Ulster Club Intermediate Hurling Championship Final: Liatroim (Down) v Middletown (Armagh)
(Saturday, Corrigan Park, 1pm)
No team from Down has won the Ulster Intermediate Hurling Championship and that’s a stat Liatroim are determined to change on Saturday when they take on two-time winners Middletown at Corrigan Park.
The Fontenoys are the only Down team to have contested the provincial final at the grade, but lost three in succession between 2006 and 2008.
After beating 2020 champions Carryduff in this year’s county final, Liatroim have defeated Castleblayney and Clooney Gaels to reach a fourth Ulster final and manager Colly Murphy, who guided his native Rossa to the Antrim SHC final last season, feels the pressure is off his players ahead of this weekend’s decider.
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“A Down team has never won the Intermediate Championship and Liatroim have been beaten in three finals,” stated Murphy.
“If we were to get over the line, it would be a great achievement, not only for Liatroim, but also for the county.
“It is great to be hurling at this time of the year. We’re just delighted to be there. We’ve gone way beyond our expectations this year so we can’t complain.
“Carryduff had two it for two years, then Newry Shamrocks and Liatroim had gone out of the loop for a while. That was our objective for the year, to try and win Down.
“Carryduff put us to the sword in the round-robin at our pitch so to go and beat them four or five weeks later in the final was a fantastic achievement.
“Getting past Castleblayney was a big thing for us. Then coming up against the Antrim champions, Clooney Gaels. Being an Antrim man, managing a Down team against Antrim, I know Antrim were always going to be favourites. That was a big achievement for us and we won that pretty well.”
That nine-point win over the Ahoghill men has earned Liatroim a crack at a Middletown team who battled back to claim a 3-19 to 2-20 win over Carrickmore after extra-time in their Ulster semi-final.
The Armagh side also defeated Eoghan Rua of Derry after extra-time in their quarter-final.
Middletown reached the Intermediate All-Ireland final back in 2012, losing by two points to Mount Leinster Rangers of Carlow and regained the Ulster title in 2017 and Murphy believes they are strong favourites for Saturday’s final.
“The bookies don’t often get it wrong and they (Middletown) are odds-on favourites,” added Murphy.
“They’ve got the Gaffneys (Dean, Ryan and Shea), they’ve got (Cahal) Carvill and talent throughout their team. We’ve watched them a few times now. They’ve won two Ulster titles and, I think, they still have most of their title-winning team from five years ago.
“They are a massive, physical team who never give up. It is almost unheard of to win two matches in a row in a Championship in extra-time and coming from behind both times. Fair play to them, they’ve shown great resilience.
“We know we’re young, we’re fresh and we’re inexperienced - all the things that they are not.”
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