'Bridge to the next round

Silverbridge’s Peter Carragher

SILVERBRIDGE attacker Damian McCann is hoping the Harps can repay the faith shown by manager Packie McConville when their intermediate championship campaign begins against Eire Óg at Abbey Park tonight (7.30pm).

Crossmaglen man McConville, who played for Armagh in the 1980s, is now in his third year with the side, and McCann wants the players to show they are serious contenders for the intermediate crown with an opening round victory.

“Packie is a great manager, he’s won things everywhere he has gone but we’re testing him,” said McCann, an All-Ireland u-21 winner with Armagh in 2004. “He’s a top man so we just want to get going this year and show we can play a bit.

“We just about made the top eight in the league before the split, but at the same time we’re just four points off top so a run in the second half of the season could really shoot you up too, so we’re doing OK this year.”

McCann will be expected to lead the attack against the Craigavon side after recently becoming the club’s top scorer of the modern era.

“An uncle of mine started keeping track of who scored what in our games from the 80s, but he would have missed half of what Martin Murphy scored and things like that because that was before he started. But I overtook Ferghal Reel there and sure Jarlath [Burns] had it up on Twitter afterwards,” he added with a laugh.

The full story is in the current issue of Gaelic Life, published on Thursday August 2. Buy your copy now in your local newsagent, or you can purchase the online version – for only 90p – by clicking here