CRANFORD United are hoping to stay in the same division for the first time in seven years as they face Kerrykeel 71’ in the TDA Repairs Division One promotion/relegation play-off this Sunday in Ballyare.
Cranford have been either promoted or relegated every year since the 2016 season and player-manager Chris Carr is looking to stay in Division 1 for another season.
“It would be nice to stay up and you’d be thinking next year mightn’t be as tough in terms of the Letterkennys and Bonagees going up, they were tough games and we weren’t too worried about those games but it would be great to stay up and give it another rattle after coming up last year.
“We would have taken last weekend’s position at the start of the season, needing a win to stay up and we have a second chance now but you’re never playing for a play-off, you want to avoid that third from bottom.
“We were hoping all along going into the last game of the season we’d have something to play for and we’ll have another bite at it.”
And it did come down to the final game for the side and a win in that game would have seen them finish sixth, but Lagan Harps took a 3-2 win that day in Ballyare, where Sunday’s game takes place.
And that would have been a bit of a disappointment as Convoy Arsenal and Letterbarrow Celtic were already relegated automatically at the beginning of March.
“Once Convoy were out of the race and Letterbarrow it was then a case of trying to stay out of the relegation play-off but it was always going to come down to that Lagan game,” Carr added.
“They were better than us on the day so there were no complaints, we weren’t at the races and maybe it was going from a tight pitch in Cranford to a big pitch in Ballyare but we’ll have a better idea of how to set up and we’ll be better prepared for it this week.
“We had a couple of games where we struggled and other days we weren’t too bad. The Gaelic has started up again so we’re at the mercy of that at times.
“There’s a few games we snuck a few draws when we looked like getting beat, we drew up against Letterbarrow and had chances to win but at the same time we only went there with the bare 11, but we still would have needed to beat Lagan anyway.
“But we had a few good results this year, we beat Gweedore at home and beat Lagan at home and they were big results at the time to give us something to play for so we can’t have any real complaints.
“We haven’t seen Kerrykeel but, I know they finished well and they had a cracker in the last game to get the play-off.
“It’s a cup final really and I don’t think there’s any favourites going into it, it’s hard to know.”
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