View From Behind The Nets - June 2003
by Rodney Dullaghan

What a result last Thursday night against Dublin City! Even Seerey’s wad of cash and close season purchases couldn't come near matching the determination and class that Harps showed.

We are sitting proudly again on top of the division with a record that equally matches Shelbourne, the leaders of the Premier. Some pundits are already saying that Shels won’t be caught as they are showing the form and in particular, the grit that wins leagues. While no one wants to dare say the same about us, surely we are getting the results and defending the way a team must, to be true title contenders. Alright, its not always pretty to watch but how many times have we watched Harps totally outclass teams and dominate games to come away with nothing. I, for one can put up with watching a season of pish football and opposing teams coming here, closing up shop for a point from the outset if its means Premier football coming back to the banks of the Finn.

Our defence has been excellent all season and we have one of the meanest goals against records in the country. The bone of contention seems to be the supply, or lack of it to our two forward men Josie and Kevin. If the distribution improves for our strikers, the two lads will score goals for fun, not forgetting the much anticipated return of the lively Damien Whitehead who will surely carry on from where he left off here last season with his impressive goalscoring record. Our defence has been our saviour so far this season and if we start scoring goals we will be hard to catch. With one of the finest strikers in the country in Kevin McHugh, hopefully he will start receiving the kind of service that his talents so richly deserve.

Josie had a stormer in Whitehall scoring the first and superbly setting up the second for Llyodie. It was also great to see Gary Crossan score a fine solo effort for our third after he came on as sub for the injured Johnny Kenny. Crossan has so much potential and its great to see that the younger lads can really produce the goods when called on.

We have been far from firing on all cylinders but hopefully that was our kick-start against the Dubs who are hotly fancied to be in the promotion pack. Of the other teams that have been tipped to win promotion are Bray who were lucky to get a point off us in Wicklow and Kildare who we beat here at the start of the season. All of these teams have dropped valuable points throughout the start of this campaign and will continue to do so, so its up to us to try and open up a gap for ourselves at the top in the next two games. If we can take six points out of these last two before the break it will go a long way to getting out of this division and back battling in the Premier were we belong.

The Night At The Races that was originally scheduled for Friday 6th June in Junction 15 has now been put back for a few weeks. It is unfortunately out of our control as the MC for the evening that is running the night has had to postpone it due to health reasons and we all wish him a speedy recovery.

The night is still going ahead so anyone that is interested in buying a horse can do so from any of the FBTN members, from Junction 15 or from 086-4088410 or 086-3822586.

Welcome Back Whitey! A cead mile failte to Damien Whitehead who makes his eagerly awaited return to the squad tonight. He had a huge impact on our season last term and no one doubts that him and Kevin could become one of the best strike partnerships in the country given the chance.

Condolences All at the FBTN SC would like to express their deepest sympathies to Niall ‘Josie’ Bonner and his family on the recent passing away of his grandmother.