Talking Sport
Mervue Utd aiming to put a spanner in the FAI’s works
Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon
COME Saturday night, Mervue United could possibly have secured a place in the promotion play-offs of the First Division of the Airtricity League, which would be a remarkable achievement for a club that the FAI want to remove from League of Ireland football next season.
To make the play-offs, fourth placed Mervue must account for Wexford Youths away and hope Longford Town or Waterford United – both of which are just a point ahead of the Galway City club on the table – do not secure a win against champions elect Athlone Town or Cobh Ramblers respectively.
Whatever the outcome of this weekend’s series of games, club captain Tom King maintains that Mervue have fought a gallant campaign and he stresses it is a season the management and players can look back at and be proud of.
To this end, King has rowed in behind his manager Johnny Glynn, who last week hit out at the FAI for their announcement mid-season that Mervue would not be awarded a licence in the League next season as the Association want an all-Galway team to compete instead.
Although recognising the need for building a fan base for League of Ireland soccer in Galway, King believes there is a place for Mervue within the structure – promotion or not – and he points to the progress the team has made in such a relatively short period of time.
“When Mervue came into the League [in 2009], John Delaney’s comments were that this was the future of the League of Ireland. Since then, Mervue have constantly produced players, like Rory Gaffney, John Mountney, Patrick Hoban and Ryan Manning this year and have got progressively better every year. And this year has been our best finish yet.
“Then, in the middle of the season to be told, ‘no, that is the end of it’! I understand some of the reasons about [establishing] the fan base but the club has gone about their business in the right way and they are being unfairly punished. So, I would like to put a spanner in the works this weekend.”
Certainly, promotion to the Premier Division is now a distinct possibility and to achieve such a feat would, in many respects, be the stuff of fairytales. Indeed, not many gave them a ghost of a chance of finishing in the top three – or even four – at the start of the season, particularly after such influential players like Alan Murphy and Patrick Hoban had moved on.
“Pa Hoban was the big one. When you see how well he has done [at Dundalk]. He has made the step up and he is a good player. There are a lot of good players still in the squad and, you know, I would feel most of our team could play at a higher level.
“I suppose, though, we lacked that bit of experience, especially without Alan, and, to be honest, that has what has probably cost us the League. If we had one or two players like Alan Murphy, I feel that title was there for the taking. We won’t be dwelling on that until the post mortems begin at the end of the season. We still have a game to win on Saturday night.”
At one point early in the season, Mervue sat at the top of the table much to the dismay of the pundits but King reiterates that when they set out on the road in 2013, winning the League was their primary objective. After all, why aim any lower?
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.