By Kieran Lynch

CLANN ÉIREANN’S win over last-year’s champions Maghery, has been described as a ‘coming of age’ victory for Tommy Coleman’s young side; however, he believes they have nothing to celebrate just yet.

Having lost to Maghery in a nail-biter last year, it was Clann Éireann’s turn to grind out a narrow two-point win last week, and the importance of the win was not lost on their manager.

“For us as a club it was highly significant. We’ve had good form in the past few years, and beaten a few big teams, but we hadn’t beaten any of the ‘top four’ so to speak.”

Despite the strong performance, any notions that Clann Éireann have reached the top of the mountain are refuted by Coleman.

He said, “I don’t know if it it’s a ‘coming of age win.’ I still think we, as a group, have a lot to learn. But certainly, from last year there were bits and pieces that we picked up on that went wrong. But we were able to adapt to those things this year and make changes.”

He believes that his side were able to use heartbreak from years gone by as motivation this time around.

“Sometimes it takes a couple of sickeners, a few bad defeats and a few silly mistakes. But as long as you learn from them, that’s the main thing.”

Having trailed at the break, a strong second-half performance, plus the addition of youthful energy, propelled his team to the win.

“We tried to hold it tight, we played against a big breeze in the first half, but the boys put in a real hard shift defensively. In the second half, we were able to bring in young, good players at the right time. And the fresh legs really helped us push on.”

23-year-old Conor Turbitt provided seven points for the winning side, but he is just one of many young players for Coleman to be excited about.

“We had six fellas on the field at full-time who were 20 years-of-age or below. Experience at that level is pivotal as we try and get them more game time. The more you get, the better you get. And, when you play quality opposition that’s where you’re going to learn.”

With the difficult challenge of overcoming Ballymacnab in the semi-final, Coleman will be relying on a mix of both youth and experience if his side are going to reach a first senior championship final since 1968.

“The senior players have done a super job for us in helping these young lads come through. We won’t really know where we are until we take to the field next weekend. We’ll find out then how much we’ve got out of this Maghery match and whether we’ve learned enough to push on that extra step.”

Coleman isn’t getting carried away just yet however, as he knows tough opposition awaits.

“Ballymacab will be an enormous challenge for us. For me, they’re the best team in Armagh over the last number of years, that haven’t won a championship. You have the Grugans, Ryan Watters, Ryan Kennedy and more. They’re quality footballers, with loads of experience of playing in the big games. So, we’re under no illusions of how difficult this game is going to be.”