McEnhill only too glad to put injury woes behind him

By Niall Gartland

ANTRIM are exactly where they want to be heading into their final Tailteann Cup group stage clash against Fermanagh this weekend (Sunday, Armagh 3pm) , and one of the factors in their impressive form in the Tailteann Cup to date is the marksmanship of Dominic McEnhill.

Blighted by injuries in recent years and still in his early twenties, the talented dual player from the O’Donovan Rossa club in Belfast is arguably something of an unknown quantity outside the county.

However, that’s unlikely to remain the case if he keeps up his current scoring rate, weighing in with a dozen points across Antrim’s one-sided victories over Leitrim and Wexford in recent weeks.

This weekend’s match against Fermanagh, their third and final group stage outing, will determine whether they’re headed straight to the last eight or will have to play a preliminary quarter-final clash.

The Saffrons have bad memories of their league clash against Fermanagh only a few months ago, where Sean Quigley pounced for a game-winning goal deep into stoppage time, but they’re in good form and will be quietly confident of clinching victory in the Athletic Grounds.

McEnhill said: “We’re exactly where we want to be, we’re top of the table going into the last game. We’ve had two very strong performances, we really wanted to perform well against Leitrim as they knocked us out of last year’s Tailteann Cup and we knew Wexford wouldn’t be easy as they drew with Fermanagh on their first day out.

“But we still have areas to improve on and Fermanagh will be a tough game, they’re going well and achieved promotion. We performed well against them in the league but let it slip in the last 10 or 15 minutes, we’re going to need to play for the full 75 minutes this time.”

McEnhill has been knocking around the panel on-and-off for a few years now but his progress was severely curtailed by injury. But hopefully that’s all in the rear-view mirror and he’s really enjoying life under their new manager Andy McEntee.

“I was called up when I was younger but osteitis pubis put me out of action for eight months and then I had a dislocated ACL joint so this is my first proper go at it where I’ve got the chance to play.

“I was about the set-up last year but didn’t really get an opportunity so I put my head down and got myself in good shape, I said to myself I was really going to go for it.

“Andy’s come in and given me a chance. He’s brought a professionalism to the set-up.

“I’m learnt a lot from him particularly as a forward, he drills it into us that every shot counts.

“If we’re out early at training and kicking a ball about, he wants us to make sure the ball goes over the bar, and he regularly keeps in touch with us about areas we can improve on and if there’s anything outside of football that we need help with, he’s really good with that side of things as well.”