St Catherine’s close in on Saturday League Division 2 title

St Catherine’s are on the verge of lifting the Old Orchard Saturday League Division 2 title this weekend as they go away to Cranford on the very last day of the season.

Conor McGinty’s men are in pole position in the standings with 43 points to their name. Fintown Harps are in second place on 41 with Kilmacrennan Celtic back on 40.

To add to the last day drama, Fintown host Kilmac in their last outing. If the Saints slip up, Fintown or Kilmacrennan can still leapfrog them into top spot. But with the Killybegs men away to a midtable Cranford with nothing to play for, you’d expect them to get over the line.

McGinty says that silverware would be a nice reward for the efforts of his squad this term. But the main aim of introducing a Saturday side at Emerald Park was to give players a pathway to senior football.

“We’ve had lads like Christopher ‘Mooner’ Murrin, Barry Cannon, Christy Cunningham, Paul ‘Feet’ Murrin and Aaron Byrne; they would be the more senior lads that have been involved.

“We’ve then have young lads dotted around the fringes like Josh Cunningham and JP McGuinness.

“The Saturday team had been gone for a good few years. But when Shaun Kelly came back on board he, along with ‘Mooner’ decided it would be of real benefit to the senior team if the second string opportunity was there for those on the fringes.

“It was, and it’s got even better this season. Underage football, the cap age group for underage soccer now is U-16. It used to be U-17. And that’s a huge gap right up to senior.

“We’d be losing players in between that. So it made sense to bring back the Saturday team. We have a lot of young lads coming up. The numbers between both teams are great.

“With the likes of Shaun, ‘Mooner’ and Dan Breslin have really made sure that end of things is varied and enjoyable. There is a nice wee buzz to things”.