Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BATTLE ROYAL
Windsor gets ready to host eagerly awaited clash between two top sides in showpiece final
THE kings of Junior football will be crowned at the home of local football next week.
Hill Street and Enniskillen Rangers will butt heads in a mouth-watering clash at the National Stadium on Monday. Two swaggering, free-scoring sides who ooze style and drip with confidence means we’re in for a potential classic. Let’s throw some statistics in to justify that claim. Enniskillen, winners of the Junior Cup in 1999, have racked up 46 goals on their way to this final – 16 of those in one third round tie. They’ve conceded just three. Hill Street aren’t far behind when it comes to putting the ball in the back of the net with an average of more than five per game on their path to the May Day decider. Both sides had contrasting degrees of comfort in their semifinal though. Rangers strolled past Newry Celtic, knocking five in and it could have been more. Hill Street had to dig deep, coming from behind to force extra-time and then winning it on a penalty shootout against Ahoghill Thistle. But up to that point it had been a straight-forward procession for the Lurgan men. And boss David Wilson told Match on Tuesday how when the going gets tough his side get going. “We don’t fear anyone,” he declared. “We have plenty of respect but we don’t fear anyone. “We treat everyone with total respect and never get ahead of ourselves. “The pressure is on us in every match we play and from here on in every match is a cup final. “It’s built into us now to take each game as it comes and give our all every time. “I would rather play the tough teams because the players know they need to perform to their maximum. “A couple of seasons ago we were beaten by Rosemount Rec when everyone felt we had a great chance to reach the final again. “I learnt a lot from that game.” Hill Street aren’t going to Windsor for a day out and to rack up the selfies. They’re there to win the trophy. And that’s a plan shared by their opponents from Fermanagh. Rangers have been imperious in this season’s competition. Leaving aside the proliferation of goals, the teams they have dispatched were considered contenders. Certainly that’s the case with Rosemount Rec, who they knocked out in round five with relative ease. They also got the better of Lower Shankill in the quarters and they were also rated one of the dark horses in the competition. But for their player-manager Michael Kerr it’s not simply enough to enjoy the journey. He said: “You are at the National Stadium, 90 minutes away from being the best Junior team in Northern Ireland and there is a hungry and quality bunch of players in that changing room. “We are there but we are not there for a day out we want to go and win this cup. This was our objective at the start of the year. We will prepare to the maximum for this game and we will be ready come the May Day Bank Holiday. “We are in the final and nobody wants to be the runner-up in a final. “We are travelling to win the game, we are confident. We do prepare well, everything is done thoroughly, we had Newry checked out, we will have the homework done and work on a gameplan.”