Chris Stewart was on cloud nine after Finaghy left it late to take their bid for 2A down to the wire with a dramatic, last-gasp win at Shamrock on Saturday.
With literally the last kick of the ball up at The Bone, Adam Close scrambled home from a corner to set up a grandstand finish in the battle for the title, with the only club who can deny Stewart’s men, Willowbank, due at the Billy Neill Centre at the end of this month.
A quirk of the fixtures means Finaghy will have to sit on their hands for the next three weekends until that crunch meeting, while Willowbank still have it all to do to take it the distance, with the west Belfast outfit trailing their rivals by five points, but with two games in hand in which to deal with that deficit.
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Asked if Saturday was the biggest win of his reign at Finaghy, Stewart replied: “Yes, it would have to be right up there.
“We’ve been there or thereabouts over the last couple of years but to get to where we are now, and be on the verge of winning the league... I don’t want that to sound wrong, but it’s a shoot-out between us and Willowbank.
“Obviously they have a couple of games in hand, but they have to come into that last game clean and then it’s a straight shoot-out.”
Stewart was indifferent about the break of nearly a month before that clash. On one hand, that winning momentum could evaporate by the time his players lace up the boots for competitive action again, but on the other, it will give a few players carrying knocks time to regain full fitness.
“A few lads have been playing injured for the last few weeks so it will give them time to get back to full strength,” said the Finaghy boss, who holds the reins jointly with John Lamb.
“Obviously you’d like to have the game sooner, that’s three free Saturdays we have, but we’ll keep training and maybe get a friendly the week before just to keep us ticking over.”
Stewart hailed the guts his players have showed, not just on Saturday, but all season long in sustaining a title challenge.
“Listen, they’ve done this all season, it’s a fantastic group,” he said. “Their work-rate is incredible. Shamrock are a good side, that’s the third time we’ve played them. They are brilliant at home and that’s the second win we’ve had up there this year.
“So credit to the boys. They beat us at Billy Neill the other week, so it was good to get the job done, and a last-minute winner, you couldn’t write the script for that.
“They are a good, good side, we knew it was going to be a battle, and we knew going there, a draw wasn’t going to be enough, we had to win, we had to take it to the last day.
“Willowbank will say it’s in their hands, they win their last three, they win the league, but we say it’s in our hands. If we beat Willowbank, and we know it will be a hard game, then we win it. We’ve put ourselves right in the mix.”
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