Craigbane have the biggest day to come

CRAIGBANE have battled their way through a mammoth Ulster campaign but are still only in the final.

Saturday’s penalty shootout win over Drumhowan sets up a showdown with Naomh Pádraig Uisce Chaoin.

Kevin Moore’s side had to negotiate a preliminary round against Killeeshil and rolled out a fine team performance to see off Knockbride.

Is there a concern of not being able to rise to the occasion after the emotion of coming back from eight points down to force extra-time against Drumhowan? No. Moore thinks the opposite.

“I would completely go the other way,” said the Craigbane boss. “We’re battle hardened and we’ve had a tough league campaign this year. I think we’re well up for a tough one. We still haven’t played for 60 minutes yet so I think we have plenty left in the tank.”

Injury has ruled out David Lowry as well as brothers Naoise and Marcas Ó Mianáin but Moore hasn’t given up hope on Cahir O’Kane who was replaced in their win over Killeeshil.

“Cahir could possibly be in the squad,” he said. “He’s getting treatment in an oxygen chamber, so, hopefully he may be an option for 10 or 15 minutes.”

A plus was getting Niall Feeney back in the latter stages of the semi-final after a lengthy spell of recovery from a broken jaw.

Another sub, Pierce McCloskey, helped turn the tide against Drumhowan and it was his assist that led to Brian Rainey’s important goal to get their comeback off the ground.

“It (Rainey’s goal) gave the whole team a lift and Pierce coming on gave us a massive lift with legs,” he said.

“Plus, there was a big score Rory (Moore, his son) got that gave us a massive lift as well.”

Moore feels while some of the young players lack experience, they have the energy that can make a difference with the correct advice from their experienced players.

While he was full of praise for his side’s grit to never throw in the towel, Moore had sympathy for Drumhowan who were shellshocked after being nipped on penalties after leading by eight points going into the final quarter.

While he’d have taken penalties with 15 minutes to go, the feeling in the Craigbane bench was the regret of not converting their extra-time dominance into scores. After that, it was the toss of a coin in the shootout.

They were able to watch on from the stand to run the rule over Uisce Chaoin’s comfortable win over Collegeland in the second game.

“They have quality players in every line as well,” Moore said. “It’s a derby, something we’re looking forward to.

“We’ve never played them before in our lives but we know what they are like so it will be an interesting battle.”

Getting to an Ulster final was something Moore revealed was in their sights once they accounted for Ballymaguigan in the Derry decider.

“It is something we aimed for, this Ulster final,” he said. “We said we’d give this Ulster a rattle because the last time (2022) we didn’t give it the respect it deserved.”