Ulster Club SFC final preview: Keith Duggantalks to Ballinderry's manager whose team face the difficult task of ending Crossmaglen's unblemished record in replays.

SUNDAY: Crossmaglen Rangers (Armagh) v Ballinderry (Derry), Brewster Park, 2.30: The news following the first meeting that John McEntee was cleared to play having had his red card from last Sunday week's draw changed to yellow will surely add some further fuel to an already fiery rematch, writes Ian O'Riordan. The Derry champions hit 1-2 inside the final six minutes of the drawn game to earn a replay, during which time Crossmaglen were reduced to 13 men. The Armagh champions won't want to let that happen again.

Truth is they were the better team for large sections of the first encounter, going 1-10 to 0-8 in front midway through the second half when the steady old head of Oisín McConville fired home their only goal. Their defence was built around typically crafty and muscled play and for a long time it seemed Ballinderry wouldn't find a way through, despite the best efforts of Enda Muldoon and company.

But when they did eventually make the breakthrough they briefly had Crossmaglen on the rack. The key for Ballinderry this time to start out the way they finished the last day. Easier said than done, however, and the Armagh men's vast experience can help them win a seventh Ulster crown.

THE HONOUR of closing the GAA season falls to the Ulster football finalists. Last Sunday's late cancellation of the replay due to a frozen pitch was frustrating for both communities but as Martin McKinless sees it, such upsets come with the territory of club football.

Ballinderry's late escape in the drawn match led to great anticipation for the replay but when the pitch failed to meet the required standard, he was happy enough to wait another week.

"There is nothing much you can do about it," he says cheerfully in what has been a manic week of training, making arrangements for tomorrow's final and working his day job. Christmas presents, you suspect, will not be high on his agenda until after the last football match of the year.

"If the weather is going to play up, calling it off is better than some player getting badly injured. We had no idea until the morning of the game. So we just resumed training as we had been the week before and had a bit of get together that Sunday. We had one or two lads with small injuries so the extra break didn't do us any harm."

McKinless was a player for Ballinderry - "I lost two county finals with them but that must be 20 years ago" - and then a supporter for many years before he returned to take an active role in the club.

Four years with the reserve side led to an invitation to take charge of the senior side, which had, of course, won the All-Ireland back in 2001. He believes the team has the ability to ultimately emulate that feat but the Derry championship can be notoriously tough to emerge from before a side even begins to contemplate Ulster.

Ballinderry came through a bruising and controversial final against Slaughtneil and lived to tell the tale. Now, McKinless stands at the place where many hopeful teams have found themselves in the past decade; facing Crossmaglen Rangers for an Ulster title.

"It is a tough competition. There are no easy games in the Derry championship. But if you can get a good run and have a full squad available, it is amazing what you can do. The big trick is getting everyone right and having that availability. At club level, one injury can throw a season. When you start out, you are never sure how a season is going to go but this year, yeah, we have had a decent run of form."

The busy GAA calendar means the best club teams line out at the extreme edges of the season, playing All-Ireland semi-finals in February and provincial games the following December. It makes for a slavishly long season but it also changes the way teams play.

"There is no doubt about it. It is another season for players. Players want do get games in summer and playing in the dead of winter - coming up to Christmas - doesn't make much sense. It goes without saying that different conditions to dictate the kind of game that a team plays and also that it suits some more than others.Small, light forwards who might thrive in summer would find the going heavy in winter time.

"But you have to get around that and plan around that. The summertime is the time for football. It is hard to get the balance right, there is heavy congestion now and there may be too many tournaments going on. But there is no doubt, it would be great to see a game like this being played in mid July or whatever."

Crossmaglen, though, are all- weather specialists. They have dominated Armagh football for over a decade and established a national reputation that has made them extremely difficult to beat. Their club credo says they do not lose replays. McKinless is conscious of their record but not overly worried about it.

"We have to treat them as another team. Sometimes teams can meet an opposition and feel that because of who there are and what they have done that they are unbeatable. All you can do is prepare as well as you can and have their heads right and then, if you get the rub of the green, you never know what will happen."

It took a late goal from Niall McCusker, whom McKinless had moved from full back to forward as the Derry champions chased the game, to secure this replay.

"When those switches work, you are the best manager in the world. When the don't you are the worst! We felt that we began playing to out potential in the last 10 minutes. When you go down five points against Crossmaglen in the second half of a match, you worry. At half-time, we knew we had to raise out game and we did - we hit the post and had a few good chances before the goal came. There was luck on both sides."

The drawn match produced a number of early yellow cards that inevitably resulted in dismissals before the end. The replay is likely to be equally robust although McKinless doesn't believe it will follow the same pattern.

"Not really. It is another game of football . . you watch them and see how they play but we have been more concentrating on what we were doing right and wrong. It is a big prize for us, this. If we can get over Sunday, it would be a great achievement. And then to keep on going."