By Shaun Casey

LAMH Dhearg have secured their first target of the season, which was getting into the top half of the league before the split. Declan Bunting, enjoying his first season as manager, has been pleased with his side’s efforts so far this year.

“We only lost two out of the 12 games. We’ve a large amount on the county panel, we had several injuries and we’re a dual club as well, there’s a lot of dual players.

“To be honest we had numerous disruptions with injuries and that, but the players were brilliant to get 12 points out of those 17 games.

“If you had have said to us at the start, we’re going to have x-amount disruptions and players missing etc throughout these 12 games but still end up with 17 points I would have been delighted.

“We have a long way to go, and I know a lot of other clubs are in the same boat in terms of the disruptions they’ve had. The boys who stepped up who maybe haven’t had as much exposure to senior football in the last three years, they’ve really stood up and shown a bit of leadership. We’re very happy with that.”

Bunting, a Lamh Dhearg native, was involved in the team in a coaching capacity but decided to take the plunge into management once Martin Lynch and Terry McCrudden stepped away at the end of last year.

“I’ve been coaching the team from 2015, Martin Lynch was the manager with Terry McCrudden, and they let me work away with training and then they stepped down last year, so I’ve stepped up and taken the management role this year.

“I’ve managed soccer teams and I’ve managed at university level, fresher teams and stuff, so I do have a bit of experience in
that.

“But your own team, your own club, I’ve played with a lot of these boys. With training and being the coach, that step up (to management) can be a wee bit difficult sometimes.

“But to be fair the boys have been super and responded very well. I’m not doing as much coaching, naturally, as I was but Brendan McCombe and Michael Herron are doing a lot of that.”

Lamh Dhearg will be up against top class opposition in the remaining league games and with four of their five outings away from home, Bunting’s side face a difficult run. They’re currently three points off the top of the table but with the county players back, they’ll be hoping to land a first league title since 2015.

“You want to win every game you play; I think there’s five games now in the split and they’ll all be against strong opposition. If we can go on to win the league, I’d be delighted but I’m not going to lose sleep if we don’t.

“Everybody knows where the big goal is, obviously championship, and that starts in six weeks.

“You want to build momentum and breed the confidence that’s been breeding the last couple of weeks and keep that going.”