MAXIE SWAIN MARTY IN THE HAUL OF FAME..

Haveron believes he’s now at a club that can give him trophies he craves

RATHFRILAND playmaker Marty Haveron is determined to collect as many trophies as he can and make up for lost time as he trains his sights on Border Cup glory tomorrow afternoon.

Fresh from lifting the Bob Radcliffe Cup with the Whites on Boxing Day, the club’s first win in the competition, Rathfriland are on course to make it two trophies in less than a week as they head into their showdown at Seaview tomorrow.

Standing in their way, however, is Liam Sloan’s rampant Ballynahinch Olympic, currently riding high at the top of the Premier Division after a blistering start to their Amateur League campaign.

The two sides have yet to meet in the league, but at roughly a third of the way through, Olympic have already opened up a 12-point advantage on Aaron Black’s men.

None of this really matters when it comes to the all-or-nothing nature of cup shootouts, however, and the experienced Haveron (inset) knows there’s precious little to choose between the two finalists.

But after spending the majority of his career at smaller Irish League clubs where survival was the name of the game, he’s eager to make the most of this new phase where he finds himself regularly challenging for silverware.

“When you are playing in the Irish League as I was at Newry and Warrenpoint and Glenavon before that, we were always at the bottom of the Premier League or the top of the Championship,” explained Haveron. “So over the years, playing at that level, you were watching Linfield win everything year in year out.

“At Newry, I won the Intermediate Cup, I actually scored in that final, and the Mid Ulster Cup, and with Rathfriland the last time I was here, we won 1A, but there’s probably quite a few of us who played in the Irish League who played for what you might call the lesser clubs and we haven’t really won many trophies.

“So this is a chance to get a bit of silverware. There are guys in our team, the likes of Jonny Roy, who have played in the Amateur League now for years and they have won quite a few trophies, but for some of the others, we haven’t had a big pile of silverware.

“To have the chance to have two trophies at this early stage of the season, it could really lift the pressure off our shoulders going into the league.

“There is always that pressure, ‘you need to win something, you need to win something,’ so yes, it would be great if we could win another cup.”

While brimming with confidence due to their recent form and cup win, Haveron knows Rathfriland must be wary of the threat of Olympic, through to their second successive Border Cup final after dominating last season’s decider before crashing on penalties to Crumlin Star.

“I think they are on a similar run to what we’re on, obviously ours was more in the cups, but they seem to be winning every match too” said Haveron.

“Just speaking to a few people about them, they seem to be well organised and are a good side, too, they have got quality in certain areas and they know how to win games.

“They’ve won near enough every game this season so we know it’s going to be a very hard task, we played them a few times last year and the games were very tight, nip and tuck, and this will be exactly the same, no one will be running away with it I don’t think.

“But we have plenty of goals in our team, we have goals from everywhere, that’s one thing about our team.

“If the strikers are a bit rusty in front of goal, our midfielders have been popping up with goals and our centre halfs have been scoring for us too.

“So I reckon it could be quite an exciting game because we don’t tend to keep too many clean sheets either.

“There will definitely be goals there and it could be entertaining to watch.”

Reflecting on his club’s maiden win in the Bob Radcliffe – a triumph the club dedicated to Max Wilson, the tragic teen whose passing rocked the club earlier this season – Haveron said he and his team-mates hold their beaten opponents in high regard after coming up close and personal with Dixie Robinson’s young guns at Stangmore.

“We didn’t know too much about Dungannon under-20s but we know plenty about them now,” added Haveron.

“They are a very, very good football team. Now we didn’t play our best on the day, but just as we’ve been doing this last while, we got ourselves over the line.

“We definitely weren’t at our best but a lot of the credit must go to them, all 11 of them were very good footballers.” 31.12.2019