IN the wake of Glanworth's county junior football final victory three weeks ago, joint captain Terence Ryan revealed that Fermoy's success in the hurling equivalent seven days earlier had been a huge source of inspiration for the team.

"Nobody gave Fermoy much of a chance, and it was the same with ourselves, although we always had confidence in our own ability," he said.

"But Fermoy's win gave us additional encouragement," insisted Ryan, who will now be hoping that Glanworth can again emulate the latest achievement of their Avondhu neighbours when they contest a Munster semi final next Sunday.

Last weekend Fermoy advanced to a provincial decider by virtue of a hard-earned away win over Kilgarvan. And Glanworth must also journey to the Kingdom for a semi final encounter with Castlegregory which goes ahead in Austin Stack Park, Tralee.

In light of the good record of Cork hurling teams since the Munster club junior championships were inaugurated in 2003, Fermoy would have been entitled to fancy their chances of delivering the goods against Kerry opposition.

But it's a different story in football, with Kerry producing the Munster champions on a regular basis, and Cork's sole success being registered by Canovee two seasons ago.

All of which suggests that Glanworth will have their work cut out to progress at the expense of Castlegregory, but it can be safely said they are eagerly looking forward to the challenge.

They have already achieved their main objective this season by winning the county junior title. That bridged a 38-year gap and allowed the club to taste county success for the first time since the intermediate crown was lifted in 1976.

Anything they accomplish from now on will be a bonus, and, under minimal pressure, the possibility that they will upset the odds against Castlegregory cannot be ruled out.

Their performance in the county final against fancied Ballygarvan was nothing to write home about in a pure footballing sense.

But their game-plan was designed to meet the demands of the day, and team coach Pat Spratt admitted afterwards their priority was to prevent Ballygarvan from settling into a rhythm.

To this end, Glanworth operated with a third midfielder, used their half forwards more or less as auxiliary defenders, and it worked a treat, but only because they were supremely fit and focused and had a group of players who were prepared to sweat blood for the cause.

In grinding out a threepoint victory, 0-8 to 0-5, Glanworth atoned for a heavy defeat at Ballygarvan's hands in the semi final the previous year.

" Today was all about getting rid of 12 months of hurt, and we picked the team with a view to nullifying Ballygarvan's key players," said Spratt.

"It wasn't a great game, but it was tough and competitive, and the bottom line is that's its better to win ugly than to play attractive football and lose," he continued.

While the county final lacked sparkle, however, Glanworth fully deserved to win it, and they showed over the course of the season that they are quite capable of turning on the style as well.

They possess two classy corner forwards in Michael Pierce and Michael Sheehan, who between them scored five excellent points from play against Ballygarvan.

Sheehan bagged four in all, one from a free, and had he had his shooting boots on his return could quite easily have reached double figures on the day.

The Glanworth defence is a well-drilled unit, with such as Denis Gallagher, Brian Gallagher, Terence Ryan and Barry Ryan - who kept a tight rein on Ballygarvan's Aodhan MacGearailt before the former Kerry star was forced to retire injured early in the second half - equipped to make life difficult for the best of forwards.

Denis Healy and William Blackburne are two forceful figures at midfield where Sean Finn, a Cork minor this year, did an excellent job in the county final, while perhaps no player epitomises the team's work-ethic better than ubiquitous wing forward Christopher Quirke.

Meanwhile, having waited months for a game of championship football Castlegregory will get their second in quick succession in Austin Stack Park next Sunday when they take on Cork kingpins Glanworth.

Castlegregory had a very impressive victory over Clooney Quin in Dingle last weekend and while the quality of their opposition is going to improve drastically they should be quitely confident of victory for the second weekend in-a-row.

Why? Because (a. Kerry teams have something of a habit of winning this competition and (b. this is a very good and above all else very well balanced side. From one to fifteen Castle ooze quality. Shane Kenny is very solid, Joe Scully and Joe O'Connor are fine defenders, at midfield Micheal O'Shea is a well known quantity at club level, while up front guys like JB Spillane and Alan Fitzgerald have both the workrate and class to cause defences bother.

It' s going to be task for Glanworth on Sunday, but they won't be intimidated by it, and, with little or nothing to lose, they could well put their best foot forward to spring a surprise.

- Damian Stack & Noel Horgan