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After the highs of winning their first county title in 35 years last season, Newbridge were brought down to earth against Armagh champions Clann Éireann at Celtic Park in their Ulster Club opener. Within the space of eight days, they’ve claimed two victories in the Ulster Club series, including Sunday’s win over the current Armagh champions Madden . They’ll now face a step up in class for their provincial semi-final. Dunloy and Madden were both making their Ulster Club SFC debuts whereas Scotstown are one of the pre-eminent forces on the provincial stage. Yet, Newbridge boss Garry Hetherington says his men won’t be fazed by the scale of the challenge and believes his team are capable of competing with the best sides in Ulster. “For this club to be in an Ulster Club semi-final is massive no matter who we are playing,” said Hetherington. “Yes, it is Scotstown, but we have to go in with the belief and the attitude that we are going to win the game and get to the final. “If we go in with that and we play well, God knows where it will take us.” When reflecting on their preliminary round win over Dunloy, Hetherington, who is Newbridge’s joint-manager along with former Antrim star Kevin Brady, lamented the amount of goal chances the Derry men passed up in Owenbeg. It was a familiar tale on Sunday against Madden as a few great stops from Jamie Sheridan helped him keep a clean sheet, but Newbridge also fisted the ball over the bar on four occasions with Patrick McMullan’s first half effort particularly puzzling. “Yeah, it was probably not as ruthless as we would have liked but we went in at half-time point up and we thought we'd sort of dominated the first half and were dangerous and we probably left a few scores behind us,” he added. “But look, we came out in the second half and as you said it was maybe more comfortable than the Dunloy game because we were that four or five ahead nearly the whole way through the half.” “When you're in those (one-on-one) situations you don't know -maybe the point was the best option. “We passed up another couple, maybe Conleth (McGrogan) at the end and another one in the first half maybe we could have gone for goal. When you're in that situation it's a split-second decision and look, we'll take it. We'll take the win.” Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the latest sports news, headlines and top stories
