Joy of the Rovers: ‘Hest are simply the best

It is fair to say that even before a ball was kicked, there was little doubt that Glenhest Rovers would be at the business end of the Castlecourt Hotel Premier Division come the end of the season.

Could anyone have seen them secure promotion with four games to spare, having won all 12 league matches? Probably not, considering their lack of attacking edge in the last few years in the Super League. The context, of course, is that they were playing higher quality opposition in the Super League but some of their goal tallies in the years gone by have made you wonder how since 2016, Glenhest have only spent three seasons since 2016 (2018, 2019 and 2024) in the second tier.

The 2016 season was ‘before my time’ as they say but, in this year, Glenhest stayed in the Super League scoring just 13 goals in an 18-game season. Chris Rowland and the lads could have given lessons to Fabio Capello, mastermind of the Milan team that won Serie A just scoring 36 goals, in Catenaccio that year. A sure sign of their evolution this year is that in their last two games, they matched their 2016 tally and scored 13 goals beating Ballyglass 3-2 and Ballyheane B 10-1.

In 2017, it was time to get serious and they doubled their tally to 26 goals but they were relegated. Punished for playing on the front foot? Maybe that was the case. The following year, in the Premier, they enjoyed the sort of boost to their attack they are enjoying this year but to a lesser extent with a return of 43 goals.

In 2019, they secured promotion with a third-place finish by virtue of Ballina Town 'B' winning the Premier Division, the last team to do so unbeaten. They scored 35 goals and Pat Mulchrone was their top scorer with nine goals. But the Glenhest of 2024 is a different animal and Mulchrone is the best example of that. He is on an unprecedented scoring run at the moment and has scored four hat tricks in his last four league games.

2020 is null and void because of Covid but interestingly, Glenhest scored eight goals in the eight games before the season was cut. A goal per game looks decent enough but half of them came in their only win of the short-lived season, an epic 4-3 win over Claremorris.

From 2021-2023, Glenhest became known again as a defensively solid team who could cause problems for any of the top sides on their day. They held both Ballina and Westport to 0-0 shutouts in this time and even claimed a 2-0 win away at Celtic Park in Castlebar. They stayed in the division with these sorts of results as well as beating the teams around them but this can only last for so long before the luck runs out and it did last year. In terms of numbers, they scored 17 in 2021, 21 in 2022 and 16 in 2023, 54 goals in three seasons.

All this to say that scoring goals has been a consistent issue for Glenhest Rovers for the last few years. The last damning thing to say about this is that in the three seasons Glenhest successfully warded off relegation from the top flight (2016, 2021, 2022) they were outscored by five of the six teams who were relegated in those seasons (Ballyhaunis in 2022 was the exception).

It is a struggle no more. They have nearly matched their goalscoring record across the last three Super League seasons in Premier this year, already scoring 49 goals. Dropping down a division and avoiding the Celtic’s and Westport’s of the world has done wonders for Glenhest. So too has been adding a striker to the panel.

Not just any striker mind you. The highly lauded Connor McCarthy, who played for Southport, Telford United and FC United of Manchester before rocking up at Beltra Strand, has taken the Mayo Football League by storm. 24 goals in all competitions, 10 assists, he is undoubtedly the signing of the season, perhaps throughout all of the Junior soccer leagues in Ireland and it is no surprise to hear that Oscar Traynor manager Joe Kelly has been getting him involved as an overage player in the U21 Development panel, along with the excellent Cathal Coyne of Castlebar Celtic. There are defenders in the Super League sweating at the prospect of facing McCarthy next season but he is not the only man to be worried about.

The aforementioned Pat Mulchrone has been in brilliant form. Levi Barrett has been, typically, excellent. Their trademark defensive resilience has not abandoned them during their frequent forward tilts and they have shipped only 9 goals. This is thanks in large part to the efforts of players like Shane Loftus, Adrian Rowland and club stalwart Chris Rowland. Goalkeeper Sean Nevin has emigrated to Australia but Nathan Barrett has stepped up as first choice.

In terms of league results, it has been somewhat of a canter for Glenhest this year. The only blemish on their record this year is elimination in the Tuohy Cup to eventual winners Castlebar Celtic 'B'. Celtic 'B' are closest to Glenhest in the table and could mathematically still pip them to the title but with a gap of 11 points, it looks highly unlikely. Furthermore, Glenhest beat these supposed close rivals 5-1 earlier this season.

There have been other closely fought affairs such as 3-2 wins away to Ballyhaunis and over the weekend at Ballyglass but this has been a promotion that has never looked in doubt. A return to the Super League is now in the bag for Glenhest Rovers after a memorable season, in what is their 50th anniversary as a club, and thoughts of the neutrals move towards the near future. Can they shoot back up and push on to challenge the likes of Celtic and Westport? Or will they revert to form and go back to playing on the back foot? I would like to think not. Promoted teams often struggle to continue playing expansive football when they come up but it can be done with the right personnel, just look at how Conn Rangers have fared since they came up. Glenhest remain in the Super Cup and their performance in the semi-finals against Super League opposition will be a litmus test for next season. Time will tell with Glenhest Rovers and for now, they will enjoy this moment.

NEW IRELAND MANAGER 

Heimir Hallgrímsson has been appointed as the new Ireland manager. Now there’s a sentence you couldn’t have imagined reading a week ago.

He left Jamaica after a middling Copa America run and has swapped Kingston for Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire), ganja for Guinness and Bob Marley for Christy Moore. Some swaps are better than others, it depends on your perspective.

It is difficult to know what to expect from this appointment overall. It is, in the grand scheme, pretty low risk. If it goes the way of Eyjafjallajökull in 2010, we can wash our hands of the whole thing fairly easily. Call it ‘an experiment,’ a ‘mismatch,’ whatever you like. Heimir can get on the next flight to Reykjavík, eat a Skyr yogurt, throw on his headphones and listen to some Bjork and just forget about it.

Ultimately, I would be hopeful that it doesn’t go that way. I’m optimistic that the same spirit that brought Iceland to the Euro 2016 quarter-finals will manifest itself in the Aviva sometime in the next few years. Maybe if you throw in a few more S’s into the names of some our forwards, Heimir might really start to get the best out of the likes of Evan Fergusson and Callum Robinsson.

TRAGEDY IN THE BALLINROBE COMMUNITY 

It has been a dreadfully sad couple of days in the Mayo soccer community following the heartbreaking and shocking news of the tragic passing of Umar Shafiq and his mother Nasreem in Pakistan.

Umar was involved with his local club Ballinrobe Town since U10 level and represented the Mayo League’s underage teams and played at the Kennedy Cup. He was a much-loved young man, spoke of in equal reverence by both teammates and opponents.

Quite fittingly, a minutes silence was held at all games over the weekend in memory of Umar and Nasreem and tributes have come in from every club in the county. This loss has been really felt in the heart of the Mayo soccer community and the community in Ballinrobe.

I would like to offer my condolences to the Shafiq family, friends and neighbours in Ireland and Pakistan, the players, coaches and members of Ballinrobe Town Football Club.

May they rest in peace.