Orchard neighbours to take bite into Connacht's Big Apple clash

County managers living within a stone's throw of each other is a rare but not unheard of occurrence, but two managers competing against each other in a province outside their own and in another country is perhaps unique.

That’s what will happen this Sunday though as New York host Sligo in the Connacht Championship quarter-final at Gaelic Park. On Thursday afternoon, Crossmaglen native and current Yeats County boss Tony McEntee flew 3,000 miles to face off against New York manager Johnny McGeeney – a man who grew up two miles away from him in Culloville in Armagh.

At Christmas time McEntee was filling up his car with diesel when he spotted McGeeney at the other side of the forecourt. He walked over to have a chat but the New York boss hadn’t spotted him and drove off before he could get there. No matter the outcome on Sunday evening in the Bronx, the two will get a chat anyway.

The Crossmaglen-Culloville rivalry is a fierce one, but it’s been an entirely one-sided one over the last two decades. McGeeney was used to being a huge underdog when he came up against McEntee on the pitch in the Armagh leagues, and with the handicap for Sunday’s game – to be shown live worldwide on GAAGo – sitting at 16 points, that one-sided nature looks set to reach the sidelines too.

"It would be a big rivalry but they always had the upper hand," said McGeeney, who was appointed manager on a two-year term in December.

"I’ll never forget when we beat Cross in the league to stay up [2007] and I think the Culloville boys went on the drink for a week.

"I played 17 years of senior football and they won the championship in 16 of them. They were some outfit."

Despite the neighbourly rivalry that exists between the two clubs, McGeeney owes a bit of gratitude