Tobermore in safe hands with local stopper McGraw

The local stopper plied his trade for Portstewart for many years, where he worked with Trevor McKendry, as well as Glebe Rangers and Limavady United. And the Garvagh man is relishing getting a crack at the Bannsiders. “The buzz has been great since the draw,” he said. “If truth be told it’s the draw we all wanted. I’m sure our board are happy as it won’t have the expense of hiring a coach with it being a local game. Clubs at our level are run on a shoestring and as a well-known grocer says every little helps! “It’s a day for us to enjoy and to go out and give it a good go. We’ve played six games to get here so we’ll not be sitting back, we’re coming to have a go.” Matt, who also makes his own goalkeeping gloves, knows he will have to be at his best to keep out the in-form Bannsiders. “Oran has assembled a very good forward line, all with different attributes too,” he said. “Goalkeeping is an art, it’s probably the only position that doesn’t change no matter what level you play at unlike outfielders. “Goalkeepers’ objectives remain the same, keep the ball out of the net and distribute it well, the only differences we face are the speed of the ball, so bring them on!” Matt’s gloves also featured on the big stage recently too as he explained. “MG-GK gloves have made it on to Socccer AM two weeks in a row, which has been a pleasant surprise,” he said. “Scaling up the business is the next step. We currently have five distributors around the world and we are looking to increase that to 10 locations in 2017 and we’ve redesigned our website mg-gk.com recently too. “As long as I’m not a bad advert for the gloves on Saturday I’ll be happy!”