Murray's date with destiny draws near after 'long week'

Tick. Tock. Counting time in one of the biggest weeks of his fighting life, Andy Murray is happy to be interviewed, you feel, just to keep his mind from straying to the big one this weekend. The popular Cavan Town man headlines for the first time at the National Stadium against Tallaght brawler Oisin Fagan and, idling in the dog days before the fight, you get the sense that 10pm on Saturday night can't come quickly enough. "It's a long week so you have to gear yourself, get the weight right, time it right, get the head right, go in there in good form and hope for the best," said Murray last Monday. "Because you're not doing too much and you feel you're super fit, even when you do train you feel as if you should be doing more, even though you have to wind down." With the hard work done and a successful eight-week training camp behind him, it's a matter now, Murray explained, of just waiting for the bell. The weigh-in will take place in Dublin at lunchtime on Friday and with the hard training - is there any other type in the sport of boxing? - over, Murray will spend the rest of this week, in his own words, "ticking over". "The preparations went well, the heavy sessions of sparring and heavy gym work are over. This week is just skipping and loosening out, working on tactics," he said. Those tactics, on the face of it, look simple. The fight is a matchmakers dream, Murray's technical brilliance pitted against Fagan's raw, aggressive style. The Cavan stylist is expected to fight to his own strengths, but stresses the point that he won't to sit back and allow the smaller Fagan to "come forward all night". Fighting fire with ice may be the plan, but fire with fire is sometimes required. "I'm quite comfortable, I know what I have to do exactly," explained Murray. "At the end of the day Brian Peters did his job and got me this fight, live on TV, and as Brian McKeown says, it's all on the night, it's all about performing and that's what I'm planning on doing "I'm going to have to use my boxing skills and make room for punching. He's going to be a lot smaller, he's going to try to get in low and you don't want to be punching down because it's awkward. You need space, his head's going to drop so bring the shots straight up the middle. Getting short hooks as well. "I'm going to use my size, too. I'm going to make sure I'm not going to be pushed around here, I'll give him a dunt or an old shoulder to say, look, think twice. At some stage of the fight I'm going to say 'you're not going to come forward all night here'." A win and an impressive showing will see Murray's already-burgeoning profile increase dramatically. After a slow-burning start to his pro career, this is seen as the fight that could see the EU champion finally "arrive" in the national sporting consciousness. He's ready, he says, for "ten hard rounds" and knows that the pressure is on. "It [the increased publicity] helps, good write ups in the national papers, plenty of publicity in the news, TV ads this week. Because it's live on TV, your profile will be boosted loads. Put in a good performance, get people talking, that's the next step. Keep the winning record. I suppose there will be pressure but you're going to have to step up at some stage." A large, expectant crowd will travel from Cavan to the South Circular Road venue and many more will be watching live on RTE. The smart money's on fireworks, and Murray's class to shine through. Ten O'Clock on Saturday night can't come quickly enough.