Conor Stiobhard insists Shamrock have nothing to fear from the challenge posed by Finaghy and Willowbank after getting up close and personal with their title rivals in recent weeks.
The Ardoyne outfit lost out both times — a fortnight ago to the Bank in the last 16 of the Junior Shield, and there on Saturday to Finaghy in the quarter-finals of the Cochrane Corry.
Stiobhard admits back-to-back exits in the cups has been a kick in the teeth to his team, but morale remains high at the Marrowbone-based side regardless, with his 2A leaders still holding the destiny of the league in their own hands.
That’s because they have to play both Finaghy and Willowbank twice during the run-in, and having seen them at close quarters last month, he’s confident his team can go the distance.
“We said at the start of the year that it was going to be a building year for us, bringing a couple of the younger ones in,” explained Stiobhard.
“But I said we would be competitive and we have been competitive.
“So it’s massive now. We’ve six games left and two double-headers at Finaghy and Willowbank so they are going to be the defining games of the season.
“I just hope we don’t have the same thing that happened to us before Covid, when we had to wait nine weeks before we played Willowbank in a league decider.
“We’ve played both teams recently and we outplayed them twice so listen, we fancy ourselves and we’ll just take it from there.
“I don’t know how long it’s going to take to get the games out of the way, but we don’t fear them.
“I’m just worried about having a big break between games being detrimental to us. But it’s not all about Finaghy and Willowbank, we have to go to Portavogie which isn’t easy, and we also have Queen’s away, and they are always a good footballing side.
“We’ve six massive matches, so we’ll take each fixture as it comes.”
Like their game against Willowbank, Stiobhard felt his side didn’t get what they deserved on Saturday.
“I’m disappointed big time,” he told Match. “We were the better team throughout, and I’m just disappointed we couldn’t put it to bed first half.
“We missed a couple of easy enough chances, and then conceded two late goals, they went 2-1 up with about four or five to go, and then broke away when we were chasing it.
“We were the far better team but never got nothing for it.
“It’s disappointing to go out of two cups in the space of three weeks, but again at Willowbank, I think they would agree we were the better team but things just aren’t falling for us, we just need the rub of the green and a bit of luck.”
