McDaid anticipates tough Glenfin test

BY MATTHEW WILSON

TERMON’S Aibhe McDaid is expecting a ‘serious test’ this weekend when her side renew their rivalry with Glenfin in the O’Reilly Sports Senior Football Championship Final at O’Donnell Park.

Termon have had a good Championship campaign to date, securing four wins out of four in the group which consisted of some top sides in the form of Moville, St Eunan’s Aodh Ruadh and Dungloe.

They endured some real battles throughout the group stage to maintain a 100% record and seal top spot in the table which McDaid hopes will stand them in good stead going forward.

“We’re pleased enough. It was a difficult group to come out of but it will hopefully stand to us at the weekend. I suppose some performances as well we had to go back to the drawing board but overall we are happy with how it’s gone.”

Top spot in Group A booked the Burn Road Ladies passage through to the last four of the Senior Championship where they met St Naul’s two weeks ago.

This contest once again tested the nine-time county champions, with McDaid describing it as a ‘tough match’ but they prevailed courtesy of a six-point victory over the Mountcharles outfit to reach the Senior showpiece for a seventh consecutive season.

“It was a tough match. They’re a very young team but they’re very fit and they’ve a good few runners so it was definitely a good test but we managed to come out the other side of it thankfully.”

Prior to the Championship, the Termon ladies had a solid Division One campaign which saw them come out on top in all ten of their league outings before being narrowly defeated in the Division One decider.

Despite losing their league crown, the Burn Road outfit were able to show something for their campaign in the form of a number of young girls that they brought through the senior ranks in those early encounters.

These number of individuals have provided real competition and squad depth within the Termon panel ahead of the Championship, with some of them earning starts for the side in recent matches which Aibhe expressed is great to see.

“There’s a good few younger girls in the likes of Meabh Brady, Kate McCafferty and Cayla McFadden as well. They’re really pushing us on and it’s good to see. You need that especially now in training and stuff as well”, said McDaid.

She continued, “a few of them have had starts in the Championship as well which shows just how well they did throughout the league so it’s really good to see.”

Up next for the Termon ladies is a clash with Glenfin this Saturday in the Senior decider. The pair have developed a real rivalry throughout the years with the two sides contesting five out of the last six finals.

The Burn Road residents have gotten the better of the Pairc Tabhoige outfit in three of these encounters but the Termon star is expecting a ‘serious test’ when they face-off this weekend.

“It will definitely be no different this weekend (another battle). They’re a serious side so they are, they’ve put up some brave scores in this year’s Championship so I would say it will be a serious test now but we’ll see how we get on and we’ll give it a good rattle anyway.”

This is the two sides second meeting in a final this year after the Glenfin Ladies ended Termon’s bid for four league titles in-a-row back in July courtesy of a narrow one-point victory at Father Tierney Park.

They’ll be seeking to right the wrongs from that day and get over the line in this Saturday’s showpiece.

“It was a good game. They got over the line by a point against us that day so we’ll definitely be trying to push on now and try to get over the line this time instead.”

With their success in the competition in recent years, a win this weekend would secure Termon a fourth successive Senior Championship crown, a feat they previously achieved back in the years between 2012 and 2015.

The nine-time county champions won’t be reading too much into the statistics ahead of this weekend’s encounter, with McDaid stating that they’re taking it game by game, but she expressed that it would be great to get over the line.

“It will be unreal now but I suppose you’re not really looking into the years as much. You’re just taking it year by year and game by game. But yeah, it would be class to get over the line this year again so it would.”