By Shaun Casey

SILVERBRIDGE manager Colm Nally says the underdog tag suits his side as they prepare for a championship quarter-final clash with Clann Éireann.

Nally led the ‘Bridge to a Division 1B league title earlier in the season and his side have earned three straight championship victories over Armagh Harps, Shane O’Neill’s and most recently Granemore after their opening round defeat to Madden.

The Louth native, who has recently joined Glenn Ryan’s management team in Kildare, also says that his young Silverbridge side are looking forward to competing against the 2021 winners.

“They won Division 1A so that’s great form because that’s a tough division to win,” said the former Meath coach.

“We won Division 1B, so we’ll see now if there’s much of a difference.

“We know they have got some marquee players and we know the style they play; we’ll have to do a lot of work but we’re looking forward to it and it’s brilliant in a way.

“There was a lot of hype about us recently and that hype will probably be tampered a bit and we’ll probably go in as underdogs which suits us better.

“We know we’re not as high as people think and we’re not as low as people think, we’re somewhere in the middle and it’s about trying to get that consistency.

We’re looking forward to it and it should be a good game of football.”

Nally’s side built up a ten-point half-time lead in their playoff victory over Granemore and withstood a second-half onslaught from last year’s beaten finalists to edge through by two points in the end.

He was delighted with their battling qualities.

“We’re thrilled with the win. It was a dogfight, and we haven’t won any dogfights.

“When we played Madden, we couldn’t hack the weather or what they threw at us, but we bounced back very well in the next two matches.

“Against Granemore we mixed the good and the bad and we’re just trying to get a little bit of consistency into our performances but all credit to Granemore, they’re a really good side, they reached the county final last year and have a lot of knowhow in their team.

“We probably stunned them at the start (with two goals in five minutes) but they certainly responded and caused us huge problems but to come out the right end of it, for a young team like Silverbridge, is massive.”

Elsewhere in the quarter-finals, Killeavy will be fancied to return to the semi-final when they face 1B side Clan na Gael while Crossmaglen should be far too strong for Armagh Harps.

Ballymacnab have found some real form and their match with Madden should be very close.