Buncrana boss Duffy hopes to end the season on a high with Cup final win

Buncrana Hearts manager Gary Duffy is hoping to finish the football season on a high by clinching the Signs Cup this weekend when they face Cockhill Celtic in the final in Maginn Park.  

These two sides are no strangers in facing each other this season, as well as being no strangers in winning silverware, but both teams will be gunning to finish the campaign with one more cup added to their respective trophy cabinets.  

Following their FAI Junior Cup victory in Galway three weeks ago, as well as them winning the Inishowen League in their first season back in junior football, Cockhill Celtic will no doubt enter this Sunday’s cup final as favourites, but Duffy admits his side will go into this match full of confidence having overcame the league winners on two occasions already this season.  

Buncrana Hearts can also take a great boost into this final, having beaten Letterkenny Rovers last month in the Ulster Junior Cup final.  

“Look, we know when Cockhill and Buncrana Hearts meet it’s always going to be an exciting fixture, there’s usually nothing between us, they’ve been close enough matches when we played this season and with it being a final this weekend, anything can happen . . . I just hope the lads go out there and give it their all,” Duffy said.  

“We can take a lot of confidence after winning the Ulster Junior Cup last month against Letterkenny Rovers. The lads had to give everything they had to win that competition and I have no doubt they’ll do exactly the same this time around.  

“Cockhill will more than likely be going in as the favourites, with them winning the Inishowen League and the FAI Junior Cup, so they’ll no doubt be full of confidence and be on a high, but we’ve turned them over already this season in the League Cup and the Ulster Junior Cup semi-final, so we know we’re able to do it.”  

However, Duffy praises Cockhill for bringing a strong and rejuvenated intensity back to junior football in the Inishowen League, admitting that his team wants to be challenged by the best there is out there.   

“I think Cockhill Celtic have brought the league to a new level, because the lads in our club want to be playing against the best to challenge themselves all the time and that happened this season with Cockhill in the league.  

“They’ve been brilliant for the game up here and have brought a new type of challenge and competition that has now seen the standard increased.”  

With Buncrana Hearts most recently winning the Ulster Junior Cup last month, Duffy acknowledges there were a few results that didn’t fall his side’s way, and now wants to make it a positive finish to the year by winning a final trophy by beating one of the best teams this weekend.  

“I think for us, it’s been an okay season, every competition we’re involved in we want to win, so, it was disappointing at the end of the league to finish second. Winning the Ulster Junior Cup was a major lift, but we want to finish on a high now by winning the Signs Cup,” he said.   

“We have one final game next week against Cockhill again, to finish out the league even though that’s just about fulfilling a fixture, so it all comes down to this weekend. It’ll be nice to finish the season with two trophies in the space of a month.”