Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HUGH IS ON FRONT FOOT Embarrassment of riches in striking department has Hugh targeting a Windsor final night
HUGH SINCLAIR admits Bangor are going all out for glory in the Match Intermediate Cup this season.
The in-form Seasiders host Amateur League outfit Saintfield United in the third round of the competition at the Bangor Fuels Arena this weekend, on the back of a 5-1 dismantling of Dunloy in the O’gorman Cup on Saturday.
As the holders of the O’gorman, the Clandeboye Road men are naturally determined to retain their crown, with their rivals for the league title St James Swifts next up in the semi-final.
Yet, with all due respect to the main knockout competition in the BPIL’S top flight, Sinclair has his eyes on bigger prizes.
Often in the Intermediate Cup managers play down their expectations, citing the amount of games and teams involved, and the difficulty in winning it outright, as reason to shuffle the pack and not get too bothered about an early exit.
But Sinclair is having none of it. The Bangor boss, who led Knockbreda to the trophy while they were a 1A team exactly a decade ago, insists the cup is right up there as one of their top targets.
“The Intermediate is high on our priority list after going out of the Irish Cup,” revealed Sinclair.
“We were frustrated to go out, the fifth round would have been our target, and then the Steel & Sons was disappointing, although on the day East Belfast fully deserved their win. So the Intermediate became central to the cups that we are left in, no disrespect to the Ballymena cups, and it’s a good draw for us with regard to being at home.
“No disrespect to Saintfield, we could have had a lot of tougher ties away from home, and indeed at home.
“But I’m sure they’ll be revelling in the occasion, coming down to our place and putting it up to us.”
With the Championship elevated to Senior status a few years ago, the Intermediate Cup and the Steel & Sons are now much more winnable for the cream of the Amateur League and the best of the rest, which includes the likes of Bangor who last won it back in 2014.
“Now the competition is just the PIL [Premier Intermediate League] and the rest of the Intermediate teams so we would be looking at this as an opportunity to progress into the next round and down to the last 16 teams, if indeed we manage to overcome Saintfield,” said Sinclair.
“And by that stage, potentially you would have your eyes on a quarterfinal, but first thing’s first, Saintfield at home. We have a decent squad with decent depth.
“We rested a few players on Saturday and it’s most likely that certain players will come in this week.”
Ominously for Saintfield, Bangor have scored 11 in their last two outings and Sinclair admits he’s spoiled for options going forward, with veteran striker Michael Halliday, Ben Roy and Ben Arthurs – both of whom were on the scoresheet at the weekend – the returning Ethan Boylan and winger Gerard Mcmullan all vying for places along the frontline.
“We went to Cookstown RBL last week on a very tight pitch and we scored six, and none of the strikers got on the scoresheet,” explained Sinclair.
“So there are a number of areas and a number of personnel to the fore delivering the goods and our expectations are on midfielders, wide players and centre forwards to put the ball in the net.
“So there’s a number of areas getting goals, and whoever is selected up top and in the wide areas, we are pretty dangerous and the expectation is that they trouble defences and do the necessary.”