Glen simply couldn’t afford to take their eye off the ball and the nature of their wins over Errigal Ciaran and Cargin suggested as much.
Yet, when their Ulster Club SFC opponents were confirmed as defending champions Kilcoo, Glen skipper Connor Carville sat down and watched a rerun of last season’s semi-final clash between the sides.
It was almost one year ago when Jerome Johnston’s extra-time goal sealed a 1-11 to 0-11 win for the Magpies, who’d go on to end the season as Ulster and All-Ireland champions.
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The sides return to the Athletic Grounds this Sunday to battle it out for the Seamus McFerren Cup and Carville is hoping Glen improved from last year’s narrow defeat.
“I watched it this week for the first time I’d say. Everybody, after the game, was saying it was a bad game. I enjoyed watching it back,” said Carville.
“I thought it was exciting at times. It might have been low scoring, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a bad game.
“It was a tactical arm wrestle at times. I’d say both teams will be watching it back trying to learn things for Sunday.”
When asked if the Kilcoo loss and their subsequent success spurred Malachy O'Rourke's side on during training last winter, Carville replied: “You would think that, but you don’t take Derry championships for granted.
“We were just focussing on winning every game in Derry that came to us.
"Slaughtneil, who have had an incredible record in his competition over the last number of years, you have to beat them before you even start thinking about getting to an Ulster championship.
"We were thinking, over the winter, of getting out of Derry and thankfully we have done that.
“Now we are taking each game as it came and thankfully we are back and in an Ulster final and it means we have another chance at playing Kilcoo and righting the wrongs of last year.
“We’ll have to perform to our absolute best to have any chance of doing that.”
The two teams come into Sunday’s decider on the back of two very different campaigns in Ulster.
After causing an upset in the preliminary round to defeat Crossmaglen, Ballybay had no answers to Kilcoo in their quarter-final clash in Clones, losing by 10 points.
In their semi-final, the holders went one better and defeated Enniskillen Gaels by 11.
On the other side of the draw, Glen rode their luck at times in their thrilling win over Tyrone champions Errigal Ciaran and were workmanlike at best before Danny Tallon’s late penalty gave them a five-point win over Cargin last time out.
"We are under no illusions, we have to improve seriously to give Kilcoo any sort of a game next Sunday,” stated Carville.
“Let’s face it, they are the reigning All-Ireland champions and are going for a three-in-a-row in Ulster.
“They have been seriously impressive. Ballybay beat Crossmaglen, so they are obviously a top class team and Kilcoo seemed to be in complete control in the Ballybay game and against Enniskillen as well - they had a great performance.
"If you look at our games, you might be saying we were lucky enough the last day against Cargin. If we are not at our absolute best, forget about it.”
He added: “Every time you go out it’s important. If you lose, you are out. You need to be finding ways to win.
"They were two very different games. The Errigal game, I thought, was very gung-ho times with two teams trying to outscore each other so it made for an entertaining watch.
“The Cargin game was more defensive and wasn’t as good a watch, but those game show we can win it both ways which is good;
“At the same time, we wouldn’t have been delighted with our performance against Cargin. We have plenty to work on for the final, the performance against Cargin wouldn’t do the next day.”
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