Fanad hope to end the season on a high and create history with back-to-back titles

“Good teams win the league but great teams retain it”. That is the theme running through the mind of Fanad United player Declan McGarvey as his team looks to win back-to-back Premier Division titles tomorrow when they play host to Swilly Rovers. 

Fanad only need a point tomorrow to capture the Brian McCormack league, but with three games left, all within the space of one week, the former Finn Harps player hopes his side can the business done this weekend, rather than panicking for points later this week. 

“We need a point out of the last three games, so hopefully that’ll happen, but in fairness, it’s three tough games that we have left, all in the space of seven days, so hopefully we get over the line because you don’t want to be panicking coming into the final game when bodies will be sore, you’d be kicking yourself if we don't do it tomorrow,” said McGarvey. 

Yet the Fanad United player notes that his side haven’t been in action for over a month and while they’ve played a series of friendlies, he hopes his side can dust the cobwebs off early and hit the ground running against Swilly Rovers.  

“It’s been a trying time because we’ve been sitting around without a game now for five weeks, through the Oscar Traynor and the inter-provincial competition, but we got a few friendlies, but it’ll be nice to see the league out now,” he points out. 

“We haven’t really found any rhythm in 2024, I think we’ve only played two games in-a-row, so it’s been really stop-start which is not ideal.  

“We’ve had a lot of tight games. Our last game was against Castlefin where we had three injuries during the match. Before that we played Gweedore, which was another battle where we had to come from 1-0 down and we were light on numbers. So, it hasn’t been easy this season, every game has gone right to the wire and in terms of injuries, we’ve been up against it.” 

The sense of occasion and history hasn’t passed the veteran player, with him noting that the Premier Division hasn’t been won back-to-back in over a decade, with McGarvey saying it’s been a target for the club ever since they won the league last year. 

“The last team to win back-to-back titles was Kilmacrennan over a decade ago, so it’s not an easy feat. I always remember our manager Arthur put it to us last year when he said good teams win the league, but great teams retain it. That really stuck with me to go again this season, because you can be a flash in the pan in this game.  

“I think once we won it last year, we immediately put our heads down and went at it again. We added a few new players to the team and from that, we kept building and building as a squad.  

“We’re thankfully riding a wave at the minute and long may it continue. I remember being in the Ulster Senior League maybe four years ago and we were at such a low ebb. We were competitive but there was probably no structure in place, you could be going to training some night and hardly anyone there, so it’s great to see that all change.  

“Let’s just hope we can finish it off this weekend with a league title. Interestingly the last time we dropped points was against Swilly Rovers back at the start of the year, so we owe them one now,” McGarvey said.