By Shaun Casey

WITH four Division Three league game remaining, one more win should see John Fegan’s Dromara side safe for another season. They gained promotion from Division Four after winning the league title last season.

They carried that form into the business end of the season to claim their first Junior Championship title since 1951, beating Aughlisnafin by two points in the decider.

The leap up in standard has been one noticeable thing this year. Fegan’s side are four points clear of the relegation zone with battles against the bottom two, Ballymartin and Tullylish, coming up in the next few weeks.

“We’ll just look after ourselves because there’s no point in studying the table, we’ve got it in our own hands and if we keep winning then we’re safe, that’s the bottom line,” said Fegan.

“Division Three is very, very competitive this year. Ballymartin and Tullylish, I can’t remember the last time those two teams were down that far, and this year has really been a learning curve for our boys.

“In Down football, the leagues are a war of attrition really. The teams that are struggling in the leagues are the teams with the low numbers because it is week on week. In Down, league football is taken very seriously.”

It certainly hasn’t been plain sailing for Fegan and his team. A string of retirements following the success of last season, along with the few injures, left Dromara struggling for numbers, but they eventually found their feet again.

“We had nine boys that either retired or left,” added Fegan. “Our vice-captain Liam Kelly went to Australia, Colm Kelly retired, Brendan McNeill retired, Colm Flanagan and Paddy Doyle, Gavin McElroy to name just a few.

“We got Colm Kelly, Brendy and Flanagan back because we just didn’t have the numbers. To top it all off, our captain Brendan McKey, he did his knee the week before the season started so he hasn’t kicked a ball for us all year.

“We’re a very young team and you’re trying to get your best team out every week and it’s all about managing the injuries and boys have lives outside of football as well and that’s been a real struggle.

“We didn’t win our first four games, and we were just decimated with injuries and that’s when we had to go back to a couple of the boys so they would pull us out for a year,” the Dromara boss added.