RICHARD EATON SAYS geography is Raphoe’s biggest opponent as the Donegal club look to follow-up on last season’s third-placed finish in the Ulster Hockey Premier League.
Raphoe had a magnificent season, but manager Eaton has warned that repeating the trick will be a big ask.
Irish underage international Ben Wallace has signed for Annadale this summer while Vincent Devenney and William Wauchope haven’t returned to the fold and Matthew Lecky remains sidelined because of injury.
Last night, Raphoe – who have also lost Rodney Bates from the management team – lost 5-1 to Portadown in the Kirk Cup, a harsh scoreline but a reminder of the ruthlessness of teams at this level.
[adrotate group=”37″]“I think we’ll get better,” Eaton told Donegal Sport Hub.
“It’s our first game. All these teams have been playing friendlies, but we don’t have that. We had one game against Antrim.”
Raphoe had the better of the play but found themselves 3-0 down at the break to a clinical Portadown, who also had goalkeeper Jamie Knipe in wonderful form.
Eaton said: “Overall in the first half, I thought until they got the second goal we should have had four.
[adrotate group=”46″]“The difference was the clinical finishing. Every time they got into our circle they scored and their ‘keeper had a stormer.
“We’ve never had as many short corners that didn’t work. That’s really the first time that we’ve seen a ball all year. We’ll use this Cup as a learning process.
“We do need to work on our short corner routine. You need to practice set pieces in sport. They mean a lot.”
[adrotate group=”81″]On the season ahead, Eaton added: “We’d like to finish in mid-table. We’ll see now what Kilkeel and Bangor are like, but we’d be hoping for a mid-table finish. We’re good enough to stay in the Premier League.”
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