St John’s expecting another frantic battle with Rossa

By Michael McMullan

ST John’s manager Gerard Cunningham is expecting a frantic game when they lock horns with Belfast rivals Rossa this weekend in the Antrim SHC.

The prize is a spot in the semi-finals and Cunningham feels his side can mix it with anyone on any given day.

After hanging up his boots, he stepped in as part of Brian McFall’s management teams for two years. Following a two-year break, he’s in his first season as manager.

“There’s a serious difference. The amount of work that goes into it is crazy,” he said

“Whenever you’re playing, you just turn up and go to training. As soon as training is finished, you go home and that’s you.

“Every other night that they’re not training, we’re meeting as a management panel and talking about our plans. It’s non-stop.”

The pre-season target was to finish in the top half of the league before the break to ensure higher quality games ahead of the championship.

They were without Antrim trio Conall Bohill, Conor Johnston and Oisin Donnelly during the league, while Oisin MacManus was on duty with Down.

“We had a lot of injuries as well at the start of the year,” he added. “We were probably nine boys down throughout most of our league campaign.”

It gave Cunningham the chance to look at all of this panel but there was a “fade off” towards the end.

After beating Loughgiel, they lost to Ballycastle, Dunloy and Rossa, the latter by a point.

While other clubs were getting their county players back, St John’s had to deal with their county quartet coming back injured.

“We didn’t really have that injection for the last couple of games but most overall it was a good league campaign, we’re happy with it,” Cunningham said.

After a draw with Naomh Éanna in the championship opener, St John’s turned the tables on Ballycastle before a defeat to Dunloy left them in second place and into this weekend’s quarter-final.

“The goals in the first half were really the losing of the game for us,” Cunningham said of the Dunloy defeat.

“We switched off three times and Dunloy punished us and in fairness to them they were very clinical.

“They punished us but we battled well in the second half and we can take positives from that.”

Cunningham also points to wides at crucial stages. It was the same against Naomh Éanna.

“We hit six or seven wides in the first half against Dunloy,” he added. “If we’re putting them over the bar, we’re only getting four behind rather than 10 behind.”

That’s part of the improvement they feel is needed going in against Rossa. Composure is the word. Sticking to the plan is another item on the list.

A dig into recent seasons reveals a series of close-run championship exits. They’ve ran Cushendall close, including last season’s extra-time epic.

“We do set high standards for ourselves because we know on any given day we can beat anybody,” he added.

“We’ve been very close with Cushendall the last five or six years. Last year, they beat us in extra-time by a couple of points.

“I think, in the last five or six years, maybe three or four times we’ve gone to extra-time and replays with Cushendall. We know what we can do on our day.”

There is the added spice of this weekend’s clash against their city rivals. Rossa won by a point at Corrigan Park. St John’s emerged one-point winners at Rossa.

“With the rivalry, there’s always a puck of the ball between both teams,” Cunningham concluded.

“We know what’s going to happen. These games are frantic. It’s all just about managing our emotions and sticking to the plan that we’ve put in place.

“These big matches come down to certain moments. It’s really just making the most of those moments and being clinical.”