Shercock make flying start in Cavan Intermediate Championship

By Kieran Lynch

SHERCOCK have made a flying start in the Cavan Intermediate Football Championship with two wins from two, and manager Peter McKeown says that things ae starting to come together at the right moment.

McKeown, who manages the team alongside Paul Cooney and Declan McIntyre, admitted that their league form was poor, as they needed to win a relegation play-off to stay up, but things have turned around dramatically.

Shercock have defeated 2021 Intermediate champions Butlersbridge and Killinkere in their opening fixtures.

“To be honest, we had a very bad league campaign,” said McKeown.

“But things are just starting to come together at the right time, with a few lads back in from injury and a few lads home who had been abroad.

“The positive of having those guys away was that we were able to introduce three or four young players who hadn’t played senior before, and they have been absolutely excellent.

“And we’re happy enough with where we are at the moment.”

Shercock have been powered by young talents such as Conor McIntyre, Michael Morrissey, Conor Uxton and Jody McPhillips, who have added to a team which already included Sean Clarke and Cavan inter-county man Killian Clarke.

The foundations for their form have been laid in their defensive displays, with only a combined 20 points given up in their two wins.

“It’s especially important for us, because as I said, throughout the league we were conceding massive scores,” said McKeown.

“But we had to go back to basics, put a structure in place, worked on it, and we’re starting to get the buy-in to it now, so hopefully that continues.”

Up next are bottom-placed side Cornafean, but despite having two wins already under their belt, Shercock will know better than to take their foot off the accelerator, after what happened last year.

“Definitely not,” said McKeown, regarding complacency creeping in.

“We know what Cornafean are like; they are strong, and unlike us, they were thriving in the league. They have a lot of good players, and they were the team who put us out of the championship last year. So, we won’t be taking them lightly, let me tell you.

“We won our first two games last year, and we still went out, so we’re not going to be complacent this year.

“We’re going to go out and try and win all four group games, because you can still get caught at this stage.

“We’re a good tight knit group of lads, and our hope is to make the quarter-final stage, and go from there.”