By Niall Gartland

THERE’S a very real danger that Eglish are coming in cold to Sunday’s All-Ireland Intermediate semi-final against Ahascragh/Caltra, and manager Nathan Curry finds it hard not to be frustrated by the situation.

Just like last year, there was no Ulster Intermediate Championship on the books and that means that Eglish haven’t played a single competitive game since they retained their Tyrone title on the last weekend of September with a victory over Derrylaughan.

Curry, who still lines out for his native Middletown in Armagh, is focused on controlling the controllable but a two-month break ahead of an All-Ireland semi-final showdown is hardly ideal.

“It’s frustrating but I try to work with what is in our control and what’s in our control is the fact we’re in an All-Ireland semi-final.

“We’ve had a couple of challenge matches against strong teams like Swatragh and Clonduff but there’s no substitute for competitive games.

“The Tyrone final was on September 29, it was the same day Middletown played in the Armagh hurling final and thankfully it was a double celebration.

“But it was Eglish’s last competitive game and now we’re rolling into an All-Ireland semi-final without having an Ulster competition, which is soul-destroying at times.”

A possible alternative is stepping down to the Junior ranks in Ulster, but that’s not something that Curry is willing to countenance.

Eglish have a formidable side backboned by esteemed players like Ciara and Leanne Donnelly, Reagan Fay and Oilibhia Farley, and collectively they don’t want to sell themselves short.

“I think it shows where Eglish are as a club that they don’t want to drop down to that Junior level. We feel as a club that we belong at Intermediate. I can’t speak highly enough of the team, they’re always looking to improve themselves.

“The easy thing would be to drop down a level but that’s not what they’re about. They’re looking to improve all the time and trying to move on as a club.”

Standing in their way of a first All-Ireland final berth since the 2016/17 season is Ahascragh/Caltra, a Galway team that won a recent Connacht title.

“The advantage they have is that they had a Connacht final a fortnight ago, and prior to that had the Galway Intermediate final at the end of October. There’s no point in us dwelling on that, we’ll concentrate fully on ourselves.

“I’ve actually a bit of a headache as a manager trying to sit down and pick a team for the game as there’s so much competition in our group, and that’s a good problem to have.”