Simon Hanna says the significance of this week’s top-of-the-table showdown with Malachians is not lost on any of the players at Comber.
The 1A league leaders, sitting five points clear of the chasing pack, host their promotion rivals at Park Way on Saturday before heading to another one of the contenders, Kilmore Rec, seven days later.
It’s a potentially defining fortnight for Gareth McKeown’s men, then; a win would move the hosts 10 points clear of the Mals with eight to go, all but ending their hopes of finishing above Comber, while another three points the following weekend would deal a similar hammer blow to Kilmore.
There’s still a long way to go, of course, and it’s all ifs, buts and maybes at this stage.
Hanna has no interest in all the various permutations, except to say Comber know what they need to do.
“I was going through the (NAFL) website the other night where it shows you the league over the last 10 years and there hasn’t been a year like this, so close with five teams in with a shout,” Hanna told Match.
“But we just need to worry about ourselves because it’s in our hands now, we just need to keep ticking off the results.
“We’ve still to play Malachians twice, and Kilmore away. If we can take at least four points from the Malachians game, we shouldn’t be too far away.
“It’s in our hands, if we throw it away, it’s our own doing.”
The Mals finished the year as the only unbeaten team in 1A. Just a few weeks into 2022, however, and they are already smarting from back-to-back league defeats.
It will be a wounded group of players PJ O’Neill brings to Park Way this weekend, but Hanna reckons that’s a good thing from Comber’s point of view.
“I’d say so yes,” he said. “See anytime we dropped points, we drew away at Newcastle and because it’s so tight this year, you feel you can’t slip up at all.
“If you lose two on the bounce, you are hurting and you feel you need to get the win, whereas we feel it’s not the worst result if we get a draw, so we can play with a bit more freedom.”
Hanna, a former trainee at Sheffield Wednesday during his teenage years, has been at Comber now for six seasons and is adamant the squad built by McKeown and Mark Picking is the reason they are finally in with a fighting chance of ending their seven-year exile from the top flight.
“We don’t just have a first XI, we have 16 or 17 first team players this season,” he said.
“We’ve had a lot of injuries and suspensions this year but the boys coming in, they are strong and that’s a big difference.
“If we’ve two or three boys out, it’s not like we’re severely weakened, we’ve a good squad and that’s due to the boys Gee (McKeown) and Picky (Picking) have brought in.”
Comber crashed out of the Intermediate Cup 1-0 at Bangor on Saturday, and while Hanna has no complaints, he knows the game was there for the taking.
“We probably had the better of the chances but we didn’t get it down and play the way we usually do,” he said.
