SAINTS CAN BE WINNERS

LANCE SHIELDS admits St Matthews are ahead of schedule after the Amateur League new boys seized the initiative in the race for the 2C title on Saturday. A 5-2 win over 4th Newtownabbey in Ballyclare manoeuvred the club to within striking distance of Whitehead Eagles at the top of the table, and with six games in hand over the league leaders the Short Strand outfit can easily wipe out their six-point advantage. Understandably, however, Shields was keen to cool talk of a potential title challenge, save to say his team were surpassing expectations in their maiden season in the Amateur League. “We’re down to the last nine games so we will just take every game as it comes now,” said the St Matthews chief. “Our aim was to hold our own and to get into the top six in our first season so it has gone well, and we have had a good run in the cups as well so I have to be pleased. “It’s been right and competitive this season, there are some good teams in the league and we always have to be on top of our form, but it’s good because we are going into the unknown nearly every week because most of the teams we have never played. “So it’s been a good challenge and the boys have been up for it so far.” St Matthews toiled to a sixth place finish in the Belfast and District’s Premier Division last season, hardly the ideal preparations for a tilt at 2C this year. But Shields managed to bolster the ranks over the summer, luring a host of former players back to the club now that he could offer them Amateur League football. And the result has been a team high on confidence and boasting the most prolific attack in the entire league, with 69 goals plundered already in just 13 league games. “We had a poor season last year now but we managed to get a few players back in,” said Shields. “When you are playing in the Belfast and District everybody wants to play in the Amateur League, so we lost quite a few players over the previous two seasons, but we got a lot of them back and maybe that’s the reason we are challenging.” Ciaran Boyle (2), Ciaran Vernon, Liam Mcmanus and Sean Mcveigh were all on target in another emphatic performance on Saturday ahead of the second instalment of their double-header with 4th Newtownabbey this weekend. “Scoring goals would certainly be one of our strengths, we are scoring a lot of goals but we don’t concede many either,” added Shields. “We were disappointed that we conceded two on Saturday because we have played 13 games and only conceded 11 which is a good record.”