By Shaun Casey

IN five of the last six seasons, Crossmaglen have halted Silverbridge’s progress in the Armagh Senior Championship, but Tiernan Murphy is hoping that the ‘Bridge can change that record this weekend.

The 2023 season was the only season when their paths didn’t meet in the past six years, but once again, the Rangers could spell the end of Silverbridge’s campaign, although this encounter isn’t as straightforward as the rest have been.

Even in defeat, Silverbridge can still advance to the playoff stages of the championship, although they’ll possibly need St Peter’s to overturn Granemore. If Silverbridge lose and Granemore win, those three teams will all be on two points.

But Silverbridge, managed by Fergal Reel who took over from Bernie Murray mid-season, can only control the controllables and a victory in Crossmaglen over their old rivals could possibly see them book their place in the quarter-finals as table-toppers.

“Cross aren’t going to be easy, they have their county men back now, but we’ll just have to give it our best shot,” said Murphy, Silverbridge’s top scorer in the championship after two games with eight points.

“We have pretty much played Cross every year recently, I think it’s five of the last six or something like that, it’s nuts. It’s about time we got one back on them I think!”

Crossmaglen have won their two first round ties, defeating Granemore by five points on the opening night before a late Rian O’Neill score saw them shake off the challenge of St Peter’s last weekend by the minimum of margins.

Shane Lennon’s side will enjoy home advantage and Silverbridge have to make the short journey over to Crossmaglen.

“We know them well at this stage and we’ll hopefully have a few more bodies back on the field next week and we’ll give it our all and hope for the best,” Murphy added.

Silverbridge’s season certainly hasn’t gone to plan in 2025. They were relegated from the top tier of Division 1A, winning just two games in the entire league campaign.

Things didn’t look too much brighter at the start of the championship when they fell at the first hurdle against St Peter’s, who have been relegated to intermediate football for next season unless they win the senior championship, in the first round.

The Harps bounced back well against Granemore however and were impressive for spells during the game, hitting nine unanswered points in the first half and they withstood the away side’s revival to win by two in the end.

“We didn’t give a good account of ourselves against St Peter’s, so we really targeted the Granemore game,” Murphy said..

“We knew we had to get points on the board to have any chance of getting through.

“Fair play to Granemore, they came back at us strongly but thankfully we had the damage done in the first half and that was enough to see us through in the end. That game was massive; we had to get a win”