ENNIS PLAYS DOWN ROMP TO TITLE BY ROSEMOUNT

RYAN Ennis insists Rosemount have only put down a marker and nothing else after they tightened their grip on top of 1C with an 11th straight league win of the season.

It’s been a rampant start to the new campaign by Lee Cathcart’s men who have opened up a 12-point lead at the summit at this early stage to justify their summer tag as title favourites.

Being tipped for success is one thing, however, actually putting it into action something else entirely, and the men from Greyabbey have been flawless in 1C so far, racking up 33 points from 33.

Despite their terrific start, though, Ennis (right) dismissed any suggestion the league is already theirs to lose.

“I wouldn’t say that, we still have to play Greenisland a couple of times but we do have the points on the board and any team will tell you, you’d rather have the points on the board than the games to play,” said Ennis, whose goal in Rosemount’s 5-0 win at Suffolk on Saturday took his tally for the season to 11.

“All we can do is keep ticking them off. Lee is finding that it’s not his first XI he’s worried about picking, it’s the squad he is worried about because we have such a good squad.

“But we are going about it quietly, just trying to put three points on the board every week and go on to the next one.

“We knew it was going to be tough this season with the other teams in the league, I reckon there are five or six teams who could still win it. There’s a long way to go, we aren’t even halfway yet.

“But Suffolk on Saturday was a massive result because they are all tough games and they’ll definitely be up there at the end of the season, no doubt about it.

“And all the teams up at the top all still have to play each other, there’s still a long, long way to go so that’s why we need to take it one game at a time.”

Much has been made or Rosemount’s cup exploits last season – their runs to the fifth round of the Irish Cup, the final of the Clarence and semis of the Border – and the detrimental impact it had on their league campaign.

But a couple of defeats early on in the season put them on the back foot as well, leaving them ultimately with too much to do.

So this time round, Cathcart and co were determined to hit the ground running, though few could have envisaged kicking it off with 11 in a row, a run including three consecutive victories over potential title challengers Woodvale, Plunkett and Suffolk across the last three weeks.

“At the start of the season, we knew it was going to be tough so we took it game by game, I know everyone says that and it’s boring, but that’s exactly what we’ve done,” said Ennis.

“We’ve gone out of every cup in the first round so far and we’ve such a big squad, Lee has made changes in the cup games to give boys minutes and that’s the way it’s gone so far.

“But in the league, we’ve been going well and the games have worked out well for us so far.

“Last season, the cup runs were great at the time, don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t change it but once the cups are over, at the end of the season, you are playing four games a week and that’s hard for anyone to do, so this season, we had to prioritise the league to try and get out of it.

“No game is easy in this league. We went to

Saintfield and we were winning 3-0 at half-time but they clawed it back and we ended up winning

4-3.”

Ennis, 28, returned to the club midway through last season and admits he’s really enjoying his football this season as part of a potent front three alongside new signings Daniel

Orr and Dean Annett, the latter having bagged three hat-tricks already this season.

“The three of us are scoring for fun but as a team, we are just working hard and the chances are coming for the front three, the lads are creating plenty of chances for us so we’re lucky,” he said.