Faughanvale savouring their moment
By Steven Doherty
FAUGHANVALE manager Joe Gray is only too aware that his days in the sun are numbered and is enjoying his football more than ever.
Faughanvale play Templemore on Sunday with a place in an Ulster Final just an hour away and the 35 year old talisman is impressing on his talented young team mates to savour the experience too.
“I’m enjoying it” he enthused. “When you get to my age you realise that it could end at any time. I’m enjoying every game and just taking them as they come. It’s great to be able to pass that enjoyment of games on to the young boys. I tell them to take the success as it comes because I went through a drought where you didn’t win anything for years and years. The 19 year olds in our team are getting that success now and they should be taking everything they can out of it.”
The Derry champions defeated a heavily fancied Tyrone side Brackaville in the quarter-final last Sunday, producing some of their best football of the season to come from behind several time in the contest before digging out a one point win.
“It was a good performance surely. We weren’t great in the first half, to be honest. I thought we were a wee bit sluggish. They were more dominant in the first half but we managed it well to go in even at half-time. Once we had a wee chat at the break, and made a few wee positional changes then we were dominant ion the second half and really came to the fore. The more pleasing thing was that we were behind three or four points in both halfs and we kept coming back, we never stopped and we never gave in.”
The Faughanvale clubman admits that there is something special about playing in a provincial competition.
“There’s that extra wee feel to it. There was something extra to it. It was a different club, a different county. We didn’t know that much about them so that added a bit more spice to it. Sometimes you can get a wee bit over familiar with the clubs you play in Derry, but I think all the boys enjoyed the new experience.
“It’s something to relish. It’s not every day you get to play in county grounds and you get to walk out in front of the big stands. It’s something we talked about – don’t get over-awed with it but go out and enjoy it because you might not get the chance to play in them again.”
Having won at Healy Park, the home of Tyrone football, St Mary’s now progress to Brewster Park where they cross swords with high flying Cavan side Templeport.
The Cavan champions will arrive in Enniskillen, buoyed with all the confidence of a side that has yet to taste defeat this season. The Cavan junior champions sit at the top of the fourth tier in Cavan football and should add the league title in the next few weeks to the Junior Championship they won last month.
The Breffni men looked mightily impressive in their dismantling of Ulster champions in the quarter-finals. There was no great argument about at the finish of this tie as the Cavan side finished 13 points to the good and were the much better outfit.
They won all the key battles against the Donegal champions, Naomh Ultan, who were just a pale shadow of the team that romped to the Donegal Division Four League title and won the Donegal Junior Championship after a replay.
The game as a contest was well and truly over at half-time, as St Aidan’s led 2-7 to 1-3, with the Breffni men hitting the Donegal men with an early blitzkreig which they never recovered from.
In the second half, St Aidan’s shifted effortlessly through the gears and added a third goal on 41 minutes as Galligan this time finished sharply.
By this stage the horse had well and truly bolted and it was Templeport that were basking in the November sunshine at the finish as they closed the game out to book their place in the semi-final against Joe Gary’s men.
“They seem to be a good team, a young team and they score freely” acknowledged Gray. “It’s definitely going to be a major challenge for us and they will be coming into it as favourites because they have a few county minors and Under 21s. They seem to have a good panel and they brushed aside Naomh Ultra pretty easily. They look a strong outfit and it will be a big test for us.
“I don’t think it will be a case of trying to nullify one or two players. They have scores spread throughout the team. They seem to be very mobile going forward so our whole team will have to play the way we want to play, defensively and offensively.”
Other than Conor O’Hara and Michael Quinn who are both struggling with hamstring issues, Faughanvale are in rude health for a team still playing football in cold confines of November. Gray himself was on the receiving end of a number of shuddering hits during the Brackaville, but laughed off any notion that he had been targeted.
“Maybe I’m just getting slower and I’m can’t get out of the way because I’m getting hit more” he said with a laugh. “Nothing really nasty, just a couple of hits. You just dust yourself down and get back at it.
“No, everybody is going well. The buzz of winning and the buzz of going on a wee run in the tournament that creates a wee bit of energy and people are excited. There’s no real tiredness or lethargy and I’m very pleased at the way the boys are applying themselves in training. We look forward to another big game on Sunday.”
Templeport v Faughanvale
Sunday, 12.45pm
Brewster Park, Enniskillen
FULL MATCH REPORT AND PHOTOS IN TUESDAY'S COUNTY DERRY POST