For the second Friday running, a club from Galway travelled east for a decisive fixture. While Galway United’s celebrations may have been on a larger scale, there were similar scenes of delight and satisfaction at a mission accomplished once the final whistle went at Station Road to confirm Mervue United’s, in the end, comfortable victory over Kildare County.
Clinical efficiency in front of goal was the major difference between the two sides. As with last Tuesday’s tie in Mervue, Kildare did create chances but failed miserably in front of goal. Mervue grabbed their opportunities with both hands, and were worthy winners for a second half display in which they defended bravely and calmed the nerves of manager Johnny Glynn, who was expecting a second half onslaught that never materialised.
“I was surprised. I really thought we’d be under a lot more pressure. But we passed it well and kept the ball when we needed to. You could see the football in them. They showed it tonight. We needed the game on Tuesday night.
“I was nervy this morning thinking would we be flat, would we perform, how would Kildare be. But we got a good start and we had them under pressure.” Glynn revealed that he had an anxious wait to find out whether ‘keeper Brian O’Donoghue, who works in Derby, would make the game on time, and praised the Claregalway native’s commitment to the cause.
The development of underage talent has always been at the core of Mervue’s success and Glynn was proud of the younger players who had done their club proud on the night. “We finished up with four U17s (Mike Elwood, Paul Scally, Pat Huban, and Philip Ryan ) on the pitch at the end, which is an amazing feat when you think about it.”
Goalscoring hero Dave Goldbey is another who has come through the ranks with the club, and he described how much it meant to him to be involved in this historic achievement. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt a better feeling to be honest. There were tears in my eyes. It was unbelievable as you could see with the celebrations at the end, what it meant to everyone.
“I think we learnt a lot of lessons from Tuesday. What happened in the first leg helped us in the second leg. We knew what to do. A few of us haven’t played a game in three weeks. We were always going to get better in the second leg as Johnny said.”
Mervue have now earned the right to compete in the Eircom League First Division next season, but a decision has yet to be made on whether the invitation will be accepted. Club chairman George Guest outlined how the club will assess the situation.
“There’ll be a little bit of soul searching to be done. It has to be right. There’s no point diving into something just for the sake of diving into it. We’ll have to plan it, look at it, sit down with our people and the FAI and work out how we go about it. We won’t rush it, we’ll sit down and talk about it sensibly. Mervue United is a big club. We’ve 26 teams from U10s up. The club has to come first, not any one team. I’m not trying to be negative about tonight, it’s just that there’s a bigger picture.”
Far from being negative, Guest placed Friday night’s result as the pinnacle of the club’s 48 year history. “It means everything to the club. A club like Mervue that started off with nothing like lots of other clubs. We built it up through hard work and determination up to this, this has to be the peak. To come down to a place like Kildare, after the result we had the last night and literally beat them off the pitch. It’s just amazing for the club.”
