Martin hoping his men embrace Ulster campaign

By Shaun Casey

TEN years ago, Paddy Martin led Donaghmoyne to an Ulster Intermediate final, and he’s got his club back on the hunt for a provincial prize once again.

Desertmartin, one of the newbies to the Ulster Club scene, are their first task and Martin is hoping that his side show the same drive and ambition they did a decade ago.

In the overall view of things, staying as a senior club next year having gone up is top of the priority list, but for now, they can concentrate on something special.

“We were in Ulster back in 2016, I was the manager of Donaghmoyne back then as well and we won the Monaghan Championship that year. We got to the Ulster final back then and Pomeroy beat us,” Martin remembers.

“If the boys want to be in the Ulster competition that’s fine with me. For me, there’s no point in me wanting to be in it, they have to tell me if we’re taking seriously or are we not.

“It’s been a long year and really our biggest priority is now to try and stay senior next year rather than having a big, long run in Ulster.

“It’s not something we considered at the start of the year, we didn’t set out to be in an Ulster Club final, we set out to be senior next year.”

Donaghmoyne were big underdogs in their own county final two weeks ago against Ballybay, who were crowned senior champions in Monaghan just four years ago.

But Martin’s men believed when many outsiders didn’t, and they held strong to see out a late onslaught from Ballybay and get over the line with a point to spare.

“I suppose going into the county final, we would have been seen as the underdogs,” he said. “It was always going to be tight if we were going to have a chance of beating them,” he added.

“Ballybay would have been strong favourites. They are a right good team, a very experienced team, and we’d have a lot of respect for Ballybay, but I’m delighted for our boys.”

It’s Desertmartin up next and Martin is well aware of the challenge his side face. He also believes there are no secrets between teams these days.

“I was a schoolteacher in the High School in Carrickmacross, so I would be very aware of Ulster Colleges and the strength of the Derry Intermediate scene.

“I would be very aware of Maghera and Magherafelt. I would have been involved with MacRory teams in the school so any team that comes out of Derry is going to be a serious threat, we know that.

“We’ll sit down and watch a bit of Derry GAA TV; all the matches are there and I’m sure they’ll be doing the exact same with us.

“There’s no point in playing cat and mouse about it. I know they have Inniskeen booked for a couple of training sessions, so there’s no point in pretending no one knows anything about each other, we’ll both be doing our homework.”