THE goalposts shook in the storm. A howling wind, driving rain, jerseys stuck to the players’ backs, the supporters huddled in the stand longing for home to get the kettle on…
That was August and on probably the worst night of that terrible month, Silverbridge hosted Madden in their senior championship opener and they could not have got off to a worse start.
The ’Bridge went in at half-time without a score on the board, an entire half of football without raising a single flag. It’s a long way back from there.
At least they showed some bottle. After the break they kicked five points but Madden won by five and, with a visit to Armagh Harps coming up a week later, Colm Nally’s men had to find their form quickly or their championship would be over in the blink of an eye.
“We felt we let Colm down,” says midfielder Peter Carragher as he looks back on August 18.
“We just didn’t perform and Madden, fair dues to them, they were better than us on an awful night for football. We were disappointed but we’ve reacted really well, we’ve stepped it up after that match and there’s been a good bite in training since.”
A resounding 3-14 to 0-8 win against Armagh Harps restored confidence and last Sunday Silverbridge were superior all over the field against Shane O’Neills. Their 3-17 to 0-10 win sent them throughout to the knockout phase of the championship as group runners-up.
They’re still a long way from the final but 6-31 scored and only 18 points conceded over the last two games is good form.
Next up is Granemore, last season’s beaten finalists, at the Athletic Grounds on Sunday (6pm). The prize is a place in the quarter-finals.
“It’s another tough one,” says Carragher.
“They’re a big, physical team and they got to the final last year so they’re no light shakes and they’ll have a point to prove after a heavy defeat to Clann Eireann last Sunday.
“Once you’re in knockout football, there’s nothing easy.”
HE would know about that because he hasn’t always had it easy on the football field.
Carragher first came to prominence in the engineroom of the outstanding Armagh minor class of 2009. The Orchard youngsters played 18 and won 18 that season and the last of those games was, of course, the All-Ireland final.
Minor champions just once before (1949), Armagh took on Mayo at Croke Park and the game was a nervy, mistake-ridden arm wrestle until Carragher split the Westerners’ posts with a point off the outside of his right boot with a few minutes remaining.
That left two in it and Armagh won 10-7.
“It’s hard to believe that’s 14 years ago now,” he says.
“They were great days but the time doesn’t be long going in.”
He had another year at minor level in 2010 and played for the U21s in 2011. In July of that year, playing a club game, he nipped in to win a break and an opponent “swung the boot” at him.
The boot slammed into his left leg and broke it.
“He wasn’t sorry about it,” says Carragher.
He recovered from what was a serious setback and was called into the Armagh senior panel for the 2012 season. He made his first start in the National League at Laois at O’Moore Park in March and got his home debut the following week against Down.
Living his boyhood dream, he’d scored his first point at senior level for his county when disaster struck again. He was involved in a collision and stretchered off and this time, just eight months after he’d broken his left leg, his right leg was broken.
“I was lying there thinking: ‘Here we go again…” he says.
He recovered quickly but, looking back, probably too quickly this time.
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Football, football, football… He played club championship that summer and the U21 championship in the winter.
When Armagh began pre-season, he was recovering from a knee injury (a bruised bone) he’d picked up playing with the U21s, so he missed pre-season training and found he was always trying to catch-up on his team-mates.
When you consider what he’d been through in the three previous years it’s understandable that he decided to go to America the following summer because he must have needed a break.
“Looking back on it, I would probably have been better trying to concentrate on getting a career with Armagh and keep pushing on,” he says.
“But I was young and I didn’t know that at the time…”
When he returned from the States, he got his head down and by 2014 he was moving well and close to his best. He forced his way back into the Armagh panel and returned to the team for the 2015 League campaign, Kieran McGeeney’s first as manager.
“I had one year with ‘Geezer’ and then he let me go,” he says.
“He said the door wasn’t closed. I was playing midfield against all the top midfielders in county and coming out on top but the call never came.”
OF course there are regrets. The majority of that Armagh All-Ireland-winning minor side went on to represent the county at senior level. Like Carragher, Robbie Tasker, Eugene McVerry, Declan McKenna, James Donnelly and Gavin McParland all made the step up and Niall Rowland, James Morgan, Rory Grugan and Andrew Murnin continue to soldier on in the orange jersey.
“It’s something I look back on and I would have liked to have offered more,” says Carragher.
“But it is what it is.
“When I was growing up watching Armagh the main man for me was always (Paul) McGrane, I was always hoping I would be a player like that.
“After all the success with the minors I would have liked to have kicked on. You see the boys like Rory and Andy who are still there, the main men in the team, it would have been nice to have been able to give it a good rattle but it didn’t happen.
“Injuries came along at a bad stage and I didn’t make the development I would have liked. When you’re trying to get up to that level you need a bit of luck with injuries and it was a bit unfortunate the way it went for me.”
On the flip side, would he still be playing at the level he is for his club had he been able to have the county career he’d dreamt of? Probably not.
“I’m happy enough,” he says.
“I’ve been able to play away with the club and I’ve got a good 10 years under my belt now.
“We’ve a good team building at the minute, we have a good young squad and I’ve been here to help them come through and do my best with them.”
SILVERBRIDGE gave a glimpse of what they were capable of last year when they pushed eventual winners Crossmaglen right to the brink in the championship.
Paddy Reel had netted a penalty and, after Carragher’s flick-on sent Jarly Og Burns racing into space, Pauric Keating hit the Cross net again to leave five points between the teams.
Unfortunately for Silverbridge, they couldn’t hold on.
“It was a long winter,” says Carragher.
“It took us a good while trying to process that one! I think some of the boys maybe had a lack of belief before the game. We had taken a couple of heavy beatings from Cross in the previous couple of years in the first round and then the semi-final so maybe there was a doubt in us that we could get over the line.
“But I think the fact that we did push them made the boys realise: ‘Maybe we’re not too bad here, we’re not far away’. Cross are a serious team. They’re so strong right down the middle – if somebody is having an off-day, someone else will step up, that’s just the way they are.
“They have a conveyor belt of talent coming through, they always have, and that’s what we’re looking up to, that’s where we’re aiming to get to. Everyone in Armagh has been trying to get up to that level for the last 25 years and it’s easier said than done.
“So you know they’ll be one of the teams to beat again this year, they always are, and then there’s Ballymacnab, Clann Eireann, Madden... There’s a lot of good teams.
“We have to win on Sunday before we can start thinking about any of them.”
