After more than a decade spent in the SSE Airtricity League, Vinny Faherty is relishing being back where it all began.
The Moycullen native flared to promise for Salthill Devon so returning to the Drom based outfit was always on the agenda once calling time on his productive career with Galway United.
For Faherty being involved in the Galway FA premier division means the basic enjoyment factor of playing sport still matters deeply."You are going out, you are expecting to win, you want to do well, but it is a different type - I don't want to use the word pressure - but it doesn't consume you as much as the full time football does with United," he says.
"A loss on a Friday or even if you won and had a bad game it took over your weekend if I'm being honest. It is hard to get out of that headspace, if you read biographies it is interesting to read that every other professional felt the same, you weren't the nicest person to be around or the most craic. It is great not having that element any more, that is probably the nicest part.
"It is really enjoyable to be able to still play and train, you have some great lads up with Salthill. The club is obviously incredibly well run, the facilities are fantastic, I can't think of a better place to be playing and enjoying football at the minute."
Salthill currently top the table, but will be in FAI Junior Cup action against Maree-Oranmore at Drom tomorrow evening.
"It is something that at training we talk about all of the time, that we have to win all of these games," Faherty says.
"You don't win the league up in Drom, you win it by going to Colemanstown and different areas in the county. It is the same in the FAI Cup, we need to be at it because Oranmore have already taken points off us in the league.
"If we don't perform well on Friday we will get knocked out, it is as simple as that. They are a good team, I didn't play earlier in the year against them, but I played against them over the summer, they have some very good young players. So we won't be taking that for granted."
**Listen to the full interview with Vinny Faherty, who previews the SSE Airtricity League first division play-off semi-final between Bray Wanderers and Galway United, on this week's 'Cian On Sport' podcast available on Soundcloud, Spotify, and Apple podcasts.
