Red Hughs hoping second time’s the charm

BY MATTHEW WILSON

Red Hughs will be hoping to right the wrongs from last year’s decider disappointment when they meet St Michael’s in the O’Reilly Sports Junior B Final this Sunday.

The Pairc Aodh Rua residents have enjoyed a flawless Championship campaign to date, recording wins in all five of their group outings before overcoming the challenge of Letterkenny Gaels in the last four to book their final place.

There were some close encounters along the way, as club captain Emma Neeson discussed, but they were delighted to have come through them on the right side to book their date in the decider.

“We’re going well enough. There were a few of them games that we were lucky to win, they were tight enough but we were lucky to have pulled through anyway to get to the final.”

“To be fair, Letterkenny Gaels weren’t an easy team to beat. In the first half it was definitely tight and it took us a little while to get settled but once we got settled, we managed to come out strong and we were delighted to get through to the final.”

Prior to the start of the Championship, Red Hughs had a solid league campaign as they secured promotion from Division Three by winning all ten of their encounters.

Despite missing out on silverware by losing the League Final to Kilcar, promotion was the aim for the group but they’ll be hoping to add a trophy to make up for it this Sunday.

“We had a target at the start of the season to get promoted in the league and we managed to do that but we were disappointed to have lost the league final. But we’re still going in the right direction anyway and we hope to win the final this time.”

The next challenge for Ronan Gallen’s charges is a meeting with St Michael’s in this weekend’s Junior B Final.

Not much separated the pair when they met in the group stage of the competition, with Red Hughs coming out on top courtesy of a slender one-point victory.

The Pairc Aodh Rua outfit suffered defeat in the Junior B Final 12 months ago, losing out to Sean MacCumhaills.

There was disappointment following that loss according to Neeson and she insists that they’ll be giving it a big push to bring home the cup this time around.

“It would be great to cap off the year with silverware, we’ve been waiting a long time on it. We’ll be giving it a big push so hopefully we can come through”, said Neeson.

She continued, “We always wanted to win the Championship. It’s been a long time since we won a knockout game, nevermind getting as far as the final.”

“Last year we got to the Championship Final and it was disappointing losing it so we’re definitely going for it again this year and hopefully get promoted and bring home a bit of silverware.”