SEAMIE ‘Nanny’ Friel hopes Fanad United can use Sunday’s cup win over Harding as a springboard for improved fortunes this season.
Fanad are playing catch-up in the Brian McCormick Sports & Leisure Premier Division but have only won three of the six matches they have played.
However, they had a strong squad at Traigh-a-Loch on Sunday and proved much too strong for Harding.
If they can attain the right consistency over the next couple of months, they could have a say in the league and the FAI Junior Cup.
“We knew with the home draw that we had a good chance.
“We didn’t really know much about Harding, apart from they played against (Black Forge’s) Conor McGregor last weekend. That was about it.
“We weren’t going to take them lightly but the performance, bar maybe the ten minutes at the end of the first half, was very good and we dominated the game.
“We probably could have won by more but listen we will take the 3-0.
“I think we’re the last team from Donegal in the cup now, so we will take a lot from it.
“Hopefully we can take this as a springboard now for the rest of the season and look at the league from now on.”
Friel missed last season with a cruciate injury and was out for almost the full 12 months but he has been back since the start of the season.
He says he’s still building back to his best but was excellent against Harding.
“It took me a wee while and you could see it in my fitness.
“But then I played the Oscar Traynor game last week and felt fairly comfortable and I got confidence from that.
“I’m getting more confident with every game on my knee.
“Hopefully I can stay injury-free now. That was the third time I’ve done the cruciate. I think I might be a glutton for punishment more than anything.”
Friel was part of a back four that didn’t give Harding a sniff of a goal, and he says the competition for places will be intense in the next month or so.
“The only threat they probably would have had was from a set-piece and I felt we dealt with that fairly well.
“The boys did well and then you had Liam and James Gallagher coming on as well so there are places up for grabs.
“Everyone has to be on their game.”
Fanad are seventh in the Donegal League Premier Division but they are not giving up hope that they can have a say in the title race yet with a couple of games in hand.
However, Friel acknowledges that they need to start picking up wins.
“We definitely can’t afford many more slip-ups.
“Bonagee beat Kilmacrennan last night and (Letterkenny) Rovers are obviously going well.
“We’re not out of it yet and we will keep plugging away and hopefully we can pick up points at home.
“Nobody wants to come to Traigh-a-Loch. I’m sure some of the Harding boys got a big shock when they landed down here today.
“We will keep going and keep plugging away at training.
“We have a few coming back now from injuries and whenever we get everyone back, we will put a big push on then.”
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