McCormack: Ballyhegan pushing hard for promotion

By Shaun Casey

AFTER a couple of rough weeks when results didn’t quite go their way, Ballyhegan are now back on track with two wins on the trot and are well in the promotion shake up heading into the final few rounds of the Division 3A league.

The Davitts lost the Junior Championship final last season to Clann Éireann IIs but are determined to get out of their division this time around. Their ten-point win over An Port Mor last week was a signal of intent.

Ballyhegan captain and top marksman James McCormack believes that momentum is everything when it comes to league football and is happy that his side are back to winning ways.

“It was important to get the win last week.

“We had a bad few weeks and a few bad results, but we’ve got two wins back-to-back now and two wins on the road,” said McCormack of recent form.

“It’s never easy going away from home, but it’s good to get the results.

“We have a few injuries at the minute, but you play whoever you’ve got. You work hard, you hopefully get the result, and it worked out for us last week.

“We had a brilliant start to the league, winning the first six games.

”Some of those games were nip and tuck, some of them we pulled away, and then we had one bad result and things changed again, but we’ve managed to turn it around.”

At the top of the table, Ballyhegan are alongside Forkhill – who scored an unusual 7-3 in their win over Lissummon last time out – and Middletown as the leading trio.

“Momentum is a big thing,” McCormack continued. “Hopefully we take it into the last three games, and we just keep on building and see where it brings us.

“It’s a very, very tight league, it’s definitely nip and tuck. We beat Forkhill away a few weeks ago and then they came to our pitch, and they were a far better team on the night. They just really cut through us, but they’re a good team and so are Middletown.

“We got a late goal against Middletown to win, so it’s just whoever gets the last score, whoever gets the momentum, but it’s a very tight league. It’s one point separating everyone, so you’re always watching the results week on week to see how the other teams go.”

Ballyhegan have been playing without top defender Peter McGrane, who is a key member of Kieran McGeeney’s Armagh team, and McCormack is delighted to see a fellow clubman doing so well.

“He’s some athlete and footballer. He’s put in the graft and now he’s getting his reward and showing what he can do,” added last year’s Armagh Junior Player of the Year.

“It’s brilliant to see. You’d love to have him in the blue jersey and hopefully we’ll have him back for the championship, but he deserves to play with Armagh because he’s put in the hard work.

“You’ll not get a harder trainer or a man more dedicated to the cause,” his teammate added.