Steelstown Brian Ogs manager Gibson not interested in early Championship praise

The Ballyarnett club produced some breathtaking football to dismantle a side many have tipped to be competing at the business end of the championship this year but Gibson, who knows all about Championship heartache from his time as a player, won’t be reading too much into any compliments at this stage of the competition.

“We have to keep the feet on the floor and stay away from newspapers!” replied Gibson when questioned on how far his team can progress this season.

“There were a few praising us there right after the whistle and while it’s nice, I don’t want to hear it right now. It’s August, we’ve played one game, we could be hit by injuries, we mightn’t even be in the quarter-finals and we’re not looking any further than the next match.

“The plan is to focus on Glack, hopefully get the same level of performance, get some more minutes into the legs and then plan for Limavady.

“Other people said that was our hardest game but, for us, the next game is always the hardest one. We’ll take each game as it comes. That’s the Glenullin game out of the way now so we’ll sit down, look at the video, see where we can improve and look toward Glack.”

The enthusiasm of the well wishers was understandable given the football Steelstown produced during the 2-16 to 0-08 victory but Gibson was quick to temper those getting ahead of themselves.

“It was a great way to start the championship,” explained the Steelstown boss, “We had a few debutantes there, boys getting championship football for the first time which was great.

“We still made some mistakes and there is plenty we need to work on but it’s going in the right direction at least. After such a long lay-off, you have to try and get boys back in, get them back into shape and from that point of view it was positive but the main thing is keeping people healthy.

“At this stage it is more about getting players games. We have a big panel. Ironically because of the coronavirus pandemic, people haven’t been travelling which helps in terms of numbers so we’re concentrating only on getting people up to speed and getting them fit.”

Gibson admitted Sunday’s performance may give him some welcomed selection headaches ahead of the Glack encounter.

“If you could have seen my phone this week and it has just got worse by the looks of it but, no, that’s a good thing. Maybe not a good thing for me, but it is great to see so much competition in the panel. It will only bring players on.

“Now, it’s about keeping the young lads’ feet on the ground but I’m sure some of the older boys will be reminding them of that at training during the week.”