Kille’s Belnaleck bid for back-to-back wins

By Niall Gartland

BELNALECK got their Senior Championship campaign off to an impressive winning start – but manager Daniel Kille is conscious that one swallow doesn’t make a summer.

A spirited second-half revival sealed a hard-earned victory for Belnaleck in their ongoing quest to win a first Fermanagh Senior Championship title since landing landing their one and only title in 1933.

This Sunday they take on Teemore, who are also bidding to pick up back-to-back victories. They finished second in the league and overcame Belnaleck in the quarter-finals of last year’s championship, so Belnaleck have been well-warned.

Kille, a former Fermanagh footballer, said: “The beauty of it is that Enniskillen and Ederney play on the Saturday. We’ll know what way things stand after that, and there could be a big prize on offer when we come up against Teemore on the Sunday.

“Having said that, we’re not looking too far into the competition. We beat Enniskillen in the first round of the group stages last year, but we didn’t properly build on it. So we’re looking to put back-to-back victories together in the championship, which would be rare enough for Belnaleck to do. That’s our main aim right now.”

Belnaleck sprung county star Darragh McGurn from the bench with 15 minutes remaining in last weekend’s win over Enniskillen. He’s nursing a knee injury at present and Kille was mindful that the championship is a marathon, not a spring.

“He has a slight knee injury and, obviously, with the championship being played on a group stage basis, we didn’t want to take any big risks. It probably would have been different if it a knockout game, but we were a bit more cautious because the championship is about more than the first game in the group.”

Kille has been able to call upon Cullen twins Lee and Che from the outset of the season, which has been a major boost. Both men have bucketloads of county experience and their leadership has been evident both behind the scenes and on the field of play.

“This is the first year they’ve been with us from the start of the season. Once they entered senior grade, they were nearly on the county panel straight away, so this is the first year both lads aren’t with the county and are living locally in Enniskillen.

“They’ve actually been about from the start of the year, and they haven’t missed a beat. They’ve been very, very good in terms of pushing the group on and raising the standard.”