarter-final win.

“All we can do is prepare as best we can ourselves, obviously we’ll analyse the opposition, and we’ll show them the respect that they deserve but ultimately, it’s down to ourselves and how much time we can put into it over the next three weeks to be the best that we can be.

“We fell short last year by a point and the year before that as well so let’s see if we can go one step further at least.”