Lucan’s hurlers SHC charge returns

LUCAN Sarsfields are hoping to come out of this weekend as quarter-finalists when they take on Setanta at O’Toole Park this Saturday in their final group game of the senior A hurling championship.
They currently sit second in group three and take on bottom side Setanta, knowing that a draw against the Ballymun outfit will be enough to send them through.
The other game in the group sees leaders O’Tooles, who are ahead of Sarsfields on points difference, take on Na Fianna at Parnell Park.
Sarsfields’ Mark Simpson spoke to GazetteSport about his side’s upcoming game.
“Really looking forward to it. We’ve a few injury worries but apart from that I think we are going to put out the strongest team that we can.”
Sarsfields will be going into the game as favourites, with Setanta losing heavily in their other two championship games, but Simpson insists his players will not be taking anything for granted.
“It is championship hurling. The last time they played a championship game was, like ourselves, before the summer and a lot can happen in that time. Setanta always have a very solid team, and are a very good hurling club.
“It’s like the old cliche; if you don’t prepare, you prepare to fail. I think that we will absolutely respect Setanta. However, we would have to be confident going in.”
Sarsfields will once more be without Emmet O’Conghaile due to his exploits with the Dublin senior footballers but Simpson says that because he is available to the team so rarely, it is not as big a loss as some would expect.
“With Emmet being tied up with the footballers all season, we probably don’t factor him in as much as other people might think we do. We’re not building a team around Emmet; we’ve got an awful lot of other players who perform very well on a regular basis for us, so Emmet is a loss but maybe not as big a loss as others could be.”
When asked if there is a tem he would like to meet or avoid in a prospective quarter-final, Simpson wasn’t getting ahead of himself.
“I’d like to avoid them all!” Simpson joked. “Look, we have to just worry about ourselves, hopefully put in a good performance on Saturday and see what happens after that.”