By Shaun Casey

FOLLOWING on from their impressive victory over Middletown the first day out, Castleblayney sharpshooter Niall Garland is hoping his side can continue their winning trend against Antrim champs Carey Faughs on Sunday.

Both sides arguably upset the odds in the Ulster quarter-finals, with a late Garland free helping Blayney nip by Middletown while Carey Faughs needed penalties to eventually overcome last year’s beaten finalists Carrickmore.

If nothing else, those two contests demonstrate the tip and tuck nature of the competition and Garland, who helped his club capture an Ulster JHC last season, knows every score counts when it comes to the provincial championship.

“We said before the Middletown game, we know we’re very strong in certain areas on and off the ball and if we didn’t hit those highs then we simply weren’t going to win,” said the Monaghan attacker.

“There’s really fine margins in this competition because you just get punished so easily. You need that rub of the green as well at this level to be fair.”

Blayney showed real resistance in that first round clash to defeat Middletown.

The Monaghan champs were the better team on display but once Middletown rattled the net to go ahead, it looked like it was about to slip away from Blayney’s grasp.

“To be fair the first 15 minutes of the second half, I wouldn’t say we saw headlines as such. In fairness Middletown came out a completely different animal.

“We were up for it from the get-go and it’s not that it caught Middletown off the hop, but things went right for us in the first half, Middletown kind of got to grips with us, they maybe sat down at half time, and they sorted out stuff.

“They asked us questions that we needed to answer, and we probably don’t get that too often maybe in Monaghan, unless on county final day,” continued Garland, who hit 0-6 on the day, including the winning score.

“To be able to answer them now is incredible.”

Garland lavished praise on a renowned Middletown side and explained that’s why they were so grateful to get over the line and into an Ulster semi-final clash.

“It means a lot to the people of Blayney, there’s probably very few outside of our own wee camp who believed we could win a game at this level. To prove a lot of people wrong is fantastic.

“We knew Middletown are fantastic Armagh champions and to be honest they’re a fantastic Ulster team. The pedigree they have at this competition is second to none. Being near neighbours, they’re the team we’d strive to be.

“To finally get one over them is a testament to Middletown as much as ourselves. We’ve got a monkey off the back and it means an awful lot to us.”