​Cullyhanna oozing confidence and belief ahead of Ulster semi-final clash with Liatroim

Armagh champions St Patrick’s Cullyhanna take on Down champions Liatroim Fontenoys in the last four of the AIB Ulster Intermediate Club Football Championship in Castleblayney on Sunday, and the Cullyhanna men will be full of confidence after they overcame a tough challenge from Pomeroy last time out.

Stephen Reel’s men blitzed their way through the Armagh Championship, putting up high scores throughout, but against the Tyrone champions they had to grind out a tough one-point win, and Cullyhanna captain Pearse Casey explained just how happy the team were to get over the line last time out.

“One word I would use to describe how we felt after we got over that initial hurdle would be 'ecstatic',” he said.

“We knew going into Ulster that the standard is just at a different level, because you're playing Senior teams effectively.

“Pomeroy have a very experienced team, and they had a lot of key players. Even outside of the well-known players, they had five or six really good fringe players as well.”

The game was certainly a learning curve for St Pat’s as they had to learn to win a different way.

They trailed by three points early in the second half, but battled back to win, with Aidan Nugent nailing a stoppage time free (off his weaker left foot) as the winning score.

Despite the game being neck and neck throughout, Casey says that the team never panicked or lost their confidence.

“To get over that challenge, especially the way we did, we were delighted,” he said.

“We knew that no team would go up into Omagh and win fairly comprehensively; we knew that it was going to come down to the wire.

“Early in the second half, they were up by three points, they had all of the momentum, but we had confidence in ourselves, and we clawed it back. We never panicked in the game, which is something that we have really been working on over the last year.

“We can take massive learnings from that – a tight game like that will stand to you in the rest of the campaign.”

Between county and provincial, Cullyhanna have now won seven straight Championship games, which would bring belief and confidence to any side, and Casey explained how their ‘winning culture’ this year separates them from Cullyhanna teams of recent years.

“I think fundamentally for any team to be successful, you have to have belief,” he said.

“We certainly have belief in ourselves and within the group. Everyone trusts the man to left of them, to the right of them, in front of them, and behind them.

“There is a belief in this team, and there is a want to win, first and foremost. That's something which was lacking within our Senior team over the last three or four years.

“A winning culture has really been cemented and embedded into us, and that's something that we're keen to retain.”

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