By Shaun Casey

NA Magha will play just their second competitive match since October 3rd when they clash with Carrickmacross in Saturday’s Junior semi-final. The Derry club entered the Ulster Championship, which began with a six-point win over Cootehill, having not actually played a county final, explained their manager Dee Doherty.

“Everybody we play is a county champion, whereas we’ve sort of been gifted ours. Coleraine conceded so by default we’re just in as Derry champions. It is frustrating because it takes the competitive games out leading up to competitive games.

“Even though you can get one or two challenge games, they’re just not the same level as playing in your county final. It was definitely a big minus for us, and it just disrupts your preparation going into the Ulster campaign.”

While their 1-13 to 0-10 victory over Cootehill suggests a comfortable evening’s work, it was anything but. Having led by five points at the interval, the Cavan champions closed the gap to one before Na Magha eventually pulled away.

The fact that his side let Cootehill back into contention is a concern for Doherty.

“At training after the game, we spoke about it and how we need to keep the tempo up for the whole 60 minutes or 70 minutes of a game, whatever it lasts. Because even when you get ahead, it’s happened to us before in the past, teams go ahead of us, and they put the boot on your throat, and they finish the game off strong.

“We got ourselves comfortable and took our foot off the gas. It’s probably not going to happen against Carrickmacross, we can’t afford it to happen. If we look at their game against Ballela, they went through almost a full game with 14 men and a full extra time, two halves of extra-time and came through that fairly strong. If you take the foot off the gas against a team like that, we’ll just get put to the sword,” warned Doherty.

Na Magha have crossed paths with Saturday’s opponents before, back in 2017, when they won convincingly 3-15 to 1-5. Both sides have changed from that meeting, so there won’t be a lot of familiarity between the teams.

“Obviously teams change, our team from the last time we played them would be well changed, their team would be well changed.

“They’re from another county so we don’t play them that often, so you don’t really know a whole pile about them. We got to watch the Ballela game, so we’ve seen what they’re made of.

“We only get a snapshot of 60 minutes; it doesn’t really tell you a whole lot about the team either. You do all the digging you can do online and through videos and who plays for county and how they normally play at county level. They’ll (Carrickmacross) get all that information but as regards to the teams being on the pitch and going head-to-head with each other, it’s two fairly new teams.”

Doherty, who managed the club to an Ulster final in 2012, will be wary of Luke McKenna’s performance the last day out for the Monaghan champs. The accurate free-taker notched 0-18, 0-11 from the dead ball, and the Oak Leaf side have been working hard on their discipline.

“He was very clinical against Ballela with the dead ball, he had no bother putting them over the bar. We’ve tried to tighten up on that in training and work a wee bit on tackling and trying to keep our discipline as well.

“It’s difficult because of the time of year it is as well, and weather conditions can all contribute. Different referees and different opinions and what’s a free and what’s not a free, so you can only prepare for it so much on the training field. On the day, if we give away silly frees, we’re going to be punished because your man is clinical with the ball.”

Na Magha are just one win away from reaching their fourth provincial decider in ten years, although they have fallen at the final hurdle on the previous three occasions.

“Between ourselves and Eoghan Roes Coleraine it’s nearly year about,” Doherty continued.

“We’re used to being in the competition, but we have fell short of winning it on three occasions. Hopefully that hunger of just winning the provincial championship should be there within this group of players and hopefully they can push on and get through Saturday and see what comes out of it.”