By Barry O’Donnell

REIGNING County champions Loughmacrory won’t be distracted by the goings on at Dungannon as their first match in defence of the O’Neill Cup looms into sight, St Teresa’s captain Nathan Kelly insists.

It has been a tough season for the Clarkes who this week appointed Derry duo Damian McErlain and Gavin McGeehan to fill the vacancy following the departure of former manager James Slater, after a string of disappointing results.

The switch appeared to work the oracle as they moved off the bottom of the Division One table with a derby victory over Donaghmore, though they still have a lot of work to do to guarantee their senior status ahead of that first round Championship clash with the holders.

Loughmacrory also appear to be peaking at just the right time and saw off neighbours Carrickmore by six points in their latest outing, with Cathaoir Gallagher and Pearse McDonald the goalscorers in their 2-15 to 0-15 home success.

Nathan Kelly maintains that St Teresa’s will give Dungannon due respect once that much anticipated contest rolls around, but for now insists that their prime objective is getting their own preparations in place.

“We are just focused on Loughmacrory and what happens at Pairc an Locha. We can’t control what happens anywhere else in Tyrone. We just have to work on getting our own house in order and not worry about anyone else.

“When you look at the results the likes of Moortown and Eglish are getting, not to discredit them, but it shows the overall depth in quality of the Tyrone league. Dungannon have top players and have been competing at the top of the league this past four or five years so the table seems to have flipped this year so far.

“But that just speaks of the quality of the players in Tyrone and shows how intense this league is. You really can’t afford to be off it any day or else you will be punished. That is why teams are scrapping for points because you want to be in a position come the last few games that you start tapering off and refocus then on the Championship.”

Kelly was satisfied with their overall showing against Carrickmore, especially the maturity exhibited by youngsters such as Pearse McDonald.

“We got off to a shaky enough start and they got in behind for a couple of goal chances. Truth be told they could have built up a bigger lead at that point which could have knocked our confidence a bit but after that we applied ourselves well in the game.

“I was proud of the effort the boys put in. We knew that Carmen were going to bring a lot to the game but we took the sting out of it when we had to and we brought the heat when we had to as well.

“We have some boys unavailable right now (most notably Eoin McElholm and Ruairi McCullagh) so it’s up to the rest of the boys to step up and make up for the scores those boys usually weigh in with.”

Nathan, who was bestowed the honour of becoming the first ever Loughmacrory man to get their hands on the O’Neill Cup amid euphoric scenes at Healy Park last October, felt that securing their Division One status was the immediate goal right now. And they look well on course to achieve that task with recent back to back league victories over both Omagh and Carrickmore easing them up the standings.

“We are five weeks out from the Championship and every team in Tyrone now will be turning their attentions towards that. Everybody will be using these league games from now on to build into the Championship. That’s the position you want to be in to be able to taper off and attack the Championship.

“Thankfully we have got two positive results in the last two games which has pulled us up the table. Even at the start of the year in games we lost, we were in a lot of them so morale has always been good and training has been going well. I think that has transferred onto the pitch in recent weeks.”