By Michael McMullan

FAUGHANVALE are enjoying life in Division One and have eyes on staying in the top flight.

After promotion last season and being seconds away from the Intermediate title, they sit midway in the table. Saturday’s trip to Steelstown is the first of their remaining four games.

Joint-captain Conor McGuinness knows they are not totally safe but their recent victory over Magherafelt leaves them looking more forward than over their shoulders.

Before that, Sleacht Néill edged them by two points and Bellaghy hit them for a late goal.

“Compared to last year, I think, athletically, teams are a lot sharper in Division One,” McGuinness said of the difference.

Better players, deeper squads and tougher games. But that’s the level they want to be challenging.

Fellow joint-captain Michael Sweeney is the only player to have edged into the 30-plus club. McGuiness is among a handful of players in their mid-twenties.

Coming off a team that lost to Glen’s golden generation in an u-16 final, the core played in minor and u-21 finals but never fully pushed on. They lost an intermediate final to a Newbridge team in the early stages of a rise.

“Whenever we came into the senior team, Ryan King and Joe Gray were just finishing,” he added

“There was a gap there as well. I think in terms of experience, whenever we came in, a big thing was struggling to manage games with a young team.”

Management duo Darrell O’Kane and Emmett McKeever have helped. Games that might have slipped away before, the ‘Vale have more guile to make the right decision.

“You just have to do your paper round,” McGuinness said of the learning process

“Boys are a wee bit more mature and have that bit more experience. It’s a lot easier to keep a calmer head whenever you’re in that melting pot in games when you need the result and you need the boys to step up.”

After losing last season’s championship final replay, they looked on as Ballinderry went within the kick of a ball of winning the All-Ireland.

Looking back now, as well as the usual final day nerves, there was the lingering feeling that Ballinderry’s tradition at senior level was also a factor.

With their experience of Division One this season, there is the feeling they’d be better placed to see out the game now.

Faughanvale’s first two games of the season were a narrow defeat to Glen followed by leaving themselves too much to do after high-flying Newbridge bolted out of the traps.

“They’ve just carried on the run from last year into the league this year,” McGuinness said of the county champions.

“I think for us, it’s about setting standards and that’s where you want to be at.

“We’re putting it up to teams. I know they’re missing boys but we have had injuries throughout the year and Mark Creane was up with Derry for a bit, so we were missing him in those games as well.”

Coming into the season, the Faughanvale target was getting points on the board as early as possible rather than a pressure scramble to creep out of the relegation mire on the cusp of the championship.

“We know that we can be a senior club,” he said. “We set out before the league just to stay safe; safety was our main priority.

“We said we’d put the hammer to nail at the start of the year and just go at it and try to pick up as many results as we can.”

It has eased the pressure, allowing more freedom in their play.

Next up is Steelstown who will be buoyed buy their win over Sleacht Néill. The Brian Ógs will be able to call on Diarmuid Baker, Cahir McMonagle and Ben McCarron after Derry’s exit.

A test, but the type they’ve wanted.