Armagh star Stefan Campbell is insisting that Clan na Gael will go in as underdogs against Crossmaglen in the Armagh SFC final on October 22.
Their mixture of confidence, pace, workrate and class is a potent formula for Clan na Gael and they will bring it to the final against Crossmaglen as this year’s Armagh senior championship finishes the way it began.
The Clans hosted holders Cross in their Group D opener at Davitt Park on August 19 and, after both clubs produced sprint finishes to win last weekend’s semi-finals, they’re back together for the fitting finale of an entertaining championship on Sunday week.
Clan na Gael conjured up a thrilling fightback to draw that first meeting and late, late shows have become the norm for them since. After they’d come from six points down to overhaul championship joint-favourites Clann Eireann on Saturday it was put to the outstanding Stefan Campbell that his club would take a bit of stopping in the final.
“Nah, I’m not buying into that,” said ‘Soupy’.
“We’ll be underdogs and rightly so – we’ve been playing at a lower level (Cross played in Senior League A, the Clans in Senior League B) all year but we’ll look forward to it and we’ll work hard for two weeks.”
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Campbell’s two frees were all the Clans could muster in the first half on Saturday but the Armagh star added seven more in the second half and another in extra-time as his club progressed to a first final since 2006.
“We were quietly-confident all week but we didn’t say too much,” he said.
Armagh Cormac Leonard SFC S FINAL
— Armagh_GAA (@Armagh_GAA) October 7, 2023
Full Time AET
Soupy seals it with a HUGE FREE!!!! Clan na Gael are heading to their first Senior Championship Final since 2006!!! What a game!!!!
Clann Éireann: 1-09
Clan na Gael: 0-14#ClubToTheCore pic.twitter.com/AlxeP812Zf
“Nobody in the county, probably nobody in Ulster gave us a chance but we were sure we could get a result. The only time I doubted that was when they got the penalty (late in the second period of extra-time).
“When Ryan (Conway) saved it and then they scored from the rebound I was thinking: ‘Ah no, it’s not our time’. But we got there.
“In our heads, we were going into that game as favourites. People kept talking about us being big underdogs but we didn’t see it that way. We thought that they would struggle to cope with our pace and our workrate and I think you saw that in the second half.”
Anyone who’d picked the Clans as underdogs would have been content with their selection when Clann Eireann extended their lead to six points (0-8 to 0-2). But then Campbell started to go through the gears and momentum swung the Clans way when their Lurgan neighbours were reduced to 14 men.
Campbell rejected the notion that the sending off decided the game. Even when Clann Eireann were restored to 15 men for the 20 minutes of extra-time, the men in blue retained control.
“People will say the sending off was the turning point, but it wasn’t,” he said.
“How many times have we been seven-eight points down this years and turned it around?”
Clan na Gael have made a habit of fighting their way out of losing positions this season and Campbell and Shane McPartlan have been their go-to men up front. McPartlan went into the game as the championship’s top scorer and although he was kept scoreless in the first half he conjured up three excellent points after the break. The other scorer on the night was youngster Callum O’Neill who caused the Clann Eireann defence headaches with his driving runs – all electric pace and brilliant close control - through the middle.
“We have a good supporting cast,” said Campbell.
“We knew me and Shane were going to be tagged, we knew Callum was going to be tagged so it was up to boys like Sean Mackle to get us up the field and keep us in the game. Me and Shane were always going to work it out and Callum had a great game.”
