Championship group stage coming to the boil

Race is on for final quarter-final place in Senior Championship

The club championships resume this weekend with all to play for across the grades.

At senior level, seven teams have secured their passage to the knock-out stages but the race is on for the final spot.

A win or draw for Mullahoran in their tie against Lavey would see them definitely advance but should the Dreadnoughts lose, Killygarry, under the management of a Mullahoran man in Danny Brady, could come back into the reckoning.

A win for the Crubany-based side, who have lost their three games but by a cumulative margin of just four points, against Lacken would see them advance should Mullahoran lose.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the table, the battle for the top three is in full swing. Big guns Crosserlough, champions Castlerahan, resurgent Kingscourt, in-form Ramor United and pre-competition favourites Cavan Gaels fill the top five slots and with the Gaels (fifth) likely to beat Laragh, that five will not be overhauled by the chasing pack.

However, all will want to avoid finishing in fourth or five place as that would deal them what, on paper at least, would be a potentially difficult quarter-final draw.

However, sixth-placed Gowna and seventh-placed Lavey could have something to say about that. Both teams have made semi-finals in recent years and after losing their opening round matches, played a draw against each other before picking up wins at the weekend.

Gowna's victory over Killygarry was dramatic; four points down with two minutes of normal time remaining, they conjured a point from Cian Madden, a goal from young sub Frank Casey and then the winner from Ryan Donohoe as they grabbed both points and sealed their place in the quarter-finals.

“It followed the trend of our last few games, we started well and in the first quarter we were flying but we must be drinking something strange in the water, we have come out flat after the water break,” said Gowna attacker Conor Madden, who scored 1-2.

“Killygarry, credit to them, they came out and hit us with sucker-punch goals but we stuck at it. We know we have good forwards and we are confident that if enough ball goes in, we'll score.

“We had been sitting off them a bit and inviting them on and against a team like Killygarry, that's a stupid thing to do because they have runners from deep and they have the likes of Conor Smith and Oisin Brady who can turn on the loop and kick good scores.

“I think in the last 15 minutes we said we would push up, man on man, and just go for it. If we had lost, it was a completely different picture, we would probably have been heading out of the championship.

“We brought on a few subs as well and that made a massive difference and gave us a bit more momentum. We never know when we're beaten and that's a good sign.”