Mervue United midfielder, Donnacha McNamara, reflects on his game changing performance in the National League last week and looks ahead to their upcoming fixture against Home Farm DCU this weekend.

Mervue United are currently sitting tied on points at the top of group one with Home Farm DCU as the two come face to face in this weekend’s third round of the FAI National League.

McNamara has been a key part of United’s success so far as he helped his team to secure a crucial three points by putting away two goals against Lucan United in the second round.

After his team conceded early into the match, McNamara retaliated with a shot from outside of the box to make it level, followed by another shot on target to give Mervue a 2-1 lead heading into the second half.

This was McNamara’s first ever goal in the FAI National League and this is what he has to say about the milestone, “I was really delighted, the bench was going crazy and it’s good to see other people happy when you score.”

“I could’ve tried to find my striker or the winger and slipped him in but I said we’re 1-0 down, space has opened up, I’m on the edge of the box, what’s the worst that can happen, I can hit them well sometimes!”

United now have a benefit of a home fixture against their Dublin opponents. The game was switched to Fahy’s Field due to road closure this weekend around Whitehall Stadium. Both teams have the opportunity to go two points clear at the top of the group should they secure three points.

Speaking on the upcoming fixture, McNamara hopes to keep his goal scoring streak alive. He says, “The mindset now is to try get a few more goals this weekend and keep the team going and try top the group because if we’ve beaten Lucan who some people say are favourites to win the whole thing out, then why can’t we go and beat anyone else?”

Home Farm DCU have had a similar run to Mervue United so far with a draw in the first round and two late goals in the second game giving them the three point advantage.

McNamara speaks on this late result for their opponents last week and explains how they look to combat it, “Obviously that means their fitness levels are quite strong because if they’re able to keep a clean sheet for that long and get two late goals away in Cockhill that means they have really good fitness levels so we have to be tuned in for the whole game.”

While they’ll be facing another strong opponent, United have grown in confidence following their positive run so far and will look to take advantage of it and use it as fuel for the next 90 minutes. McNamara highlights, “It gives you a massive boost in confidence seeing that we’re joint top [on points] and we’re at home as well which is really good because we can get a few people down and cheer us on.”

“A win last week gives us confidence, why should we be considered the underdogs for these competitions?”

Looking further into their next run of matches, McNamara is hopeful they can use the home advantage to their favour, he says, “Even down in our first game against Cockhill, there was a really good crowd down you’d see people from the town, you’d see them all cheering you on.”

“Now we have three home fixtures in a row so if we could beat them there, make it difficult for teams coming, we could go nine points for nine if we really dug in.”

Mervue United will face Home Farm DCU in Fahy’s field, Galway, on Saturday, September 12^th at 3pm.