ILEN Rovers know exactly what they need to do this Saturday to save their season: beat Buttevant or it’s an early championship exit.

Having beaten Glanworth (1-18 to 0-14) in their last game in Group 1 of the intermediate A championship, manager Flor O’Driscoll dismissed any talk of chasing scoring margins.

Facing a winner-take-all clash against Buttevant (3pm) in Carrigadrohid, the Baltimore outfit is focused entirely on the result.

‘We had a lot of people saying against Glanworth, “it’s really important to get up a score for scoring difference.” But we were very clear within the camp that wasn’t going to be the case. Championship takes on a life of its own. You have to focus on winning the game,’ O’Driscoll told The Southern Star.

‘With the new format, no matter what grade you’re at, every single game is tough. So, you have to focus every game on winning. That’s what we did against Glanworth, and it was as hard as we expected.

‘It’s very simple now. We either win or we’re out. Hopefully that will give us motivation to put in a big effort the next day.’

That Glanworth result was crucial, given Ilen had lost their opener to Kilmurry (2-12 to 1-11).

While noting they need a big performance this weekend, O’Driscoll is pleased with his side’s showings so far.

‘On both days, you’re very happy with a lot of aspects of it,’ he noted.

‘Against Kilmurry, we came against a very good team who took their opportunities. We didn’t take our opportunities but that’s part of the game.

‘The Glanworth game was a really tough battle. I was happy with the way that we stayed in the game when things were tough at times.

‘There were a lot of positives to take from both, but also there’s areas to improve. We're working to try and find that improvement, which we’ll need if we're to beat Buttevant.

‘As the championship progresses, teams are improving all the time. The rate of your improvement needs to be higher than the opposition. Buttevant are a really good team. They were very unlucky to lose the last day (against Kilmurry, 0-16 to 2-9) and they're going to be fighting for their lives, just like us.

‘We’ll have to put in the same effort as we do every day, but just make sure that we perform at a very high level.’

Cast your mind back to last year and Ilen went all the way to the county final and overcame two titanic knockout ties in beating Mitchelstown and Adrigole, the latter after extra time. Experiences of those situations may prove vital too.

‘You’d hope so. There’s no guarantee that it will. You still have to go out there and make things happen. But you also have to take that inner belief, that we’ve been there before and we’ve done it before.

‘When things get tough and tight again the next day, it’s within us to rise to the occasion and do it. It's not a guarantee, but it certainly should be a positive that we need to use.’

With Dan MacEoin and Ciarán O’Dwyer most likely out for the season and Peadar O’Driscoll and Joe Hickey injury doubts, Ilen’s squad has been tested to the limit.

Peter O’Driscoll is nearly ready to go having played a few challenge games but players such as Micheál Sheehy, Paddy Collins and Simon O’Shea have stepped up to the plate.

‘Peter (O’Driscoll) is coming back. He’s very close but he's been out for 16 months. He is a massive part of our panel and has been throughout his injury. In terms of playing him, we’ll just have to see how ready he is. Another couple of sessions to go before we decide on that.’

With MacEoin and O’Driscoll out, Ilen needed new leaders. Step forward Seán Connolly, who was part of the Cork U20 panel this year.

‘Seán’s been a leader through underage and all the way up. He's come in and he's been a real team player. That Cork experience has been great for him. It's been great for us as a club and as a team. There's lots of other positives on the panel, but Seán has been a good example to highlight,’ O’Driscoll said.

‘The hardest part of our job is, who do you leave out? When they’re left out, you also need to keep motivated to be ready to put in a big performance the next day. Realistically, if you’re going to do well in the championship, you probably need well over 20 players contributing at a good level. It’s not easy to do but if you're to be successful, you need to do that.’