They may be the lowest ranked side left in the Border Cup, but St Oliver Plunkett won’t be labouring under any inferiority complex.
That was the bullish message from club captain Michael Healy after the Lenadoon men claimed their best result of the season, a 4-2 win over in-form Rosario up in West Belfast.
Gary Dunlop’s brace, a long range stunner from Sean Jackson and a Ciaran Reid penalty did the damage on Saturday, handing the 1C outfit a trip to Premier Division side Derriaghy in the last eight.
“Rosario are going well so it was a good win for us, but we go in to every game confident,” said Healy, who has been at Plunkett since he was five years of age.
“There’s a fine line between cocky and confident, if you go in cocky, you’ll get turned over but Burnsy and Ogie, they always tell us to be confident in ourselves and our ability and we don’t really feel there’s too much of a gap between the Premier and where we are.
“We feel the Border is something we can get our hands on. Our manager Liam won it twice as a player and Eoghan keeps saying it’s a realistic target.
“We beat Downpatrick in the last round, a 1A side, and Rosario there, another 1A side, but being realistic, there are still some good sides in it, Crumlin Star, Immaculata, so we’ll not get too ahead of ourselves, we’ll just take each game as it comes.”
Next up for Plunkett is Newbuildings in the Intermediate Cup this weekend.
Over the course of 90 minutes, and excluding extra-time and penalties, the west Belfast men are unbeaten in 39 games spanning three-and-a-half years in Lenadoon, so naturally, they are confident on their own patch.
“We don’t know too much about them but we fancy ourselves at home against anybody,” added Healy.
