IT’S eleven years now since Michael Funston made his debut for Finn Harps.
Felix Healy gave the Letterkenny man his head and, a few months later, he was one of those carried shoulder high off a drenched Finn Park having played his part in the First Division winning squad.
He first appeared for Harps in a 2-0 win over Dundalk in May 2004, just days after his 18th birthday.
He had an 18-month spell at Dungannon Swifts but Funston, now 30, has made over 250 Harps appearances.
Alongside Kevin McHugh, he’s the only link to the ’04 squad and he’s the only surviving playing member from the class of 2007 who won promotion via the play-offs, although current assistant manager James Gallagher was the goalkeeper for both those seasons.
Last week he was in Tuscany for the wedding of Harps centre-back Keith Cowan and Toni Kelly, meaning he missed Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to UCD, but with nine games to go Harps are top of the Division and well on course for a promotion tilt.
“That old cliché is so true – it’s one game at a time,” says Funston.
“For example, if we slip up against Athlone it would give us an awful lot to do. We don’t want momentum to fall. That will be key to whoever is taken over the line so we’d be foolish to think beyond the next game.
“We’re sitting top, but teams now have games in hand and we know Wexford, UCD and Shelbourne are on our backs. We need to be careful because we’re in a vulnerable position here and we have to have our ‘A’ game with us every week now.”
In the summer of ’04, Healy gave Funston, Chris Breen and Shaun McGowan their bows in the Harps senior team. Boyhood fans, the trio were integral members with Funston and Breen, in particular, dazzling the Division that year.
“Felix instilled real belief in us,” Funston, who had just signed from Bonagee United, says.
“Felix just oozed confidence and that transferred into the squad. I had no experience of that level and was just thrown in. Myself and Chrissy were in the same boat, but Felix used to just come in and say: ‘Go out and play, use your energy’.
“There were no shackles put on you and we just went out to play. The senior players took care of everything else really.
“It’s very hard to compare then and now because of what we had then. That was a serious squad of experience when you look at ‘Rita’ (Shane Bradley), Declan Boyle and Tom Mohan. Myself and Chrissy were just along for the ride, but we became a big part of it. I wouldn’t say I had much influence; maybe on the pitch, yes, but not in the dressing room.”
By 2007, Funston was an established first-team member. On the night Harps clinched promotion against Waterford United at the RSC, he scored one and provided the assists for the goals by Conor Gethins and Stephen Parkhouse.
Now, Funston is one of the elder statesmen who has the younger generation beneath his wing.
“That’s not really something you really think about – it just sort of happens,” he says.
“You like to give a wee bit back after taking so much out over the years.
“With Ollie (Horgan) now, it’s all about earning what you get. Everyone is working so hard. We use 14 players most nights we go out and everyone gives everything they have. Ollie does that himself so it’s not something that he asks of us – it’s something that he shows us. That’s one of the reasons that training is so good and so professional.
“We can have no excuses the way Ollie prepares us. You can’t say that he doesn’t do this or that. The video analysis and his information on other teams is second to none and it’s a credit to him. If you give a player an excuse, he’ll hang onto it, so it’s about finding a happy medium and about finding some consistency.”
Funston believes that Harps must show the ‘killer instinct’ and ‘ruthlessness’ that served them so well earlier in the season.
The business end of the season is upon him – and Funston wants to make the most of the next couple of months.
He says: “We just need to stay with these teams for as long as possible. It’s about getting as many people through the gates now too so we can get some momentum on and off the pitch. We want to go out, look out the tunnel and say: ‘right, look at all these people who have made the effort’.
“In recent years, I can understand why people haven’t come out because the football hasn’t been attractive and so many things weren’t right.
“It’s different now and people can see the hard work. We have a lot of Donegal players and a Donegal manager – that’s what fans said they wanted, the nucleus of the side being from Donegal. Hopefully the Donegal people will come out and get behind us now.”
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