By Shaun Casey

THREE years ago, Lurgan won the Ulster Minor Championship title, and those young guns have filtered through to the senior side that kickstart their provincial journey this weekend, and manager Neil Quigley is delighted with their progress.

That injection of youth has added a different dimension to the Lurgan ladies over the past number of years as they secured back-to-back county titles, seeing off Crosserlough with eight points to spare two weeks ago.

The likes of Ciara Brady and Eabha Hayes have made an immediate breakthrough to the senior ranks, lining out in the championship final at centre half-back and midfield respectively, and they have really found their feet at senior level now.

“We were chatting about that recently, we would have a good few coming through that are now backboning the senior team,” said Quigley. “There’s a good few of them that are starting on the name and another few on the bench.

“In terms of our squad, those young girls have all filtered through. That was a great experience back in 2022, it was one of the highlights of the club’s history, so it’s great to have those young girls coming into the team now.”

The Lurgan side have competed in the Ulster Championship in three of the past four seasons and they are on the road in the opening round as they face off against Steelstown, the Derry champions, on Sunday.

Lurgan went all the way to the provincial final last season, for the first time in their history, but came up against an all-conquering Clann Éireann side that claimed two in-a-row.

“It can be tricky to even get information on the other teams, it’s totally different than playing inside your own county and that familiarity goes out the window when you go into Ulster,” Quigley added.

“The majority of the girls do have the experience of playing in it last year, so they know what they are facing into and how challenging it’s going to be. Any team that wins a county title has something about them.

“It’s hard to know though because every team brings something different really. If a team goes into Ulster having never played in it before, they could be in bonus territory, and they could just play without any fear.”

He added:“Hopefully the experience of being there before will stand to the girls this weekend. It’s where we wanted to get to – to give it another crack so hopefully that will stand to us.”

After winning the Cavan Senior Championship for the tenth time, Lurgan have now regrouped after a couple of days celebrating and Quigley is delighted by the fact that he heads into the showdown against Steelstown with a full panel to pick from.

“We just regrouped last Friday night; it was nice to give the girls a few days off after the county final. Thankfully we have no major injuries heading into the game so we’re looking good on that front.”