DIVISION FOUR champions Drumaness have reached the final six of the Junior Football Championship and they are trying not to get too far ahead of themselves.
At the weekend, they beat St Michael’s by a massive margin, but Drumaness manager Glenn Burden pointed out that the team are far from the finished article.
“We are in the knock-out stages and anything can happen, but we are aware that we have work to do. “I think that these lads want to give it a real lash this year.
“They are a fantastic group. You are not going to get a better bunch, pound for pound, in any grade.”
The challenge, as Glenn sees it, is that in the knockout stages the Junior Championship is stacked with talent. East Belfast and Kilclief have already booked their automatic places in the semi-finals by topping their groups. But Drumaness, Dundrum, St Paul’s and Bright are playing to win the other two semi spots.
“In my opinion, Kilclief are the team to beat in the championship. They are the championship favourites,” Glenn said.
“We have a bit of ground to make on East Belfast as well. They have shown in the group stage that they have been playing at a higher level than everyone else this year.”
Drumaness have had few minor injuries. They have struggled with them for the past few weeks. They are not major, but they have limited the panel to an extent. Glenn said they may be missing one or two on Saturday.
“We are where we need to be in terms of personnel. When the lads do have injuries or niggles we do look after them. We try to put their recovery first and foremost.” Drumaness play Dundrum on Saturday. Dundrum finished in third place in group 2, which would suggest that Drumaness are favourites having finished in second place in group 1.
“Dundrum are going to be difficult opposition on Saturday,” Glenn said.
“I know Mark Fitz (Fitzsimons) well through football. He is going to know what he wants to do against us and it is going to be a very difficult game.”
Drumaness beat St Michael’s by 9-22 to no score in the final round of the group stages of the Junior Championship. That says something about the challenging situation the club are in, as well as the standards that Drumaness have set. Glenn paid tribute to the effort of their opponents.
“It would have been tough for them lads. They were always up against it. But in fairness to them they never stopped trying.
“We had a job to do. In our previous games we had not been at the level we would have liked to be. So we had to treat that game in a way that we needed to work hard and work on what we had been doing all year. “It was pleasing that they knuckled down.”
However, Glenn reminded everyone that Drumaness have already achieved their targets for this season.
“Our main aim was to get out of the league, to progress to Division Three to be exposed to a higher level of football week on week and improve as footballers.
“We are now in bonus territory.”
