‘We will have it all to do’

RATHNEW Senior football manager Harry Murphy has insisted that his side still have a lot left to work on before they go up against Arklow Geraldines-Ballymoney in the championship quarter-finals, after seeing his side come from behind to knock out Blessington in a thrilling encounter on Saturday afternoon.

A brace of late goals from Jody Merrigan helped Rathnew turn around a two-goal deficit to lead going into injury-time of their second-round tie, before Blessington rallied in the closing seconds to force extra-time. The Village, buoyed by a superb kicking performance from Eddie Doyle, eventually came out on top 2-20 to 2-19 at the end of the additional 20-minute period.

As a result of the victory, Rathnew will meet 2019’s beaten finallists, AGB, in the quarter-finals in two weeks’ time. While Murphy was heartened by the resolve shown by his men against Blessington, he said that there is still a lot of work to do before they meet Arklow.

‘(AGB) got to the county final last year and put up a massive performance against St. Pat’s. We will have it all to do, looking at their performance against Bray. Bray kicked the heart out of us and they beat Bray, so we will have a lot to do. We will have to improve an awful lot to be in the running against Arklow,’ he said.

‘I think, in the last ten minutes, we played really, really well. They were getting up the pitch in breakaways, but we had them penned in. Eddie had kept us in the game for long periods of the game. He gave an exhibition in kicking.

‘We finished fairly well and I thought a lot of our substitutions that we made helpled us and brought fresh legs in, and it seemed to work for us. I don’t know what Blessington think of what their substitutions did for them but, definitely, from our point of view, the people we brought in added to our performance.’

Rathnew’s team news on the day brought the positive news that Ross O’Brien, who came off the bench against Bray Emmets, would be making his first start for the club since suffering a serious injury against Tinahely last August, with his manager welcoming his return.

‘Ross is an excellent footballer. He was out on his feet, there is no doubt about it. He was out on his feet near the end of the game, so we moved him inside and he kicked a point.

‘We only won by a point. I’m not saying that it was the winning point, Eddie kicked 14, but I am just saying that he is capable of kicking a point as well as his defensive duties.’