Ciaran Coulter says intensity was the key ingredient in Portaferry's stunning Ulster Club hurling final win over Cushendall.

The Down champions didn't set the world on fire in their provincial semi-final defeat of Lisbellaw (Fermanagh) but they were certainly on fire in the Ulster decider in Owenbeg on Sunday:

Coulter got forward from wing back to clip over two points and also restricted Karl McKeegan to just 0-1 as Portaferry prevailed by 1-16 to 0-10:

"That's our benchmark. That's what we preach. We preach it at every training session, we preach it before every match," he says of their awesome intensity levels in The Belfast Telegraph.

"We try and get our basics right and get our workrate and intensity levels as high as possible. That's what brings us to the table.

"Sometimes we don't play to the best of our ability, but when we do we're capable of beating anybody."

Coulter says the team's target was to win the Down title first and foremost: "Down first and foremost, that's always number one. You want to have a good league campaign and frankly, we didn't.

"A lot of people knocked us and said we weren't capable of doing anything, but we proved them wrong. Getting past Ballygalget in the semi-final was first and foremost. We would worry about a final if we get there, we thought.

"To be honest I'd have been fairly confident of beating Ballycran. Bookies have their odds but they're always 50-50 championship games."

Tweet

Most Read Stories