SHANE BYRNE ESTIMATES that it’s ‘the guts of ten years’ since Glengad United last even entered the FAI Junior Cup.
Tomorrow, Byrne’s team face Pike Rovers, the 2011 FAI Junior Cup winners, in a quarter-final of a competition regarded as the largest in amateur football in Europe.
Glengad, winners of the Jackie Crossan Premier Division in the Inishowen League last season, decided in the summer to try their hand in the Junior Cup.
Last month, Glengad were represented at the quarter-final draw at Aviva Stadium, the venue for the Junior Cup final in May, and it is a measure of how far they’ve come that they embark on the trip to Shannonside today aboard the Republic of Ireland team coach.
Byrne, who also managed the Letterkenny Institute of Technology team this season, stepped in to manage Glengad a couple of seasons ago having first come in to aid Liam McClean.
“It was case of walking before we could run,” Byrne says of the club’s absence from the blue ribband competition over recent campaigns.
“We wanted to win the League here in Inishowen first. It’s so hard to win and so competitive, but we figured that we needed to dominate our own League and our own area, first and foremost, before we even thought about going away and playing or competing in the Junior Cup.”
Glengad are without the suspended Terence Doherty, sent off in their 2-1 win over Aungier Celtic in Dublin last month, but elsewhere Byrne has a full panel from which to choose.
Christy Fildara, the 19-year-old who was the extra-time hero for Carndonagh Community School yesterday as they overcame Presentation Brothers College of Cork to win the Dr Tony O’Neill Cup, has been elevated into the first XI this season and has been a revelation.
The winger is attracting attention from Derry City, but has been a real feature of Glengad having watched from the bench last season, when Glengad added the League Cup and the Charlie O’Donnell Memorial Cup to their League crown.
Byrne added Nigel McMonagle from Moville Celtic last summer. McMonagle and Matthew Byrne hit the goals against Aungier and McMonagle has certainly added to an already-strong squad.
The return of Michael Byrne, following a hip operation, has also given a considerable boost as Glengad now look to take the scalp of one of the Junior Cup favourites.
“Days like this are what football is all about,” the Glengad manager says.
“There’s no doubt we’re going down there to win. I know the calibre of player that I have here.
In Cup games like this you need the rub of the green and you need things to fall into place for you, especially away from home. The quality is in that Glengad dressing room, though. We’re not going away down to Limerick to make up numbers.”
As a player, Shane Byrne played in two FAI Junior Cup semi-finals. Twice in the early 1980s, he was part of Carndonagh teams that drew 2-2 at Belfield, against Belgrove and Diamond Celtic, only to lose out 3-1 both times in replays at Finn Park and Maginn Park.
The memories of the defeat to Diamond Celtic, over 30 years on, are still vivid.
“That Diamond Celtic game, I can still see it yet,” he says.
“We had two penalties given against us in the first 20 minutes. One hit me square in the back. It’s 30 years ago, but it’s still a sore one to remember. Not in a month of Sundays was it a penalty. The referee was adamant it hit my hand – it wasn’t even close.
“He gave us a penalty later in the game that was never a penalty – that hardly made up for it…”
His sons Michael, Matthew and Adam lost a quarter-final to Ballymun in 2012 with Carndonagh, but are now part of the voyage as Glengad look to take the magical tour into what would be a different stratosphere.
The Glengad boss says: “This is magnificent from a club point of view. We’ve been unlucky with away draws so far in this competition, but they’re standing to us, those games and those away trips.
“It takes a big effort, but the club has been brilliant. Everyone here from top to bottom in Glengad United has been brilliant. It’s been a club effort right throughout.”
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