Claudy with mountain to climb against Loup while Eoghan Rua fancied to defeat Kilrea

Can Marty Donaghy keep Claudy in senior football when they meet The Loup in Saturday's senior relegation play-off?

Last year at this stage Claudy sprang the surprise of the season and many before that when they defeated Newbridge by a point to record their only victory of the season. It is now currently their only win in virtually two seasons.

The Loup must have been delighted to draw the perceived weakest team of the last eight but they will take heed from that Newbridge turn up.

In the first of the of the last 16 games Claudy, not surprisingly, got a 25 point hammering by one of the championship favourites, Slaughtneil. Meanwhile, The Loup who are not the force they once were lost to Newbridge in a low scoring contest.

Marty Donaghy is back fit for Claudy and Oran Armstrong is superb on frees and outside of that they have a decent midfield duo in the McGahon brothers, Eoin and Shane. However, The Loup look to be the better balanced team with three first class forwards in the Devlin brothers, Ciaran and Caolan, along with the more experienced Anthony O’Neill.

Loup should have too much in attack for Claudy who may be happier dropping to allow for rebuilding.

Eoghan Rua v Kilrea

(Sat, B’screen, 2.30pm)

This looks to be a very tight contest between an Eoghan Rua team in transition and a Kilrea team that perked up a bit in the championship.

Eoghan Rua are a bit unfortunate to be in this position. They exited the championship at the hands of Ballinderry in a game at Owenbeg which had consequences for both clubs.

Kilrea stayed with a highly rated Magherafelt team for three quarters of the game before finishing five points behind at the final whistle. They will take a lot of encouragement from that performance but consistency is not one of their strong points. The Pearses, like the opposition, have a decent mixture of youth and experience but Coleraine might just have a more accurate attack.

Lorcan McMullen and Dara Mooney are lively young corner forwards while at the back Sean Leo McGoldrick and Ruairi Mooney are the key men in defence. PJ MAcleese, Paddy Quigg, Odhran McLarnon along with the experienced James Kielt will not be found wanting but they might just come up a bit short!