Ulster MFT – Termon must do it the hard way

By Niall Gartland

St Paul’s Ulster Minor Championship semi-final

Termon v Kilcoo

St Stephen’s Day, St Paul’s, 1pm

IF Termon are to reach the Ulster Minor Championship final at St Paul’s for the first time in their history, they’re going to have to do it the hard way.

They’ve already had to come through two matches in Ulster, having played in the preliminary round, and it’s a tad perplexing that their minor league final against Four Masters has been pencilled in for this Saturday.

Considering they’re playing Kilcoo in the Ulster Minor Championship semi-final on St Stephen’s Day (Thursday), the league final could have come at a better time.

Manager Trevor Alcorn said: “We have a county final now and our County Board shouldn’t be playing it. It isn’t ideal and it’ll suit Kilcoo as they’ll have more time to prepare.

“It’s a tough route to the final for us as we had to play in the preliminary round as well. I suppose it’d be a good time to rest a few fellas who need to rest and to play boys who deserve a bit of game-time. It’s still a nice problem to have.”

In a way, the Ulster Championship starts here for Termon. They had it surprisingly easy against Silverbridge in their first match, and then absolutely trounced Emyvale at the weekened by 6-14 to 06.

Alcorn said: “We didn’t know what to expect from Emyvale, it took us about 15 or 20 minutes before I realised we were in control of the game because you never know what a team can throw at you.

“We got a cushion before half-time that gave us a bit of breathing space.”

Their captain Ryan McFadden alluded to the fact that Emyvale are an u-17 team in a post-match interview, but he was probably being modest given that Termon have plenty of players who will be eligible for selection again next year.

“We’ve only four starters who aren’t u-17. We’re a very young side ourselves. Maybe we were a bit more physical, but they did struggle when they lost Karl Gallagher to a black card. He’s one of their key players.”

At the start of the season Termon definitely wouldn’t have been anticipating playing on St Stephen’s day, but they won their first ever Donegal Minor Championship at the highest grade and are now on the cusp of a place in the Ulster final.

“We thought the season would be well done by now.

“We thought we’d be looking forward to Christmas and watching somebody else play football.

“The lads are really looking forward to the match. It’s like Ryan said in his interview, Christmas comes around every year and you don’t often get a chance in a tournament like this.”

Their opponents Kilcoo are riding the crest of a wave at the moment and easily accounted for Killyclogher in their own quarter-final. Their manager is Conor Laverty, and he was an interested spectator at Termon’s win over Emyvale.

“Kilcoo will be a lot more experienced, they’re used to big games and getting out of the county.

“They seem to be confident and have a lot of belief in their manager, Conor Laverty. He seems to be very shrewd and they look up to him big-time. They’ll take a lot from their senior team. They’ll know what to expect.”