Irish Cup first round: Carrick Rangers v Belfast Celtic (tonight, 7.45pm)
WITHOUT a game in almost seven months, against a Carrick Rangers side fighting tooth and nail in the Irish League every week, you can understand why Stephen McAlorum was wary.
The Belfast Celtic boss has only got his players back together in recent weeks as they build towards an Irish Cup clash that was originally scheduled to take place in early January. Much has changed since then of course, the public health situation dictating the terms of another strange season across the board.
In February, after months of to and fro, a line was finally drawn under their season before it ever really got started, declared null and void with just two games played.
The last of those was a 7-0 win over Ballymoney United last October, and McAlorum wasn’t initially keen to throw his men back into the heat of battle in tonight’s rearranged Irish Cup first round clash at Taylor’s Avenue.
Ultimately, however, the decision would rest with the Belfast Celtic players – and they left their manager in no doubt.
“At the start I told them I didn’t want them playing the match,” admits McAlorum, an Irish Cup winner with Glentoran.
“It was going to be a hard enough task playing against Carrick, it wasn’t a level playing field in my eyes and it isn’t a level playing field now.
“But it wasn’t my decision to make, and there was a unanimous decision within two seconds amongst all the players that they wanted to play the game. I suppose I was trying to protect them but every single one of them wanted it.
“I respect that from them because it would have been easy for them to say no - there was a ready-made excuse there.”
Carrick currently sit second bottom in the Irish Premiership and, without a victory in eight, will fancy their chances of rediscovering that winning feeling this evening.
For their part, McAlorum and his men have preferred to focus on their own preparation, opting not to play any friendlies in the lead up to the game in a bid to avoid injuries mounting before a ball has been kicked.
“This might sound strange but we haven’t had one thought about Carrick.
“We’ve been in about four weeks and, to be honest, there’s a strange feeling about the squad at the minute – a good feeling. There’s been that togetherness, that bond since we’ve been back.
“We could be playing Ballybeen Rovers and it wouldn’t matter to us… that’s what I mean about a sort of a strange feeling this time, the lads are just glad to be getting back out onto the football pitch. They could be playing anyone and it wouldn’t matter to them.
“They’ve had that frustration of being off for seven months, now they have the chance to just go out there and play. There’s no pressure on us at all. The last four weeks, you’ve seen them smiling, leaving training happy, putting the hard work in that they had to.
“That’s why we decided to just try and just keep the boys as fit as possible instead of looking for friendlies. After a couple of games people start picking up niggly hamstring injuries, we’re already missing quite a few key players so we didn’t want to take any chances.
“They’ve been able to enjoy the time training instead, being with each other, clearing the heads, and now they’re just looking forward to the game.”
