Derry midfielder Emmet Bradley has sat out the last two Championship outings for Glen, but manager Malachy O’Rourke is hopeful he’ll be fit to line out against Magherafelt in next weekend’s quarter-final.
The county champions eased past Ballinascreen following a 3-11 to 1-7 win at Swatragh with second half goals from Alex and Ethan Doherty putting the game beyond doubt.
Bradley was an unused sub and he also didn’t feature in Glen’s final group game against Swatragh earlier this month.
Read more: Glen pass Ballinascreen test as champions lay down a marker ahead of quarter-finals
However, O’Rourke insisted he could have called upon Bradley had he needed to against Ballinascreen.
“Emmet (Bradley) is still carrying a bit of knock,” said O’Rourke.
“We could have put him in against Ballinascreen if he was needed towards the end.
“Thankfully, we were able to give him a bit more recovery time so we’d be hoping that, after a couple of weeks, he’d be alright for the next round.”
The next round is a quarter-final clash with 2019 champions Magherafelt, who played in the earlier game at Swatragh last Saturday, claiming a 1-13 to 0-10 win over Kilrea.
Alex Doherty’s early goal helped Watty Graham’s gain the upper hand in the first half of their first round tie, but the game lacked intensity as the champions appeared to be playing within themselves with Ballinascreen seemingly unable to land a telling blow.
That all changed midway through the second half when Benny Heron plundered a goal and Glen lost Paul Gunning to a black card while defender Jody McDermott picked up a second yellow card.
The disruption only served to inspire the Maghera men to move through the gears and they blew their opponents away with Doherty scoring his second major before Ethan Doherty bagged his side’s third goal moments later as Glen eased to a 10-point victory.
Yet, O’Rourke feels more will be needed to progress to the semi-finals.
“I thought we started well in the first half. We had a few chances to kill the game off and we didn’t take them,” stated O’Rourke.
“We went in at half-time five points up. . . we were comfortable, but we wouldn’t have been overly happy with the way we were playing.
“We felt we were lacking that wee bit of urgency.
“In the second half, it followed the same pattern until Ballinascreen’s goal and the black card.
"I think we responded well to that and we started to play some good football. We were more clinical going forward and that proved decisive in the end.”
He added: “Championship football is about getting over the line and getting through to the next round, but you like to be playing well and you like to see things you are working on coming to fruition on the pitch.
“That happened in some cases, but there were aspects of the game we wouldn’t be happy with. We know we’ll have to improve for the quarter-final and that’s the task in front of us.”
The Fermanagh native feels his side are handling the pressure of being champions reasonably well, but knows that their biggest hurdles are still ahead of them.
“We’ll find out as the Championship goes on. We were delighted, obviously, to win last year,” added the Glen boss.
“If you want to progress and reach your potential in the Championship, you have to put up with that.
“It is immaterial to us what people think of us, it is just about getting our own game right. We feel if we do that, we’ll be hard to beat.”
READ NEXT:
Eddie McCloskey still hungry for more silverware with Loughgiel
Down Senior Football Championship 2022 draw, fixtures, betting and stream information
- Antrim captain Cathy Carey named LGFA Player of the Month for August
- Tyrone Senior Football Championship 2022 draw, fixtures, betting and stream information
- Fixtures confirmed for MacRory Cup, MacLarnon Cup and Mageean Cup
Sign up to our free sports newsletter to get the latest headlines to your inbox.
