By Michael McMullan

CATHAL Hasson feels Sunday’s Ulster Intermediate semi-final date with Monaghan’s Carrickmacross will be Glenullin’s toughest test of the season by a “long shot”.

After winning a third Derry title in four years, Glenullin were comfortable winners over Moneyglass and Sarsfields. There was also the club’s recent gala to celebrate their 100th year anniversary.

“Mick’s (manager O’Kane) is good at reminded us that’s in the past and we need to just go to work again,” Hasson pointed out.

It hasn’t always been rosy for Glenullin. Hasson remembers trudging off Celtic Park after a play-off defeat to current junior champions Slaughtmanus looked to have sent the ‘Glen into junior football.

That was just four short years ago but Derry CCC’s restructuring saved them.

“That was probably the worst I’ve ever felt in a Glenullin jersey,” Hasson recalled.

It was a line in the sand. Paddy Bradley came on board as manager. High standards were both set and demanded. No more backward steps were allowed.

“Paddy was the start of it. He helped me massively and he helped the team massively,” Hasson added.

“The feeling around the club and the team is of not taking anything for granted.”

“I’m not one of the young boys anymore,” Hasson added. “Paddy changed the mindset of everyone and gave us an identity. Mick likes throwing that word around but I think that’s true.

“If you watch us play now, you can still definitely see a lot of what Paddy’s done first and then Mick’s just continued it on.”

A feature of Glenullin is the perfect blend. From Eoin Bradley, Eunan and John O’Kane, who all played on their 2007 senior winning team, to Conrad Mullan, yet to turn 18. It’s steps of stairs in between.

Glenullin’s time back in Division One this season was vital, helped by their young players coming in off underage football at grade A again.

Hasson can see it, regularly looking over the fence at players he hopes will step in beside him in the coming years.

“The aim for the championship was obviously to get ourselves back up to senior championship, that’s where we want to be,” he said.

“There was maybe talk going around that Glenullin didn’t want to go up but I don’t know where that came from.

“We’ve always wanted to push ourselves to play against the best teams and the only way we could have done that this year was by winning it.”

Hasson pinpoints their win over Desertmartin in the opening group game as a milestone of sorts. On a day he hit one their four goals.

“There was probably always a feeling that we could do what we’ve done, but that game really solidified it,” Hasson said.

Now the Glenullin community is buzzing. The colour is there and everyone wants to talk football.

Hasson jokes about being handed a berth at corner-back in an u-21 game by Liam ‘Baker’ Bradley.

“I’m glad I got out of there,” he said. “I was normally half-forward, corner-forward growing up.

“I wouldn’t get on the scoresheet a lot but I’m happy enough to do the bit of the donkey work out in the middle.

“Boys like Ryan McNicholl, Conrad (Mullan), Donal Tam (O’Kane) and Néill (McNicholl), they’re the footballers. I’m just there to run about.”

Anyone who peels back the top layer of Glenullin’s performances will see the inner workings. Hasson is central. Any potent inside line needs a link man. An everywhere man.

While Glenullin have turned the corner, Hasson has done so too. Getting, in his words, “into bad shape”, he lost his place ahead of last year’s quarter-final exit.

“I just wasn’t in the shape to be playing,” he said. “I was carrying a bit of extra weight and I said to myself that I can’t go through that again.”

It was a winter of work and Hasson is now, not in his words, undroppable.

“Getting dropped isn’t nice and I said I can’t go through that again. Me and my brother Cormac were going to the gym in the winter evenings.”

They weren’t on their own. Carrickmacross will be a tough to crack but Glenullin have turned the corner. A crunch game awaits.