Ulster Club Senior Football Championship quarter-final: Cargin (Antrim) v Naomh Conaill (Donegal) (Sunday, Corrigan Park, 1.30pm)
Kevin O’Boyle celebrated his 35th birthday by winning a seventh Antrim Senior Championship title with Cargin last month.
On Sunday, he’ll return to the scene of that victory as the Toome outfit attempt to win their first Ulster Club Championship game in over two decades.
The Antrim kingpins take on Donegal champions Naomh Conaill at Corrigan Park seeking to arrest a run of disappointing results in the provincial series.
Read more: Cargin overdue a win in the Ulster Club Championship admits captain James Laverty
Back in 2006, they suffered a replay defeat to Monaghan winners Clontibret and have bowed out following first round losses to Crossmaglen (2015), Killyclogher (2016), Gweedore (2018) and Derrygonnelly (2019).
They were competitive against both Cross in the Athletic Grounds and against Gweedore in Corrigan Park and they won’t be fazed by the prospect of taking on Glenties on Sunday.
That 2006 success came right in the middle of a long period of dominance by St Gall’s and O’Boyle believes Cargin’s resolve will see them eventually crack the provincial puzzle.
“All those games got away from us and that’s something that’s in the back of our heads and we have to rectify that,” said O’Boyle.
“We’ll put our full focus on this Ulster campaign because we need to make our mark on it this time.
“For many years this team couldn’t get over the line against St Gall’s.
“ All it takes is that one match to make it happen and, hopefully, it can happen for us this year.”
When neighbours Creggan ended Cargin’s pursuit of a fourth successive Antrim SFC title last season, many in the county believed it would mark the break-up of a great team who’d won five of the last six Championships.
Yet, like all great teams, they simply redoubled their efforts and came back stronger this term.
With an injection of fresh blood, Cargin boss Ronan Devlin now has a talented mixture of exciting young players and experienced veterans at his disposal and O’Boyle says Erin Own’s were written off too soon.
“That has been said before. It was said when St John’s beat us in 2017 to stop us winning three-in-a-row. We came back and got three after that,” stated O’Boyle.
“The character of this club is always questioned, but that’s good. You want those questions put to you. Whenever you are successful, you are the team that’s hunted.
“What we’ve learned over the last number of years is that you have to work hard at underage and we’ve been able to bring two or three players through every single year.
“We’ve another good minor team this year and those boys will come through and push the current players.
“A good core of this team is 35 now, but the overall age of the team is very good and we’ve a good blend of youth and experience.”
As one of those 35-year-olds, O’Boyle celebrated his birthday last month by renewing acquaintances with the Padraig McNamee Cup.
However, Cargin were pushed all the way in the Antrim SFC final by an Aghagallon side appearing in their second successive county final.
Indeed, St Mary’s looked on course to cause a big upset when they led by eight points early in the second half at Corrigan Park when Ruairi McCann plundered his second goal of the afternoon.
The experience of O’Boyle and Tomas McCann in particular was vital in that third quarter as they fought their way back to force extra-time before prevailing by three points.
“Aghagallon came with a clear game plan and they executed it brilliantly. You have to take your hat off to them,” reflected O’Boyle.
“We gave them the total respect they deserved. We treated it like every other match.
“Aghagallon were in the final last year as well and they put us to the pin of our collar. At stages in the second half, we were eight points down, the character that this team showed was unbelievable.
“We knew, as soon as we clicked into gear, with the bench we have it would all come good and help get us over the line.
“It is hard to describe the emotion of it all - the GAA is a wonderful thing and the club Championship is a wonderful thing. You see what it means to the people of Cargin - you have to enjoy winning because you simply don’t know when you’ll be here again.”
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