St Aiden's Derrylin face their toughest test of the year when they take on St Genevieve's Belfast in the grade three schools final.

The Derrylin girls however will be going into the big match with a great deal of confidence for they have produced an exhilarating run so far in the competition.

In this grade there were a total of fifty seven schools competing and they were initially organised in eight groups, these played on a league basis.

Derrylin stormed through their section chalking up victories over Cavan schools, Breiffni College, St Aiden's Cootehill and Bailieboro and added the scalps of Fermanagh schools St Eugene's Roslea and St Mary's Irvinestown.

That tremendous run saw them qualify with ease into the knockout quarter finals and here the Derrylin panel were equally impressive. They knocked out Our Lady of Mercy, Newry and followed that up with a demolition job over St Colm's Draperstown.

Judging by their razor sharp display in that semi final, St Aiden's have every reason to be optimistic that they can overcome the challenge of the Belfast team.

St Genevieve's however have a very large player pool to call on, they are an all girl's college with over a thousand on roll. Derrylin on the other hand is a mixed school and have nowhere near the same size of player pool to operate with.

Despite the fact that they have more than a sprinkling of players who are quite young, many still in second or third year, Derrylin have made light of this and have been motoring extremely well. So their self belief will be high going into the match.

In their defence, full back and captain Sarah Shannon has been a pivotal figure all through the campaign and outstanding support has been consistently forthcoming from half backs Stephanie Maguire and Roisin Curran.

In the middle of the park there is a hardworking foundation laid down by the pairing of Jacqueline Curry and Teresa Doogan while in the forward line there is no shortage of scoring touch from Danielle and Lisa Maguire.

All round Derrylin have proven to be a well equipped and resilient side with a number of particularly talented players on board.

Under the skilled management of Sean Leonard, Pat McTaggart and Darren Owens they have risen to all the challenges put in front of them and they will be in fine form to tackle the biggest one of all.

At the time of going to press, no firm date had been scheduled for the game but it is expected to be next midweek.