we can beat

Bann face the holders in the quarter-finals of the Irish Senior Cup. The Dublin side won the competition last season for the first time in 99 years.

They even won a treble, beating Banbridge in the IHL final and also picking up the Leinster Senior Cup. However, Tumilty reckons Banbridge have enough fire-power to match them.

“If you want to win the Irish Cup, you have to beat these teams somewhere down the line,” he said.

“It will be difficult, I don’t doubt that but if we play to our best, we have enough in our squad to match them.

“I’m not going down there with the attitude that they have to have an off day for us to win. If we’re on form, we’ll be able to beat them. Even if they play well, it’ll be a very close game.

“Their corners are good and they have good experience. They have three international forwards there but then so do I. If there’s a more dangerous forward in the country at the minute than Stevie Dowds (pictured), I’m yet to see him.

“I can’t wait to get down there on Saturday. I just wish I was playing! I’d love to be out there in a game like this.”

Tumilty will have almost a full squad available with only Dane Ward remaining on the sidelines.

He said: “Having the senior guys available makes a difference to us and that’s no slight on the younger guys. It was just great to have the two Magees, Drew Carlisle and Matthew Bell back last Saturday. If that group can stay together, we’ll have a chance in any competition.”

The last time the sides met, Bann were edged out 4-3 in the IHL final. Now Tumilty wants to dump Monkstown out:

“I’d love to put one over on them. They got the breaks in the final last year and we didn’t, that was just the difference.”