Burt back in Celtic Park on Saturday to play Lavey in Ulster JHC final

Burt return to Celtic Park this Saturday with history in sight after a gritty six-point win over Antrim champions Con Magee’s booked their place in the Ulster Junior Hurling Club Championship final. They will face Derry’s Lavey at 1.30pm, aiming to emulate the team of 2011 - the last Burt side to lift the provincial junior crown.

Enda McDermott was a player back then, lining out alongside the likes of Paul Burns, Christy McDermott, Stephen Gillespie and Ronan McDermott who remain involved today.

Fourteen years on, McDermott is now the senior manager, and after last Sunday's semi-final win he was just relieved that a host of missed scoring chances didn't cost his team progress to the provincial decider.

“We got there, but it was tough,” he admitted of the 1-15 to 1-9 win over Glenravel. “At half-time, after having the wind, we probably weren’t far enough ahead. Then they came at us and picked up the momentum. When they went one up, I was worried. But it shows the character in the team that we dug in and got scores immediately.”

For long spells, Burt looked in control. They opened with five unanswered points and could have been out of sight by half-time had they been more clinical, racking up nine wides before leading 0-10 to 1-2 at the break.

But Glenravel grew into the contest, their goalkeeper producing a series of superb stops while Cormac McKeown, Callum Higgins and Conleth O’Loan dragged the Antrim champions back into the game. When O’Loan pointed in the 49th minute to nudge them ahead, Burt found themselves in unexpected trouble.

They needed someone to seize the moment. Once again, it was Liam Óg McKinney.

The roaming forward had already amassed a hefty tally, but his 53rd-minute intervention changed everything: a razor-tight finish for a vital goal, followed moments later by a sublime free from the sideline. Even a straight red card for Aidan McKinney could not derail Burt thereafter, as Ronan McDermott and the outstanding McKinney closed out the scoring.

McKinney finished with 1-11, six of them coming when the game was in the balance.

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Burt's semi-final win followed a 3-26 to 0-14 dismissal of Castlewellan in the quarter-final - a tie also refereed by Cavan’s Derek Argue, who will take charge of Saturday’s final.

Lavey have been equally impressive on the other side of the draw. They stormed through their quarter-final and semi-final, beating Cootehill Celtic of Cavan by 3-16 to 1-8 and then outgunning Armagh champions Cuchulainn’s by 0-21 to 2-6.

In Derry, they claimed the county junior crown with a 1-16 to 1-7 win over Banagher at the start of October. Lavey have never won the Ulster Junior title, although they reached the Intermediate provincial decider in 2017.

With games in the provincial championship running week after week, there hasn't been any time for McDermott or his management to scout or look over their final opponents Lavey.

“I’ll pick up footage and have a look at them,” he said. “We haven’t played Lavey in I don’t know how long - maybe since I was playing myself.

“But look, we always worry about ourselves, can we get things right from our perspective. Hopefully we can do enough on the day to beat them.”

Burt thought their championship season was over when they were beaten in the Donegal semi-final by Setanta back in August, but have grabbed the opportunity this Ulster Junior club championship has presented them and they now stand just one win away from a coveted provincial title.

The winner of Saturday’s Ulster final will play British Junior champions Thomas Mac Curtain’s (London) in the All-Ireland quarter-final at the end of November.