Aghadrumsee manager Mickey Cadden accepts that his side will be the underdogs in this Sunday’s Junior Championship final against Lisnaskea but he stresses that is not something that concerns them and they have their sights set on lifting the silverware in Donagh.
The Magpies had a disappointing league campaign – picking up only one win over the nine games – but they have responded well in the championship and will be hoping to go one better than last year when they were beaten in the final by Newtownbutler.
“I would say that given our form in the league we will be massive underdogs in the final but that’s doesn’t affect us and we will go there and give it a real go. We’re delighted to be in the final and when you are there you want to go on and win it,” said Cadden.
The sides have already met in this year’s championship with the Emmetts winning on that occasion to book their place in the final but Aghadrumsee bounced back and eventually saw off Coa with a late comeback in a nine-goal thriller to progress to the decider.
“Against Brookeborough in the first game it took us a while to get settled but once we got settled we got away from them.
“The Skea game was one that could have gone either way but a few decisions went against us and then the Coa game nearly got away from us.
“We had a lot of possession in the game but we got hit on the counter attack a few times and they hit us for goals.
“When you are six points down with four minutes to go you are scratching your head thinking that this could be the end of the season but the boys dug deep and pulled it out of the bag to be fair to them,” said Cadden.
Having shipped five goals in that win over Coa, Cadden wonders if that will change Lisnaskea’s thinking on the game in terms of looking to exploit that.
“You don’t know what way Skea will play. They have been defensive all year but having watched us against Coa they may change that, I don’t know,” he said.
Aghadrumsee do come into the game with the advantage of having final experience after contesting last year’s decide while for Lisnaskea this will be all new and Magpies boss Cadden hopes that will help them on Sunday.
“It’s back to back finals for us and hopefully that experience of having played in last year’s final will help the boys.
“We have spoke about last year a couple times, it was one that we could have won and on another night it could have gone our way as we had a couple of chance cleared off the line,” he said.
And he says that they are ready and raring to go.
“I know it is only four teams but you have to win those games and get to the final. We are there and now it is about performing. Fortunately we have no real injuries just a few wee niggles and we will be ready to go,” he concluded.
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