Momentum building in Roslea

By Kieran Lynch

ROSLEA Shamrocks manager Ciaran Murphy is hoping that his side can secure promotion from Division Two this weekend and set themselves up to have good momentum heading into the Senior Championship.

The Shamrocks have been in superb form throughout the league with seven wins and just one defeat, and Murphy says he’s happy with what he has seen from his side so far, but he feels as though his side have more in the tank.

“We’re delighted to be where we are,” he said.

“However, we feel as though we’re not quite putting together 60-minute games just yet. We’re playing at our best for 20- or 30-minute periods in games. So, we’re aiming to increase that gradually as the championship nears.”

However, Murphy isn’t overly worried about that just yet.

“We’re getting there,” he said. “I suppose we are where we want to be at this stage of the season. It’s our first year in, so I suppose at the start of the year it was just about getting to know the group, and as we have been going along we have been improving steadily.

“We had a bad defeat against Tempo midway through the league, but ever since then we have really picked up, and we have won five games on the bounce.

“So, going into this last game it’s important that we keep that momentum going.”

As Murphy mentioned, it’s his first year in charge of Roslea and it’s fair to say that he has been enjoying the role up until this point.

“The lads are brilliant,” he said. “We always have serious numbers at training, great commitment, great effort, and it’s a joy to work with them.”

In Division Two, the top two sides go up, as well contesting a league final. Devenish have already secured their place in the top two, and whilst Roslea currently occupy second place, they will need a result this weekend just to make absolutely sure that they gain promotion, with Tempo, Teemore and Newtownbutler hot on their heels.

With that said, Roslea will be highly fancied to get the job done against Coa O’Dwyers, but they will have to guard against any complacency to avoid a slip-up.

“They haven’t had a brilliant league campaign, but it’s the last game of the season, so you never know,” said Murphy.

“Listen, they’re going to want to go into the championship with a bit of form, so we’re expecting them to be coming strong.

“So, we’ll just have to prepare ourselves and focus on our own end of things.”

Whilst Coa will want to bring form into the championship, so too will Roslea as they’re gearing up for a tough test at senior grade.

“We’re playing Senior Championship, so if we have any ambitions to do something up at that level, we should really be targeting winning the Intermediate league, which we have done.

“Thankfully we have been going really well in the last five or six weeks, so hopefully we can bring that momentum with us.”