Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
WE’LL TECH IT IN OUR STRIDE..
Sharvin looking at bigger picture and not result of title rivals clash
PAUL SHARVIN says Killyleagh won’t be distracted from the task at hand, win, lose or draw in their top of the table clash at Larne Tech this Saturday.
While the Tech clocked up an eighth straight league win at home to Abbey Villa thanks to Paul Maguire’s goal, the league leaders maintained their 11point advantage at the summit with a 6-1 rout of Lisburn Rangers, courtesy of hat-tricks apiece from Adam Neale and Jack Sharvin (both above), the strike partners taking their joint tally for the season beyond the 40 mark.
Goals have never been a problem for Killyleagh since Sharvin took the reins last year, with the Showgrounds men only outscored during his debut campaign by the two promoted teams – Ballynahinch Olympic and Islandmagee.
But it’s at the other end where Killyleagh’s title challenge has been built this season, with Sharvin hailing the form of defenders
Mcauley Foster, Niall Walsh and his son Jonjo, while he reckons goalkeeper Aaron
Carberry is the best in the division with the exception of Larne
Tech stopper Chris
Keenan.
“We’ve been concentrating on the league this season, I said that at the start of the season before we even kicked a ball,” said the Killyleagh boss
(right).
“Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t go out to deliberately lose cup matches, but my selection was a lot different than it was for league games and so far we’ve been good in the league, but anyone who finishes above Larne will win it, they are big, big favourites.
“But the big difference for us this year has been discipline. We’ve only had three sendings off all season and that has allowed us to be a lot better defensively, I think we have only conceded eight or nine goals.”
Sharvin insists he and his team will be focused and single-minded in their pursuit of promotion this season, having been taught a harsh lesson when they speculated and looked too far ahead last year.
Although most teams have not quite reached the halfway point in their league campaigns yet, Sharvin reckons the race for the top two spots has already narrowed to five teams, but rather than get caught up in the permutations, he’s just looking at Saturday’s showdown as another possible three points rather than a game against their biggest rivals for the 1A title. With Kieran Sullivan seeing red for Killyleagh in the second half at Lisburn Rangers on Saturday, the midfielder will be unavailable for the trip to Dennis Harvey Park, but that blow has been softened by the arrival of defender Jonny Cheevers from Kilmore last month, whose capture gives Sharvin more choices in the midfield, with the option of putting Jonjo or Walsh in there alongside his other son Jamie. “Larne are big favourites for me,” added Sharvin, whose team ended the Tech’s 18-month unbeaten league run last season at the Showgrounds, winning 4-2 before going down 4-0 in the reverse fixture at Dennis Harvey Park.
“It will be a good game but it doesn’t make or break our season. There are five teams who can go up: Sirocco, Orangefield, Abbey Villa, us and Larne.
“But it looks like us and Larne could pull away. Sirocco are in a cup final and I didn’t want them before Christmas because they are playing for places and they’ll be hard to beat, whereas after Christmas, whether they win the cup or lose it, they’ll be flat because you have to come back down to earth.
“But we are looking at nobody other than ourselves, we’re just going to try and win every game and if we do that, nobody can catch us.
“We know realistically that we are not going to win every game but yes, certainly we look at results, but we don’t look and think about games in hand and all that lark.
“Last year, Islandmagee were 21 points ahead but we had seven games in hand and hand on heart, I’d have put my house on us catching them, and we didn’t even get half those points.
“So it’s all about points in the bag this season, points in the bag is a big thing.
“There are twists and turns, Orangefield are good, Sirocco are not a bad team, Larne Tech are a quality team, but we’re just looking at ourselves and we are quietly confident.
“But like I say, if we are beat on Saturday it won’t be the end of our season, and if we win, we don’t get promoted either. But it’s a game I’m really looking forward to, and we’re all going on our Christmas do after the game so hopefully we’re not crying into our turkeys.”