After a convincing win over Devenish for a full-strength Belnaleck team, manager Daniel Kille would be less than human if he didn’t wonder about how their season would have fared out had he had the full deck all season. 

As it was, a battling Devenish felt the full brunt of a full-strength Belnaleck side who have secured senior league and senior championship status for another season.

Kille was non-committal when asked about his own plans for next year.

But he was happy that his side’s main objective had been achieved in pretty emphatic fashion.

“Having a full squad was great and this performance we got today, I was hoping we were going to get it earlier on in the championship.

“But we did not have all those lads, but we knew they were on the way back and that was why I was so eager to try and get into the competition because I knew those boys were on the comeback.

“Sadly, we did not get into the knockout stages, and we can only go with what we had in the games we were in.

“And we are delighted to get that performance, regardless, if it was even in a relegation game or in the championship and we are delighted to be in the senior championship for next year.”

Kille had a tough start with a decimated squad at the start of the year.

“We were down lads with injuries, and we had lads involved with the county, but we stuck together and got the county boys back in and they gelled well with the rest of the squad.

“A few injuries healed up and we got a few wins on the bounce, and we ended up winning six times in the league, more than any other Belnaleck side has got and that is encouraging.”

But Kille admitted that this year’s championship had been “up and down”.

“There is so much more in us and there is definitely an air of under-achievement but this is a good squad of players and we had 30 men out here today and that is great for a small club.

“That in itself was great for the group.”

When asked if this undoubted potential gave him encouragement to continue next year, he said: “I have made no decision yet and I don’t know what way things are going to lie but I am delighted with the potential and we are delighted to have got over this one as no team is going to lie down in a relegation game and Devenish really put it up to us as they always do.

“There was an element of luck about the two goals, and we knew coming into the game that Devenish might be a bit suspect under the high ball.

“We had worked on that as well and we fired in a few balls and got joy out of them as well and that is good about doing your homework when it comes off.”