BY RYAN FERRY
Red Hughs’ desire to win the Under 21 ‘C’ Championship can’t be questioned and star forward Cathair Browne says they will give it their all to land the silverware on Saturday.
The Pairc Aodh Rua men had a super extra-time win over Downings in the semi-final two weeks ago.
That result came the day after the club’s dinner dance but it was a quiet night for the players as they targeted reaching the ‘C’ Final.
“It wasn’t hard to do that because we want to win the championship,” said Browne.
“We knew this year that we had a lot of good young players coming through and we would have a good chance.
“Everyone was happy to stay on the blackcurrant and orange.
“It worked for us and hopefully we will get the chance to celebrate if we win the final.”
Browne scored 1-7 in the semi-final against Downings and was a constant threat for the home side.
“It’s a tough place to go.
“There weren’t many people giving us much of a chance.
“We knew ourselves we had it in us.
“We knew we could do anything. If we put in the hard work, we can give a good game to anyone.”
Paddy McElwee scored 2-14 for Downings in the semi-final but Browne was pleased with the character his side showed when they fought back from five points down when their campaign looked to be coming to an end.
“He’s an excellent player but I thought Cathal (McMenamin) held him well in open play to be honest.
“It wasn’t looking good but we knew if we could hang on to the end that anything could happen.
“The boys have been working hard and we had the confidence that we would finish strong.
“It almost felt like winning a final but it’s only a semi-final and we will have to get back up to it again.”
Browne and his teammates have already come unstuck once against Kilcar in this year’s championship.
However, they will hoping to have learned lessons from that and will travel to Ardara gunning for glory.
“Kilcar have hammered us already and I’m sure they will think they can do it again.
“We had a full team the last time we played them but they were just far better than us on the day.
“We will be the underdogs and we have been in every game.
“Naomh Brid were expected to beat us and Downings were expected to beat us. Two tough away matches but we came through.
“We won’t lie down in the final and hopefully we can do it. We have nothing to lose and we will go out and try and enjoy it.”