LAOCHRA Loch Lao’s Seán Ó hEacháin is hoping his side can finally get the better of Éire Óg when the two sides meet at the weekend, as they aim to secure their place in the Junior Championship semi-final (Coláiste Feirste, Saturday, 3pm).

Laochra have lost twice to Éire Óg in the league this season and can ill afford another defeat if they want to keep their Championship hopes alive. 

So far, they have two wins and a loss in Group Two.

They defeated Ballycastle and St Agnes’ in their first two games but missed out on progressing straight to the semi-final stage after a narrow 1-7 to 1-6 loss to table toppers St Malachy’s.

Despite conceding that he and his side were despondent after that result, Ó hEacháin has insisted that Laochra will dust themselves down and go again against Éire Óg.

“We are disappointed with the last result as we don’t think we really performed to our ability,” he reflected.

“Credit to St Malachy’s who didn’t let us play how we like to play. There wasn’t much in it, we had a chance at the end of the game with a close enough free and we could have made it level which may have seen us go through on points difference, so it was just a fine margin.

“Obviously, we are annoyed that we aren’t going straight through to the semis, but there is the fall back of getting another chance to get there against Éire Óg.”

The Laochra man believes their display against St Malachy’s will stand them in good stead for what is set to be another testing fixture against Éire Óg.

“Our performance will give us a lot of confidence going into the game, but we are not underestimating Éire Óg by any stretch of the imagination,” he added.

“They’ve beaten us twice already, so we know we must be at the top of our game as we are not going to get anything easy. Obviously for different reasons they won twice, and we want to have another go at them, we are confident, but it is going to be tough.”

Éire Óg only won one of their Group One fixtures, a commanding 2-13 to 0-10 against Wolfe Tones at Woodlands, after suffering losses against O’Donnell’s and Pearse’s.

Ó hEacháin believes that they were unfortunate to be paired with those two sides, who are fancied to go deep into the competition.

“We’ve had a look at some of the scores in Éire Óg’s games and they had some good numbers in their group against O’Donnell’s,” he noted.

“They weren’t a million miles away either, although they lost two of their games, they were close enough and the two teams in their group would have fancied themselves to go through to the semi-finals.

“Éire Óg were in a slightly tougher group so I do I think they will be confident facing us.”

Ó hEacháin is adamant that playing the quarter final as opposed to cruising straight through to the semi-final could actually benefit Laochra in the long run.

“We do think, looking on the bright side, the extra quarter final game, if we do get to the semi-final will stand us in good stead,” he continued.

“I know anyone in the semi-final already will have three of four weeks off with no game, so they will be trying to get challenge games in.

“As a result, we are looking at is as if we get through it will only be another week and a half before the semi-final, whereas whoever we get in the next round will have had nothing for four weeks.”