Home field not really an advantage for Quinn

Seven years ago Evan Quinn started out life as an adult footballer and even then he could never have envisaged his wildest dreams coming through when he will lead out Donaghmore/Ashbourne on their home pitch in the SFC final.

It will be a pinch himself moment, a dream he will surely expect to wake from when the decibel levels rise from the 200 green seats in the stand and from the thousands perched around the fence for what promises to be an intriguing Keegan Cup decider.

The stars have aligned for Donaghmore/Ashbourne and Quinn just cannot believe his luck that he will get to lead his team out in front of his home fans for the biggest day in the club's history, 10 years after their last final appearance which didn't go according to plan against Simonstown.

"It's definitely special for the club and the community to have the final played in our home ground, but we'd be equally as happy if the final was in Pairc Tailteann, where it usually takes place," said the coy Donaghmore/Ashbourne captain."It's obviously great to captain a team, but at the end of the day, there's plenty of leaders on the team that take charge and we all drive each other on equally."We take great pride in our club, Donaghmore/Ashbourne are a Meath club and we are very proud of that.

"Circumstances with Pairc Tailteann being redeveloped as led to the final being played in Ashbourne, but it's unusual for both teams, it is what it is.

"Each club is going to have their mix of supporters there. At the end of the day, it's championship football, anything can happen on the day. It's going to be 15 v 15 on the pitch and we are just looking forward to it, to a great game on the day."

Quinn was quick to dismiss his side's familiarity with how the wind invariably always ends up blowing down into the town goals "oh, well, look, the wind can change as well. The wind goes across and down the pitch, we don't know what's going to happen on the day".

Even though Donaghmore/Ashbourne have always been genuine contenders and have extremely talented players, past disappointments meant they weren't mentioned as being part of the 'big four' (Summerhill, Ratoath, Wolfe Tones and Dunshaughlin) at the start of this year.

The opening round loss to Gaeil Colmcille was a setback, but Quinn insists there has always been the belief within the group and he feels that his side have got better and better.

"The expectation is always there for Donaghmore/Ashbourne, we're a senior club. We start each season as we mean to go on, so we train like we're competitors for the Keegan titles, that's what you should be training for.

"We all know between ourselves how much it means to us and everybody within the club, the support we get from around the town and from the teams, the young lads within the club, that drives us on.

"It shows the belief they have in us and the belief we have within ourselves, so that's what drives us on, really, to try as hard as we do to win the championship.

"We were disappointed with different aspects of the game (against Gaeil Colmcille). We knew that wasn't our full potential, so we got back to the training ground the following week and we worked hard, done our homework on Dunshaughlin and thankfully we came out on the right side of that result and turned our championship season around.

"When we lost to Kells, not that our heads dropped, we knew that we just had to do something major to turn it around and then when we went out and beat Dunshaughlin, that was the spark we needed to keep going and keep driving it on."When it comes to looking at Wolfe Tones it was clear Quinn hadn't been thinking too far ahead. His chat with the Meath Chronicle was just 48 hours after the superb semi-final win over Ratoath and it would have been folly to have looked any further than that game.

However, Quinn has plenty of experience of playing against Wolfe Tones and he is well aware of the threats and strengths they will bring to next Sunday's final.

"We've played Wolfe Tones multiple times. Great side, great team. They're good all around.They've got great players in each part of the pitch, but we still have to do our homework and we'll be ready for the big day - can't wait," concluded the captain.