Castledermot captain Gavin Farrell ready for IFC final clash with Allenwood

Castledermot captain Gavin Farrell is leading his side into an Intermediate Championship final for the second year in a row following last year’s defeat to Ballyteague.

Castledermot came up short 12 months ago, but now feel more prepared than ever to secure a county final win over Allenwood and regain Senior status when the sides meet on October 22 in Netwatch Dr Cullen Park, Carlow.

The captain said, “It is a huge disappointment not to win any final, when the dust settled over the winter we began to set our targets for the following year. Winning the county final was a big target and luckily we’re back there now.”

These sides have already met in this year’s Intermediate Championship, but the Castledermot captain is far from getting too excited about having beaten their final opponents earlier in the year.

“They have good characters, good players and we thought that maybe at stages(in that game) we were pulling away but they kept pulling us back. Ultimately, if the game had gone on any longer I wonder if we would have won. We won by two, but that is all that is going to be in the final, the kick of a ball. We just have to make sure we’re on the right side of it,” Farrell explained.

“I’m sure Allenwood are the same, they’ll take huge motivation from that game because it's not like we beat them by 10 points.”

After earning the title of comeback kings last year, Castledermot focused on tightening up their defence for 2023 and certainly succeeded in doing so.

“We had to do that after last year, we found ourselves out of games that we shouldn’t have been out of, in my opinion. The semi-final last year, we were seven down against Sallins,” Farrell recalled.

“We had to work on it, but I wouldn’t say we spent hours working on tactics, I think everyone just put the shoulder to the wheel so we could sure up our defence to make sure we were a bit more solid.”

Farrell also spoke on what it would mean for his club to win this huge game.

He said, “It would mean everything, we have put a lot of work into it. When we got relegated two years ago our plan was to bounce back, that didn’t happen. We have a lot lads who have battled a long time with this club.

“I’m thinking of Anthony Lawlor, who was there when I started at 17, we have Emmet O’Keefe, David Keating, Paddy Whelan, lads who have put massive hours into the club. And we just hope to get over the line.”