Enniskillen have sent out a loud and clear message that they have their sights firmly fixed on regaining the New York Gold Trophy after a most impressive win over Ederney in the county semi-final in Tempo.
The rampant Gaels hit four goals and looked quite awesome on their lightning counterattacks brilliantly led by Johnny Cassidy.
And they are rightly the hottest of favourites to get the better of Erne Gaels in the county final on Sunday week.
But extremely grounded manager Simon has no truck with any form of complacency in his measured analysis of his side’s victory.
Ederney have had a full programme over the past few weeks and Bradley said his side believed they could profit from those exertions: “In fairness to Ederney, they have put in a hell of a shift over the past three or four weeks and we always thought we could take advantage of that.
“It turned out that we did, but in fairness to Ederney, some of the lads there today were absolute warriors- but semi-finals are for winning and nobody will remember the score or remember this is two weeks time.
“It was all about getting to the final and we have two weeks to sort ourselves out for the final.”
Two early goals from Johnny Cassidy and Conor Love were an ideal platform for the Gaels and welcome news for Bradley.
“We have been creating chances all year and we have not been taking them and we had our stats man saying things like we have created eight chances and took three.
“So, we got five goals against Belnaleck with three in the last ten minutes, so we are capable of doing that and teams have to respect us for that, but at the same time, in the final, we are not going to get five six or seven chances.
“Finals just don’t work out like that so we will take it today and move on.”
Even when Ederney came back and reduced the deficit to three points, the Gaels kept their shape and their focus.
“We talked to the players about playing in small chunks of the game, whether it is for ten seconds or 20 seconds and you can’t change the past but you can influence the future and they are getting that and they are getting more experienced and we give them a lot of freedom to make decisions on the pitch.”
The turning point came when the Gaels got a rebound off the Ederney upright and Conor Murphy shuffled the ball home.
But Bradley does not believe this was entirely fortunate-but rather just rewards for persistence.
“I don’t know if they are breaks or not as we work hard and follow all shots in and it happens once in a blue moon and today was the blue moon.”
When told that the Gaels have immense scoring power, he said: “Yes Richie O’Callaghan’s final goal iced it for us and we have had scores from lots of different players throughout the year so I don’t really mind who puts it over the bar or puts it in the net so long as they do it.”
But he firmly rejects the suggestion that last year’s surprise defeat to Erne Gaels in the county semi-finals means there is a sense of “unfinished business.”
“That is not a motivation, you can’t win last year’s championship-the motivation is to win this year’s championship.”
Enniskillen Gaels have a very strong squad which Bradley puts down to the fact that management has been taking both teams this season.
“That has worked well for us in terms of building a squad. It increases our possibilities.”
And when asked about the immense contribution that Jonny Cassidy made, he said.
“That is what Johnny is always capable of and that is what he should be producing given the level of football he is playing at.
“He is an inter-county player and a very good inter-county player and he enjoys the role we give him as opposed to a man-marking job at cornerback.
“So he is enjoying himself and people are getting to see him in a different light.”
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