Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)

UPTON BACKS YM FOR TILT AT TITLE..

In-form striker is Raven about club’s chances of a trophy

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GLEN Upton admits Ravenhill Young Men are perfectly poised for a shot at the title after they brushed Bangor Swifts aside in the Clarence Cup on Saturday.

The in-form striker took his tally for the season to 24 in all competitio­ns with another strike in their 3-0 win at the weekend, with Wayne Carson and Jamie Newberry also on target at the Billy Neill Centre.

It’s been a promising season so far for the east Belfast outfit, who lie within striking distance of leaders Kelvin, just three points off the top but with a game in hand.

While happy to progress in the Clarence, Upton knows that staying in contention at the top of the table is what really matters for Robbie Walker’s men.

And to that end his main focus is on their next league game against Tullymore Swifts on Saturday week as they look to keep pace with the leaders and Beann Mhadaghain who sit behind them in third place but level on points.

“In the league, we are going well and we just want to stay on the coat-tails of Kelvin and Beann Mhadaghain, they were the two teams we earmarked, that if we stayed on their coat-tails, we’d be happy,” said the former Dundela and Ards Rangers forward.

“And we have got three of those four games away already, so it has given us a chance.

“We’ve played them both away, but we know there are a lot of other difficult games out there.

“Kircubbin will not give us an easy game, they have our card marked [after beating them in the Cochrane Corry], they know how to play against us, so we have two tough games against them coming up.

“You sort of look at the league and you think we are up there, we should be doing alright and we’ve to play the lower half of the table over the rest of the season but it’s not that easy.

“This is my first time in Junior football and you think you are going to get a run but you don’t know what you are getting from one week to another sometimes.

“But for us, with bringing in Willy

Gracey from Orangefiel­d and big

Ricky Hamilton from Comber, and [Glen] Taylor, it gives us that spine so hopefully we are strong enough to push those other two teams all the way.”

Upton enjoyed a fine campaign last year at neighbouri­ng Orangefiel­d, who were only pipped to promotion over the final few weeks of the season.

In the wake of that excellent showing, however, the team was picked apart with no fewer than 17 players moving on over the summer, prompting manager Graeme Arthur to walk away. Upton was sounded out about taking a more senior role in the management team alongside Keith Mccorry and Don Malomo-paris, but respectful­ly declined, deciding that such a big rebuilding job so soon into his move into coaching was too much to take on.

The offer on the table at Raven

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 ??  ?? JUST THE DOB William Dobbin, part of the Ravenhill Young Men coaching set-up
JUST THE DOB William Dobbin, part of the Ravenhill Young Men coaching set-up

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