Steelstown manager Eamon Gibson praises players' character after Faughanvale win

Saturday’s two point victory over Faughanvale means the Brian Ogs will be competing in their third Intermediate final, after heartbreaking defeats to Castledawson in both 2010 and 2016. The opposition will be different this time round but not the size of the challenge with Greenlough favourites to lift the title before a ball was kicked and Gibson knows they will have their work cut out in Bellaghy next Sunday.

“You have already seen how little there is between the teams in these semi-finals so it’s going to be tight,” explained Gibson, “Greenlough will obviously be favourites but we’ll just go back to the drawing board, worry about what we can control, and work on our game-plan.”

Saturday’s 1-09 to 0-10 win was more about defensive discipline than the free flowing football Steelstown had produced earlier in the competition with Gibson admitting he was glad to hear the final whistle .

“It was relief more than anything,” he added, “We knew it was going to be tough coming into it. Joe (Gray) has always done his homework and we knew he would have Faughanvale well drilled.

“We knew it was going to be intensity, work rate and heart that would get us over the line and that’s testament to the boys. Faughanvale brought it back to a point and asked us a lot of questions but the players never panicked. They kept plugging away, pushed up front and got a couple of scores to ease the pressure.”

And in a season where many of the plaudits have been reserved for forwards like Ben McCarron, Cahir McMonagle, Gareth Logue or Jacob Duffy, the victory over ‘Vale was built on a superb defensive display with Eoghan Concannon and Neil Forester excellent.

“Eoghan has been brilliant all year. He can look so relaxed at training, almost not interested, and then in matches it is like someone flipped a switch, he’s like an animal,” laughed Gibson. , “As for Neil (Forester), he has been doing that for years and everyone knows how good a player he is. When it comes to Championship time, his ears prick up and away he goes. You saw him there, charging up and down the pitch and it was crucial he did, especially with Faughanvale dropping men back. We had to be patient, we had to get those runners from deep, get boys moving to create those little pockets of space.

“We knew it would be like that, it’s what we planned for all week and thankfully it worked. Faughanvale are a difficult team to play against, they are very well organised but the goal came at the right time and Cahir is another boy who has come out of nowhere and suddenly it seems he has been at this level for years.”

Meanwhile, Gibson’s opposite number Joe Gray was left to lament the slow start.

“The first quarter was massively disappointing,” said Gray. “We knew how they would come out to go at it but we weren’t at the races in the first quarter.

“Every time we got the ball, it was dropped, there was a bad hand-pass, a bad kick-pass, it looked very nervy from the boys and that probably ate into them. We almost had to write off the whole first half because we played none.

“We couldn’t get any worse but to be fair they answered what I asked of them at half-time. They started to claw their way into it in the second half and I thought they were giving it that little bit more but ultimately we fell short at the end.”

“Their goal was crucial and it came in that early period. That’s the disappointing thing, we more or less knew Steelstown would try that. After it, they were always able to keep us at arm’s length. Maybe when you are always chasing the game those little mistakes happen but listen, we can make all the excuses we want, Steelstown were a better team than us today. They out worked us, out scored us and deserved their victory so good luck to them in the final.”