No time for panic for Fanad United says captain Gallagher

Fanad United haven’t had as good a start to the season as they would have liked, but captain James Gallagher isn’t fazed by that.

It hasn’t been consistent so far for Arthur Lynch’s men, who have played just twice in the league compared to four times for other teams, and they have just the one point to show for it after a draw with Keadue Rovers.

They were beaten by Bonagee United 2-1 at the weekend, who they also lost to in the Brian McCormick Cup Area semi-final, but there aren’t any worries from the captain about the season to date.

“It has been kind of stop/start so far, but after the last weekend there we’re kind of going full throttle right up until Christmas. Stop/start is no good, and you want to keep the momentum going.

“We were speaking after Sunday, this league campaign is probably going to be the tightest or toughest, and I don’t think there will be any clear winner. The teams that have come up look stronger than in other years, and any team could take points off anyone, which will make it interesting.

“In fairness to our reaction, it was probably one of the best performances I’ve been involved in this last four or five years with Fanad, and I don’t think anybody will be panicking. It’s going to be a tight league, and teams will take points off each other.”

Gallagher has taken the captaincy this season as Patrick McGinley has moved to Australia.

They’ve also lost Declan McGarvey to Kilmacrennan Celtic, but they have a well-settled team from the side that won back-to-back Premier Division titles, while they have promoted some of their reserve players to the first team.

“In terms of how we’re fixed ourselves, we’re very happy with where we’re at.

“There’s a few young fellas chomping at the bit to get into the squad, Caolan McElwaine is playing a bit and young Charlie (McAteer), who played a lot of the Saturday team last year, Adam Carr came in at the tail end of last year, and they’re all involved with us.”

Last year saw the Traigh-A-Loch men finish third behind the promoted two of Letterkenny Rovers and Bonagee, and after having won the league the previous two seasons, it was a bit of a letdown, but they had plenty to play for as they got to the FAI Junior Cup quarter-finals.

“The FAI Junior Cup probably took priority last year, and we had a good run in that, and it was great to have that buzz around Fanad again so we probably took our eye off the league a bit.

“We had a couple of big injuries too, but we wouldn’t use that as an excuse because there’s a strong squad here.

“So we were disappointed with last season, and it’s the same with being out of the Brian McCormick this season too. In any competition we enter, we want to win.

“We don’t have the Junior Cup until February, which is good because you can focus completely on the league until Christmas 

“We’ll be going full tilt at everything and our aim is to win everything we enter.”

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And as they take on Kilmacrennan Celtic this weekend in a third home game in a row in the league, Gallagher wants to get a first win on the board and make the advantage count.

“They’re not a bad team, they got three points from Traigh-A-Loch last year and they were our closest challengers the first year we won the league and we’ve had some good battles with them.

“It’s disappointing that we have one point on the board out of six, but we’re not panicking. Performances have been good, but home form has to be top notch if you’re to have any chance in the league.

“In our (title) winning seasons, we conceded maybe ten or eleven goals, so we’re conceding too many at the minute, but we won’t panic.”