Clarke embracing “new challenge” at Teconnaught

By Shaun Casey

WITH the league now over two-thirds of the way through, Teconnaught sit in pole position to gain promotion from Division Four and boss John Clarke, in his first season in charge, is delighted with the progress his side are making.

From their twelve Division Four league games, Teconnaught have tasted defeat only once, against Glasdrumman, which is the only blot on their otherwise perfect record at the top of the table.

Teconnaught won a playoff clash in the Intermediate Championship last season against Drumaness to retain their spot in the competition and Clarke is looking forward to the business end of the season.

“We’re going well at the minute. It’s a new challenge and I knew they were an ambitious club; they have a lot of young lads coming through in recent years,” said former Down footballer Clarke.

“They’ve just missed out on promotion in recent years as well to get out of Division Four and into Division Three, but we’ve won 10 of our first 11 games. We’ve five games left in the league and hopefully three or four wins will get us promotion.

“That’ll be progress for us. It’s been enjoyable, there’s a lot of good players there and it’s a good club and are fairly ambitious about where they want to go so it’s been a fresh challenge and it’s been enjoyable so far.

“It takes time. We had a good pre-season, and we’ve introduced young lads into the team and there’s a core of experienced boys there as well and they seem to be buying into what we’re trying to do but it’s still early days.

“So far, so good and we’re looking to keep that going now over the summer months and consolidate promotion and hopefully give the Intermediate Championship a real rattle later on as well.”

Like most teams, Teconnaught haven’t had their strongest 15 on the field this season but are making strides.

“We haven’t had a full squad all year with a couple of niggles and boys all at different stages,” Clarke added,

“That’s just part of the course at the minute with club football but we have a strong enough squad there. It’s given an opportunity for other lads to step up and put their hand up so that can only be a good thing for the weeks and months ahead. If we can get everybody fit for the championship down the line, we’ll be more than happy.”