Danske Bank Irish Premiership: Glentoran v Coleraine (tonight, The Oval, 7.45pm)
AT 37-years-old, most footballers are either retired or have dropped down a couple of levels – but Eoin ‘Skinner’ Bradley says he has no intentions of hanging his boots up.
The Coleraine striker is back in favour under boss Oran Kearney following a troublesome hamstring injury that has limited his game-time in recent weeks.
But as the Bannsiders prepare for tonight’s trip to east Belfast, the former Derry GAA star is already eyeing up an extension to his current contract that still has 15 months to run.
“I’m 37 now. I’m getting old,” ‘Skinner' laughs.
Asked about his secret to his remarkable longevity, he says: “I just look after myself. I like a few pints at the weekend but I watch what I eat. The way I see it, you’re a long time retired, and hopefully I’m not retired for another few years yet.
“I’ve another 15 months on my contract and I’d hopefully get another one after that, maybe on a yearly basis. I’ve been coming on in matches and doing well but that was because I pulled my hamstring and I wasn’t able to play full games, so I’m just getting my match fitness back to play full games.
“The only thing I notice is that it probably takes me a wee bit longer to recover from games but apart from that I’m grand.
“This morning I was a wee bit sore [from Saturday’s 2-1 away with over Warrenpoint] so I went down to the beach for a walk just to loosen the legs but I’ll feel 100 per cent for tomorrow night’s game and I’m good to go.”
Bradley is still hoping to play some Gaelic football with Glenullin later this year and says he had “no choice” as his father, Liam, is back at the helm with the south Derry club.
Throughout the pandemic, the veteran forward has had a deeper appreciation of playing sport given that the vast majority of people have been prohibited from doing so for fear of spreading the virus.
“The way this year has gone we’ve been playing Tuesday-Saturday but we’re lucky because we’ve had a chance to play where a lot of people haven’t been allowed to play.”
Runaway leaders Linfield are not in action until Saturday which gives the Glens and Coleraine the chance to chip away at the champions’ commanding advantage.
Tonight is the first of back-to-back games with Mick McDermott’s ever-improving Glentoran side – but given Coleraine’s ascension to second, ‘Skinner’ says there’s no pressure on the Bannsiders.
“At the start of the year we were sitting ninth or 10th and people weren’t even expecting us to get into the top six, and now we’re sitting second. And we’ve limited resources too compared to other teams, which just shows the job Oran [Kearney] is doing because we’re playing against full-time opposition.
“We wouldn’t be in the top five in terms of budgets in the league.”
Still 10 points adrift of Linfield, ‘Skinner says: “We’re not even looking at how many points Linfield are ahead of us but we’ve to play them again. All the top six will play each other again when the split comes. We’re sitting second now and we’ve to play Glentoran twice this week. Linfield have been very rarely mentioned.”
Meanwhile, this season’s Irish Cup final and both semi-finals will be hosted by Mourneview Park as renovation work is being carried out at Windsor Park next month, the traditional venue for the cup final.
