Ulster Intermediate Hurling Championship quarter-final
Middletown Na Fíanna (Armagh) v Castleblayney Hurling (Monaghan)
(SATURDAY, 4pm, BOX-IT Athletic Grounds)
These sides met at this very stage in 2021. Fergal Rafter’s first-half display had Castleblayney hanging on the coattails of Middletown, but they could never quite rein them in.
A second goal for the 2014 and 2017 Ulster IFC champions was scrappy but landed in the net nonetheless. 2-18 to 0-18 was the final score of an exciting affair, and who other to grab the insurance score in Armagh city than Cahal Carvill?
A solicitor by trade, he also has an Ulster minor football title to his name with Armagh, and this year it was his goal that sealed a historic six-in-a-row in The Orchard County.
Back in 2006 it was Middletown who stopped a Keady side in the mix for six. This time it looked like a bout of Keady karma, leading all the way until Carvill struck the cruellest blow and they went where their opponents of ‘06 couldn’t.
Castleblayney coach Kevin Moloney knows all too well the challenge in store for his side, who are last year’s provincial champions of the junior code:
“We know they’re a battle hardened outfit. They’re experienced and they’re clinical, they’re around a long time and know how to win.
“We know we have our work cut out to get up to that level.
“For us, all that is on the mind is Saturday. We can’t cod ourselves and think that anything other than the complete performance is going to be enough to get us over the line.”
Reclaiming the county title was undoubtedly amongst ‘Blayney’s primary aims once the winter training started again, although it barely ended.
A shock defeat to Inniskeen in the county final saw them miss out on a run in the IHC, and so Junior was their fate.
A comfortable provincial semi-final win over Cavan’s Cootehill teed up a tense affair against St Eunan’s, one which Moloney’s men battled through, his son Leo playing a starring role.
In the end, their year was ended by Tullogher-Rosbercon and none other than Walter Walsh in the All-Ireland semi-final. Safe to say there is no shame in that.
Thomas Hughes remains their inside threat, having captained Monaghan’s U20 footballers from centre-back in 2024, with brother Declan a key member of the defence. It was the latter that popped up with a crucial goal in the tetchy Ulster quarter-final win over Antrim’s Cloughmills.
Sweet as that Junior run was, it was soon back to the training ground for a new season, with the county title on the horizon:
“We targeted the reserve first of all, you have to take everything as it comes”, says Moloney.
“The senior was next in line then. We had beaten them (Inniskeen) in the round robin, but neither team were fully at it, it was a bit of cat and mouse and score difference was really all that was on the line that day.
“Revenge isn’t something we ever mentioned. We let ourselves down last year, from the players to the management.
“After four or five years maybe you take your eye off the ball a little bit but it’s our job as a management to have the players prepared.”
Prepared they were, and on Castleblayney marched to the county final with a crushing 5-27 0-07 win over Monaghan Harps. Inniskeen were next in line, and revenge or no revenge, ‘Blayney atoned for their 2023 defeat with a 2-20 0-11 win over Grattans. Comprehensive.
Ironically, last year Inniskeen also met Middletown in the Ulster series, beaten rather comfortably in the end, so now it’s the Green and Gold’s time to see what lessons they have learned from three years ago.
They will feel this is their level. Now comes an opportunity to show just that as they head back to the Box-It Athletic Grounds to face Middletown once again.
In Castleblayney, ‘The Nashville of Ireland’, they don’t speak of revenge, it’s just the next task and there’ll be no eye off the ball.
But they’ll know too that this is a big one.