Lee Cathcart has laughed off rumours linking him with East Belfast, insisting his only focus is on strengthening Rosemount ahead of an assault on 1A next season.
The Greyabbey outfit finally sealed on Saturday what had long been coming, the 1B title, and they did it in some style too with a 3-1 win at promotion-chasing Aquinas, courtesy of goals from Curtis Giltrap (2) and Reece Ritchie.
The result, coupled with Mossley’s dogged 1-0 win at home to Downshire, confirmed the former will join Rosemount in the Amateur League’s second tier come August.
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Cathcart is well aware of the rumours doing the rounds, but while the status quo remains, and out of respect for both his current club and the management team in place at the East, he gave it the short shrift treatment.
“It’s a big, big rumour but nobody has spoken to me about it yet,” said Cathcart, stonewalling the question like a seasoned pro on the TV.
“That’s the God’s honest truth, I haven’t spoken to one person at the East and it wouldn’t be an easy decision for me either after taking these ones up two leagues.”
Rosemount scored two early goals on Saturday to calm any nerves, and then saw the game out from there.
It was symptomatic of their season as a whole: assured from the start with rarely a blip to worry about. They hit the front early and never looked like relinquishing their grip on top spot, and while it’s taken a while to get over the line due to the uneven nature of Amateur League fixtures, Cathcart was glad to get it done.
“It’s been stretched out, playing one week and then nothing for two weeks,” he said. “So it’s been even harder that way.”
A second title on the bounce, notwithstanding the Covid-enforced disruptions, and a Clarence Cup final appearance prior to that during his time at Rosemount shows just why, if the rumours are true, Cathcart is a wanted man.
But he admits that a raft of departures on the eve of the new season had him fearing the worst.
“We lost five or six players at the start of the season, so we went from being hopeful, to thinking we might be fighting relegation, but then we replaced them well,” said Cathcart.
“At the start, we had a lot of players missing and had injuries, but a few games into it, once everybody gelled, we started playing well and we’ve been top of the league since the start of the season so we haven’t moved, it just clicked.”
“The togetherness of the squad has been the difference this season, definitely,” he added.
“Last time we won it, we had a good team and all the rest of it but this year, there was more togetherness.
“They say coming out of 1C, that 1B is probably an easier league but I think that’s wrong, it was definitely more competitive this year, and if we can manage to finish it off next week undefeated, it would be even better.”
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