THE 4 LANTERNS Ulster Senior League table has an ominous look already.
With the halfway mark in the season reached on Sunday, Cockhill Celtic got back to winning ways to open up a nine-point lead and move their title defence into a position of real strength.
“It’s a fantastic cushion,” Cullen acknowledged.
“There is a lot of football to be played. That’s exactly half-way today. We won’t be counting our chickens. We still have a few men out, but we’ll get stronger and we’ll push on.
“This group is phenomenal. They’ve been brilliant over the years. There’s never any bother motivating them.”
Cockhill began as if affronted by the defeat to Swilly Rovers a week earlier, when they suffered a shock 3-2 home loss that was their first defeat in League football in a 72-game sequence going back to July 2012.
Cullen said: “It feels like normality is back after last weekend. Our attitude wasn’t right last week, but it was spot-on today.
“All week in training, you could see the hunger was there. I though today no-one was going to live with us today.”
Rovers hopes had risen in the last week, but Eamon McConigley is not expecting the Inishowen men to loosen their grip.
“It was always Cockhill’s to lose,” he said.
“We had too many draws. A lot of the goals we’ve let in have been set pieces and mistakes. We have to learn and we are learning. Hopefully we can keep building.
“We weren’t able to handle them physically. That was the difference in the game. Possession and play-wise we’d have pipped them, but they beat us every other way.
“I’m unhappy because we lost, but I’m not unhappy with our display. They’re a young side and a young side had to learn. I’m trying to put a team together and we’re nearly there.”
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