It’s hard to put into words the magnitude of this game as Maghery and Crossmaglen write a new chapter in their classic rivalry.
Maghery have held the upper hand recently, having won the last five league and championship meetings between the pair.
Crossmaglen have got one over their Loughshore rivals since the 2019 SFC semi-final and have only won once in their last eight meetings.
Of course, once the ball is thrown in this evening, those past clashes will be precious little. It’s all about tonight.
Maghery have made it here the hard way, seeing off the two league champions of the senior divisions.
They were dominant against the Harps and their three-point win didn’t reflect the one-sided nature of the contest.
Against Ballymacnab, they were second best for a large part of the evening, but Maghery don’t know when they’re beaten.
They kept plugging away and eventually limped over the line with one-point to spare in the end.
Missing
It came at a cost though. David Lavery is definitely out while there are huge question marks surrounding the availability of Ciaran Higgins.
Without those two, there will be a massive gap in Maghery’s defence and that could mess up their match ups.
Facing an awesome Crossmaglen attacking unit is tough enough, never mind doing it without two of your best players.
To win this game though, it’s the Crossmaglen defence that will be key. And they could be minus James Morgan who came off against both Silverbridge and Dromintee.
Maghery don’t have as much firepower as Stephen Kernan has at his disposal, but it’s still been enough to do damage against the Ranger in recent years.
There are so many ifs, buts and maybes surrounding this fixture that it’s impossible to predict a winner.
One thing is for sure, it’s set to be a ding-dong battle and whoever come through will be favourites to regain the Gerry Fegan Cup.
