Ulster preview

Fixtures:
Kildare vs Armagh, Celbridge 2pm
Roscommon vs Tyrone, Padraig Pearses, Woodmount 1pm
 
 

Preview.

There are two games today (Sat) in the first round of the Gala Nancy Murray Cup. Tyrone take on Roscommon in the first of today’s matches, while Armagh travel to Kildare.

 

The Red Hands have been in impressive form this season booking a place in the Ulster Junior Final and maintaining their Division 4 status.

 

Manager Brenainn Brunton is confident that his side can continue this fine run despite not having the best preparation for the game: “”To be honest preparations have been stop start. We’ve got players doing exams and four or five teams involved in the Mid-Ulster and Ulster Leagues, as well as the Tyrone League but the girls work hard in training, they’re eager to learn and get better.

 

“”Our aim for the Nancy Murray is to stay in contention and to do that we need to win one or two matches. We want to put Tyrone camogie back on the map and to do that we need to ensure that we’re playing in the Nancy Murray Cup next year,”” said Brunton.

 

Tyrone has been dealt a blow by the news that their inspirational captain Julie Lagan could be out for the season due to a knee injury.

 

“”Obviously Julie is a massive loss for us and it looks like she could be out for the season but it’s more important that she gets back to play camogie for her club and hopefully we’ll get her at some stage,”” he said.

Armagh had what their manager Pasty Magee has called “”not a very good National League campaign”” but Magee feels his side is determined to upset current form and come away with a win.

 

“”They would be viewed as the in form team but we’ve been working towards this all season everyone is fit and ready to go. We should be stronger than we we’re against Antrim as Niamh McGeown is back. We’ll be taking each game at a time but at the same time we’ll be looking for a win in all the games we play,”” said Magee.

 

Armagh captain Joanne Mallon is confident that her side has what it takes to beat a strong Kildare side who recently won the Division 4 National League title to gain promotion. The Lilywhites will not be easy opposition having experienced players such as Susie O’Carroll and Reiltin Treacy in their side.

 

 “”From an Armagh perspective this is the competition that we’ve been focusing on all year. Kildare are coming into the game off the back of a strong League campaign whist ours was poor but the teams that we played would be a grade higher, obviously we’ve also suffered a defeat against Antrim recently but again they’re a really  

strong side and we feel we’ve learnt what it takes to get a win from these tough games,”” she said.

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