‘It will be a great challenge for the lads’

REFLECTING on his side’s victory over Newtown Blues in the first round of the Leinster club championship, Rathnew manager Harry Murphy was obviously delighted but also recognised that this wasn’t a vintage performance.

“It’s a great win, to win away from home is always a great win in Leinster. It didn’t look like it in the first half, I thought we were very poor. The complete opposite to the way we played in the county final. We were on the back foot, it took us a long, long time to get to grips with them. They were switching a lot and made it very difficult for us. We were chasing shadows for the majority of the first half.

“We missed a couple of chances but realistically we were playing second fiddle for the first half, we were lucky to go in only three points down.”

Rathnew outscored Newtown Blues by 2-05 to 5 points in the second half to produce a wonderful comeback and victory, helped in no small part by some big performances.

“But then the whole thing changed in the second half, we pushed up on them and forced their goalkeeper to kick long. Stafford came into his own, Staff was Staff. He had a brilliant sec- ond half. Theo Smith did well, Nicky Mernagh got a lot more ball, Leighton got on more ball. And then you have Mark Doyle, target man. People have a go at him at times, they ask me why he’s playing.

“He got 2-02 today. The ball that went into him he didn’t lose any. The players came good at the right time. Paul Merrigan had a great game in the second half, Power came through in the second half. He was a bit shaky in the first half.

“Our back line has been playing well all year and we kept them down to nine points without any goal threats. Whereas we had a lot of goal chances, Eddie missed one, Jody missed one, Mark missed one. Really had we taken our chances in the second half we could have run out comfortable winners.”

The missed chances could have been fatal for Rathnew as Newtown Blues came from two points down in the 48th minute to lead by one as the game entered injury time.

“When we were two points up we could have been five points up but lads went for goal. Then all of a sudden we were a point down and it looked very shaky then. But they did what they’ve been doing all year.

“They’re a great bunch of lads, great commitment. When we need somebody to stand up there’s always someone who will stand a bit higher than everybody else. They got their just rewards today.”

Rathnew’s ability to dig out a victory is one of the hall marks of the club, they have incredible self-belief and confidence, something they use to grind out results when defeat is on the cards.

“It’s in their genes. I’m not bragging or boasting, there are lads there who have eight medals from our great run, you won’t get big headed in Rathnew if you have a medal in your pocket. They are expected to go out and win today. That crowd that came today, they weren’t expecting to come up here and lose, they were expecting those lads to go out and perform and play like Rathnew people and Rathnew footballers. They’ll always have self-belief, belief in their own ability.

“There are times when they have too much confidence and they’re not as good as they think and you have to tell them these things. When they put the jersey on, it does you good to be involved with them. They are so honest, they never say never. Young Jody went mad when he was taken off, maybe he went a bit overboard, but if he didn’t mind being taken off it wouldn’t be worth putting him on.

“It’s just self-belief but they’ll never get big headed in Rathnew. Stafford will walk into the pub tonight and somebody will tell him he had a bad game and he’ll put up with it, he won’t get upset. All the young lads coming up there now, their grand-fathers and fathers and uncles all have medals. We’re very lucky as a club to have young lads with that self-belief and the football. Thanks be to God we have lads with bundles of football.”

Was there anything said or done at half-time to cause the turnaround?

“No, we didn’t go mad, no shouting or roaring. We just told them they let themselves down. They were letting the jersey down, they hadn’t performed.

“I think half of them were playing to the crowd. The crowd seemed to be very noisy behind us, normally our crowd are spread out. It was very intense.

“The row at the start, I think it started between Ross and their number 11. And it just escalated, like wildfire. I don’t know where it came out of, in our county final there was one yellow and one black card in it. And I saw the Newtown Blues final and there wasn’t a word in it either.

“They just went mad. I was surprised. I’ve seen a good bit of stuff going on but no matter where you looked there were lads wrestling on the ground. Maybe it was the occasion or the tension.

“I’ve never asked the lads to lie down but I’ve never asked to get involved in that either. It didn’t do us any favours. It took us a long time to get our shape back. Sometimes you’d say an old row is the best thing that happened, that did us no favours at all.”

Rathnew will play St Vincent’s in the next round of the Leinster Club Championship in Aughrim in two weeks.

The Dublin champions will be unbackable favourites to beat Rathnew, not that the Village won’t fancy causing a huge shock.

“We’re looking forward to the Dubs now. You know yourself, no matter which of those teams come through it will be a savage challenge. But it will be a great day for us, for the club, for the county, a big crowd in Aughrim. We’re looking forward to it.

“That’s why we’re in the game, to pit our wits against some of the best in the country. If Ballymun come through they’ll have four or five All-Ireland winners, if St Vincent’s come through they have Connolly. It will be a great challenge for the lads.

“It will be a great experience for the younger lads and a really big challenge for our senior lads.”