Bell hails the winning Ballinderry formula

By Michael McMullan

BALLINDERRY manager Jarlath Bell said winning Ulster was “believable” and highlighted the important of hanging tough along the way.

They had tight battles with Banagher and Faughanvale – after a replay – to win the Derry title.

Carrickcruppen took them to a point before Niall O’Donnell’s goal kicked them clear. Against Derrylaughan, it took a Shea McCann winner after the Tyrone side pegged them back.

It was the same on Saturday as Arva hit them for two goals at important times before the Shamrocks ended up winning the title thanks to Darren Lawn’s winning point.

“We were saying this year on numerous occasions we’d won ugly, like Errigal Ciaran had won ugly and Enda McGinley referenced it a number of times,” Bell said after Saturday’s win in Omagh.

“I said to the guys what winning ugly does. It builds resilience and it builds a mindset that when you’re going down the stretch, you’ve always the belief in yourself that you’ll always do enough to get by.

“You’ll always do enough to get over the line and you’ll do what it takes and you’ll find a way and just thankfully today that’s exactly what happened.”

After a bright Ballinderry start, Arva held the aces with Barry Donnelly’s goal giving the Cavan men a two-point interval lead.

Tristan Noack Hofmann had been doing a job at imposing himself on Gareth McKinless. The Ballinderry management moved McKinless to centre-forward at the break, with Ruairí Forbes going to centre back. Niall O’Donnell was given more of an attacking focus after having spent the first half tracking Barry Donnelly.

“I suppose in the second half we got to grips with the game,” Bell said. “I think they got their match-ups pretty right in the first half there. They were enforcing a lot of personnel on certain personnel.

“All those things (switches) seemed to help,” said Bell, who again references Errigal Ciaran’s win over Kilcoo.

“You look at Peter Óg McCartan last week stepping up and scoring the winner. Davy (Harte – Ballinderry coach) said at half-time that that’s what happens because when your go-to men are marked

“It takes other men there to step up and that’s exactly what happened in terms of Darren (Lawn) kicking the winner there.”

Bell, an All-Ireland winning with Ballinderry in 2002, agreed that Lawn’s performance was more than the winning point. A calm head. A reader of the game. Experience in the locker that’s invaluable.

“Those things really, really helped,” he said. “As we talked about before this year, it’s that mix of youth and experience.

“Shea McCann scored the goal at 20 years of age and Darren gets the winner at 30. So that shows you the range and the ages.”

Check out this week’s Gaelic Lives pod where we look back at Ballinderry’s win over Arva and head from hero Darren Lawn.