CREGGAN Kickhams captain Kevin Small is confident the defending champions can absorb the “massive loss” of cruciate victim Conor McCann after they booked their place in the quarter-finals of this season’s Northern Switchgear Antrim senior football championship.
Gerard McNulty’s side drew with St John’s at Corrigan Park in their final group game which was enough for them to reach the knock-out stages behind Lamh Dhearg where they will now face O’Donovan Rossa.
Dual player Conor McCann is out for the remainder of the year after suffering the injury in the latter stages of their drawn game with Lamh Dhearg a few weeks ago.
And while the midfielder’s loss will be keenly felt ahead of the knock-out stages, Small recalled winning last season’s championship – their first in 67 years – without key attackers Conor Small and Liam Quinn, both of whom suffered the dreaded cruciate injury.
Small is nearing full fitness ahead of the Rossa clash while Quinn has been back in the Kickhams attack.
“Conor is a serious loss to us,” said Small.
“It’s not just the way he plays football - it’s his presence and everything else. We’re devastated for him, obviously. But knowing Conor he’ll come back stronger but he is a serious miss.”
Small was partnered in midfield by Keelan McCann in the drawn game with St John’s last Sunday and Kevin Rice is another option for Creggan.
“The big thing in our favour is that we’ve a big panel,” Small added.
“It was the same last year when my brother Conor and Liam Quinn did their cruciates, so we’re lucky we’ve boys who are ready to step in.”
Few could have been happy among Creggan’s ranks after they laboured to a draw against the Johnnies. McNulty was livid in the immediate aftermath of the game and criticised the standard of play from both sides – but the champions still progressed.
“We were under no illusions coming to Corrigan - it was do-or-die for both teams,” Small said.
“We knew rightly it was going to be a physical battle and a game of small margins and that’s the way it panned out. We were disappointed with our performance. We managed things quite well in the first half but we were disappointed with our second half performance but at the end of the day we’re through to the knock out stages and we’re still in the championship and plenty of things to improve on for the next day.”
Small repeated the refrain among Creggan's ranks about not feeling like champions, perhaps it's the team's way of relieving some of the pressure on their shoulders heading into this campaign.
Asked did he feel there was a bigger target on their backs in 2022, Small replied: “Yes, but at the same time we were champions last year - we don’t consider ourselves champions any more.
“It’s a brand new year and everyone thinks they’ve a chance of winning it, all the teams are pushing and we know what we did last year isn’t going to be good enough this year, so we’ll need to raise things.
“[Against St John’s] We stopped doing the things we normally do. It was a physical battle and we probably got drawn into that.
“People forgot what we do on the ball, keeping it and how we normally manage the game. We got dragged into that a bit. But sometimes games are like that, you have to battle it out, your performance isn’t going to be 100 percent all the time but we’re happy at the end of the day because we’re still on the championship.
“That was a seriously tough group - St Gall’s, St John’s and Lamh Dhearg - three very strong teams. Even if you don’t think your performances aren’t where they should be, momentum is a hard thing to stop and we’re just going to keep on building.”
Rossa caused the biggest surprise in this year’s group stages by edging Cargin last weekend to top Group Four. Rossa and Creggan drew both their league meetings earlier in the year and it could be just as tight when the sides size up one another in less than a fortnight’s time.
“We know Rossa are going to be tough. If you’re beating Cargin, what more confidence do you need?
“We’re not in a position to be taking anybody lightly. Last year was our first championship in 60-something years and we know just how serious a test Rossa is gonna be. It’s heads down for the next two weeks and we’ll be ready for it.”
