Injuries have hampered us says Belnaleck boss

IT’S a derby day decider this Saturday afternoon when Kinawley welcomes Belnaleck to Patrick McManus Park for the first of this weekend’s Senior Championship quarter-finals.

Neither team have shown any consistency in the championship so far, with both scraping through their final round matches with a point to spare.

Kinawley have had an extra week’s break following the re-fixture of last weekend’s Belnaleck versus Roslea match.

Whether this benefits Kinawley will remain to be seen.

Belnaleck on the other hand will be buoyed by their victory on Sunday afternoon when they saw off a robust Roslea challenge to book the final quarter final spot.

Manager Nigel Seaney says Belnaleck was pleased to get a win after two disappointing results against Derrygonnelly and Erne Gaels where the Art McMurrough’s failed to get going at all.

Much was expected of Belnaleck going into the championship and their failure to perform is down to a few factors, says Seaney;

“We’ve had a lot of injuries and we’ve had a lot of disruption this last wee while and the boys have been trying to get back on track.”

The loss of defender Garrett Cavanagh following a long term cruciate injury picked up at the Kilmacud Sevens has been a huge blow to Belnaleck and the more the championship has gone on the more you see what a key player he is for the team. Darragh McGurn has also been notable in his absence but on Sunday afternoon McGurn was togged out.

When asked if we can expect him play a role this weekend, Seaney said with a wry smile;

“He’s back training anyway, it’s how he performs at training, let’s just say.”

So whether that means he will or he won’t, I’m not quite sure!

One thing Seaney was sure about, is that improvement is needed;

“I do think we have to become more efficient up front, during those ten minute periods when we’re in the ascendancy we have to keep the scoreboard ticking over and we’re not doing that well enough at the minute, that would be my main concern,” he explained.

After a productive first half against Roslea, where the Leckers trailed 1-6 to 1-7 at half time, they only managed to tag on three points in the second half.

“Fatigue came in there. Some boys have had disrupted preparation for it. Fatigue was always going to be a factor.

“We don’t have the depth of squad to cope with that and that was an added factor there.”