By Niall Gartland

NEW Roslea manager Eamonn Kavanagh says that they’ll be using the league as a springboard to gain momentum towards the championship this year.

Roslea have parted ways with Fermanagh legend Peter McGinnity after his latest stint in charge of the club, and in his place comes former Errigal Ciaran player Eamon Kavanagh and his coaching partner Macartan McKenna from Scotstown.

The Fermanagh club have a strong pedigree, but have lived in the shadow of Derrygonnelly and Ederney in recent seasons, so Kavanagh senses the importance of forging a winning mentality during their upcoming Division One campaign.

“My main ambition is to get the best out of the players, but obviously everyone wants to win a championship.

“If you ask someone who won the league a few years ago they’d struggle, but you need league wins to build momentum. To win a championship you need momentum, and to get momentum you need to win matches, that’s what it boils down to.”

Kavanagh has managed at a number of clubs, most recently Armagh side Granemore. His three-year stint was a successful one but he felt it was time to move on and embark on a fresh challenge in Roslea.

“I really enjoyed my time at Granemore, they came on leaps and bounds but I thought it was time to move on, that I brought them as far as I could.

“They were in a bad place when I came on, they only won a single game the previous season and we turned that around, we hit a bit of form and started winning matches. We got promotion and were beaten after extra-time in the semi-final of the championship.”

He isn’t the first Errigal Ciaran man to take the reins at Roslea – Mark Harte and Adrian O’Donnell led the club to their last senior championship title back in 2014. They encouraged him to take the role and everything he’s seen so far has been of the positive variety.

“I was speaking to those fellas and they hold the club in high regard, they said it’s a first-class club and I realised that very early on. Their facilities are second-to-none, I’d go as far as saying they’re the best in Ulster that I’ve come across, their fabulous and you’d have to see it to believe it.”

Roslea have been over-reliant on Sean Quigley for scores in recent times, but they have some good young players coming through the ranks like highly rated Fermanagh u-20 footballer Michael Flanagan. Time will tell whether Kavanagh can turn things around at the club, but he’s cautiously optimistic that the players will respond well to the new men in charge.

“I suppose someone new will have fresh ideas so you’re always going to get a bit of a reaction anyway. We’ll see how it goes, we’ll know over the next six or eight weeks what they’re made of. It’s the games that tell the tale so it’s very early days.”

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