Good start to club league

Mid April but at long last our club season got off to start in Antrim today.
Our senior team Ardoyne Kickhams faced McDermott's in our first league game of the year in the county's Division 3.
For us the target for the season is to get out of this league.
The standard in Division 3 is by and large poor but there are always at least four sides in the running to get out of it.
We have come up short in each of the last three seasons we have been there since Division 2 was reorganised and we took the drop.
We have been improving with a number of good minors breaking through into the senior ranks over the last two seasons and we have a good nucleus of players now at their physical peak in their mid to late 20s.
Hope springs eternal at this time of the year and we are convinced that we have a stronger panel than we had this time last year and are physically stronger.
A good start is essential and we have enjoyed a number of good results against teams from Division 2 in pre season 'friendlies', there is no such thing really, and we looked forward to playing the relegated side McDermott's in our first game.
Mac's and ourselves have enjoyed a healthy rivalry over many years but they have suffered badly through not having a youth policy in the club and are in danger of all going over the hill together.
As it turned out we negotiated this first hurdle successfully winning in the end by around 15 points with a good performance by all 19 players who played today.
Our defence was solid and our forwards scored freely.
It was just the start to the season we needed and I hope we can now build on this as there will be much sterner examinations of us through the year.