Tuda wants to go to Town on his kicking demons

Former Cayman Islands international Tuda Murphy made his debut during the 3-1 win over Moneyslane on Saturday and afterwards, told the ‘LEADER’ just how delighted he was to be back on the pitch.

“I really enjoyed it,” he said. I thought I did everything that I had to do well and the kicking was pretty good as well. I was just buzzing to play again.”

It is those much-documented struggles with the boot that Murphy is keen to put behind him and he is confident that he can lock them away into the past.

“I don’t want that to be beside my name anymore,” he told the ‘LEADER.’ “I don’t want people to say ‘he’s a great goalkeeper but...’

“You can practice all you want but until you get into a game situation, you don’t know. I think it’s my technique that has let me down so now I’m just focusing on relaxing and trying to get the ball up in the air.

“I’m going to work on that at the club now and I told our goalkeeping coach that I want to break things down and go right back to the beginning.”

The 34-year-old was keen to heap praise onto his new team-mates after playing his opening match at Crystal Park.

“Ryan (Watson)’s a great guy and the group we have at the club are fantastic,” he said.

“I’ve only been down there for a week or so but already I can see that there are no guys there that cause any problems or anything. The craic is amazing. Ryan told me I would love it and I am going to. Ryan doesn’t just sign people as players but also as characters and that shows in the squad.”

Murphy was brought straight into Town’s line-up but was keen to stress league games are a different matter.

“Crofty is such a great guy,” he said of his fellow keeper Stephen Croft. “I think I was just coming in for a cup game so I don’t know who’s going to be playing in the next game. I haven’t come here just to get put straight in and take over. I’m here to work for the team and I’m happy for Crofty to play when he hasn’t done anything wrong. It’s just so great to be involved again.”

Murphy’s ambitions, however, are still high and he is even targetting a return up the league tables.

“I still want to play at the highest level and I’d love to finish my career in the Premiership,” he said. “Even if that doesn’t happen though, I might love it at Banbridge and be happy to finish it off here.

“It feels so good to be back. Nadine had been saying that you’re a long time retired and encouraging me to go and play again so that’s why I went to traing with Glenavon during pre-season.

“Now I’m focused on Banbridge and we have a lot of work to do here to get going on a good run.”