Ballyboden St Enda’s hope to stay on championship winning streak

Ballyboden St Enda's defender Shane Clayton is hoping the Dublin champions can extend their championship winning streak when they face Down's Kilcoo in Saturday's AIB All-Ireland club SFC semi-final in Breffni Park, Cavan (3.30).

“On any day, any club team can beat one another, which is great and it’s different to the inter-county setup.

“We knew that going into every game; although we might be tagged as favourites, we know the stiff competition that we are up against.

“We’ll be working on their (Kilcoo's) strengths and weaknesses to see what we can do to get over the line.

“Winning your first provincial title is huge. It’s a first time for everything, but we know that they will be chomping at the bit to ensure that this run doesn’t end for them.

“We’ll be the same trying everything to keep the run going. I know the whole club has the backing of us, and we always get great support from them which is brilliant.

“Hopefully we can give them another day out!”

Shane is optimistic that their run in both the Dublin and Leinster Championships has steeled them for the rigours of the All-Ireland Series.

"The Dublin championship is very tough. "You never know who's going to win it each year and it’s tough to even come out of there.

"We had a few scares in the quarter-finals and the semi-finals but just in the last few minutes we always feel like we have it in us to get over the line and thankfully on those days we did and pushed through Leinster."

Reflecting on their Leinster final victory over Carlow's Eire Og the Boden defender said: "It was a very tough day in very tough conditions, probably the worst conditions I’ve ever played in football wise, but in the last few minutes we kicked two scores at the end when it didn’t look likely.

"When they took the lead I was a bit worried myself but the last few plays we managed to work the ball and work the right score, not kicking stupid ball away."