Enniskillen Rangers player-manager Michael Kerr praised the heart and desire of his side as they booked their place back in the Junior Cup final.
The ‘Gers won the competition last May and kept alive their hopes of retaining the crown as Ciaran Smith’s 82nd minute strike earned them a hard fought 2-1 win over Harryville Homers on Monday night in Loughgall.
“The heart, passion and fight that the boys showed is an absolute credit to each and everyone of them. I can’t speak highly enough of this group of players and that includes those who didn’t play. They are all important to what we are doing,” said a delighted Kerr.
Harryville provided a stern test of Rangers credentials but the Enniskillen side stood firm and Kerr was delighted with the performance in particular of his two centre halves.
“We were under immense pressure from long balls at times but we dug in and we defended well. Our defence is very solid and they can deal with that. Harryville threw everything they had at us but I have to say Neil Coulter and Ben Brown were absolutely fantastic in the centre of the defence. To a man, everybody was great. Harryville are a formidable side but we stood up to them and this team just keeps going,” he stated.
Kerr had opened the scoring with a screamer midway through the first half only for Homers to equalise late in the half. However, Kerr stressed to his players at the break that this was their title and they weren’t going to give it up.
“I said to the boys at half time, it is our title, this is what we are defending and we are not going to lose here tonight and they went out and did  it in the second half,” he added.
Smith’s late effort proved to be the winner and Kerr was glad to hear the final whistle when it arrived. And although he had concerns about a lack of match practise in recent weeks for his side, he felt the work put in on the training pitch stood to them at the end.
“To hear the final whistle was such a relief because after Ciaran had scored the referee said there was ten minutes to go but it felt like an eternity. They put us under pressure right until the very end.
“My biggest fear was a lack of match practise when we got into the last ten or 15 minutes but we could have gone on. It shows the training and the effort that the boys have put in over the last six or seven weeks with very limited games, it really stood to them.”
Rangers will now meet the winners of the Ahoghill Thistle v Greenisland tie which will be played this Friday night at Seaview and Kerr will be their to cast his eye over his prospective final opponents.
“I will be in Seaview on Friday night to watch the game. Whoever it is that we play though, they will be in the final on merit so it won’t be an easy game but we will go and watch the semi-final and then we will go away and prepare right for the final as we do for every game,” he said.
And the ‘Gers boss is determined that they will go on and make it back to back titles.
“It is great to be back in the final but we’ve won nothing yet. We want to go on now and win the final and we’ll be doing everything we can to achieve that,” he added.
However, there are plenty of big games coming up before that, starting this Saturday with a Mulhern Cup quarter-final tie against neighbours Enniskillen Town.
“We have the Mulhern on Saturday against Town and it will be every bit as hard as Monday night. It is a local derby, no team will want to lose and the incentive of a semi-final is there for both teams. That will be a huge game and then the league will kick in. We will take it one game at a time, we’ll focus on Town on Saturday and then we’ll move on to the next one which is what we have done all season,” he said.