TERMON captain Ricky Gallagher feels the strength of the Intermediate championship is continuing to improve as the Burn Road side look to return to senior at the third attempt.
At 29, Gallagher is one of the older players in the squad, but he feels they are improving year on year with a squad that is predominantly full of youth.
But with the strength of the Intermediate championship, the full back hasn’t underestimated any of their opponents this year as they come into a third year of the competition tipped by many as favourites.
However, they have carried that tag since returning to the second tier, although this is their first final since.
“There’s only a handful of us born in the nineties and even a few of us are older than the manager! But it’s a very good group, there’s a nice mixture and it comes with that energy and flair that the older teams mightn’t have had that.
“We were light enough in numbers for a few years but with this crop now, even though a lot of them are only 22, they do have four years of adult football experience so it’s all going the right way.
“We’ve been able to bring in the likes of Cian McMenamin, Patrick Fegan, Cormac Brady and Cormac Gallagher. We haven’t had much of a change in personnel but just with two years extra experience and gym work with Antoin McFadden is really holding to us now.
“The first year in the Intermediate we kind of expected to go up as did everyone but Dungloe beat us in Ardara.
“Two years later they’re in a senior final so it shows how strong an Intermediate team can be in moving back up to senior and it shows the strength of the Intermediate championship that they can bounce into a final.
Downings got to the preliminary quarter-final this year then Ballyshannon won it a few years ago and they were probably the fifth strongest team in the county for a few years.”
Termon won their final four league games to sneak into the Division 2 play-off spot, where they defeated Aodh Ruadh to clinch promotion.
Since that, they won all four group games and their two knockout games, so they come into the final on an 11 game win streak and full of confidence.
“I probably haven’t thought about (the unbeaten run) that way, we lost a few games early in the league but we’ve been taking it one game at a time and we haven’t been thinking too far ahead. But we haven’t lost in a good while and we’re wanting to turn winning into a habit and going into games thinking you’re going to win.
“If you told us we’d be here at the start of the year then we’d have taken it no bother.
“Promotion was what we aimed for, it would have been nice to make the top two in the league or win it but at least we reached it.
“Now in the championship so far we’ve won every game, it hasn’t been too pretty but as long as you win then it’s all the same so we’re happy to be in the final.”
Termon defeated Naomh Muire in the semi-final by ten points in the semi-final but that doesn’t tell the full story of the game as it was level coming into the third quarter before Caolan McDaid’s side hit 1-7 with no reply as the Rosses side had Harry Harden black carded.
“It was the same as the Burt and Red Hugh’s game, tight for the first 40 minutes but when teams are spending so much energy defending then they just seemed to run out of ideas and energy and that’s when we really took over.
“We got the break of the goal and they got their goal right after but we tagged on a few scores and their heads went down. The score line didn’t do them too many favours considering the first 45 minutes but a ten point win you’d take any day in a championship semi-final.”
Termon defeated Naomh Columba by 4-14 to 0-16 in the opening game of the championship at the Burn Road so rightly go into the game as the favourites, but Gallagher expects a different game on Sunday, with finals typically a cagey affair.
Although they are enjoying what is a huge buzz around the club at present ahead of the final, with two trophies up for grabs this year as their reserve side also face Burt in the Intermediate B final on Sunday.
“We tagged on two goals very early against Glen so they probably had to throw off the shackles and whatever game plan they did have they had to throw it out the window.
They hit over a few points late on in the day but we were just happy to concede no goals ourselves. But the scoreline didn’t reflect how tight the game was and that result means nothing now, it’s a completely different game on Sunday.
“Glen are a good side and they have a lot of quality. Paul O’Hare was named at number four (in the semi-final) and he got three points and was the best player on the pitch by a mile, then Aaron Doherty and a few others, they will take a lot of watching but it should be a good open game, for everyone’s sake.
“It’s a nice feeling this week leading into the final, it’s nice to have that buzz with the senior and reserves in the final, the ladies won their final at the weekend and thirds lost in the semi-final, then the minors, Under 16s and Under 14s were all in respective county finals.
“The clubhouse is nearly done which is a fairly big thing moving forward so thankfully everything is going in the right direction.”
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