Ulster Senior Football Championship semi-final
Kilcoo v Scotstown
Saturday, BOX-IT Athletic Grounds, Armagh, 6pm
By Peter McGrath jnr
THIS weekend’s ulster club semi-final pits Kilcoo against a familiar foe in the shape of Scotstown.
Last year in Newry it was the Monaghan outfit who ended the Magpies’ season and Karl Lacey’s charges will be keen to ensure they don’t come up short against the same opponent in consecutive seasons.
Scotstown played at the weekend past, their meeting with Erne Gaels having been delayed due to a tragic bereavement in the Fermanagh club. Though this will have given Kilcoo a chance to run an eye over them, how much or little they will have learnt has to be gauged against who they were playing.
Fermanagh clubs generally have a very poor track record in Ulster and, given the circumstances surrounding the Belleek men’s build up, it’s understandable they were well off the pace.
That said, Scotstown were ruthless and efficient. They scored 19 points and conceded just six. They were able to do this easing up. They scored only five of those 19 in the second half.
Any side with players of the calibre of Rory Beggan, Ryan O’Toole, Damien McArdle, Conor McCarthy, Shane Carey, Kieran Hughes, Darren Hughes and Jack McCarron in it will always be a dangerous opponent but Kilcoo know what’s coming down the tracks.
Last year they led Scotstown for most of the match and got into a four point lead in the final quarter but when momentum swung, the Farney men were able to get the crucial scores, including two injury time points as they nicked a 0-12 – 1-8 victory.
In the rest of the article read a key detail of how Scotstown play that may be important this weekend.
