Old Saints still marching on at Emerald Park

Paul ‘Feet’ Murrin says there is still some life left in quite a few of the old dogs following St Catherine’s Donegal League Saturday Division 2 title success.

Murrin, alongside the likes of fellow seasoned campaigners Christopher ‘Mooner’ Murrin, Aaron Byrne, Christy Cunningham and Conor O’Rourke, helped the Killybegs club’s second string to promotion and the championship after a commanding 2-0 last day of the season win away to Cranford.

In a title race that went right down to the wire, both Fintown Harps and Kilmacrennan Celtic pushed the Emerald Park men right to the very end.

But with their fate in their own hands last weekend, Conor McGinty’s charges made sure there were no slip ups as a brace of goals from Josh Cunningham eased them over the line.

“It’s great to get that wee bit of silverware,” said Murrin. “The point of the Saturday team is to provide lads on the fringes with games and to then drip feed those players up to the senior ranks. A big club like St Catherine’s needs that.

“For us older lads, it’s just really nice to be a part of it and to be involved. And listen, the standard of competition and the fact that the title race went right down to the last day, that’s experience you can’t buy. All those lads will really have benefited from being involved in that”.

Murrin says the impact the senior management team of Shaun Kelly, Christopher Murrin and Daniel Breslin are having at the club means its prospects, both short and long term, look extremely bright.

“The boys, when they came back on board, one of the first things they looked for was to reintroduce the Saturday team. They got Conor, Ollie (Smith) and John Joe (McGinley) to take charge and it’s grown from there.

“They’ve had ‘Dinky’ (Brian Dorrian) in at times and everyone knows how good he is. So training and preparations, they’ve been excellent. I’m seeing lads like JP McGuinness, Dean Breslin and Josh Cunningham, who hit 16 goals this season; they and a good few others will eventually make that step up.

“You could see it meant the world to those lads the last day. Senior football is a big step up but they’ll make that jump now with some confidence in their step”.