|
At the start of the 2010/11 Season, the number of Duncans signed for the Cobras Senior Team had extended to three, with the return of former club captain Glen Duncan to the ranks after a spell with Cranford FC's Saturday League side, whom he helped to promotion in the 2009/10 Season. Alongside regular first team player Daryl, the 2009/10 Season saw Dale Duncan breakthrough towards the second half of the campaign as Copany blooded new players for the future.
Unfortunately, the 2010/11 Season saw early departures of Daryl (who went on his travels to Australia) and Dale (who decided to take a sabbatical from playing - although thankfully returned towards the end of the season again where he put in a number of fine displays).
Their cousin Glen, however, found a place for himself to excel in when he was moved to right-back by Russell Gorman after a number of matches, and his energetic displays at this position forced him into the reckoning for Senior Player of the Year. Deceptively quick, good in the air, a fine positional sense and always looking to play on the deck, Glens energy and pace often means he saunters back into recovery positions to make important challenges seemingly at ease, especially towards the tail end of matches.
It is this fitness that can be attributed to his Badminton commitments - where he has been a member of the Donegal Badminton side, and his Running commitments - Glen is currently an active member of the Letterkenny Athletics Club.
"Training with the Letterkenny Athletics Club is the toughest training i've ever done", says Glen. "It's a case of running until you're almost literally sick, with rest periods in between runs and sprints no more than 30 seconds".
Having announced to the gaffer, Russell Gorman, of his intention to sign up for the new season, Glens through his comments showed his philosophy towards team training, and his exemplary attitude to means to benefit the team. "I've said to Russell that I'd like to sign again, but I think those who are attending Copanys training more regularly should be picked on match days ahead of me. There's a few players such as Damien O'Laughlin and Dale Duncan who I think would be better off going with for the full backs positions. It's important to build that team mentality, and being based in Letterkenny doesn't allow me to commit to Copany training.". It is something for Russell to mull over, but not a new phenomenon for neither him nor the club.
Talking about the past season Glen feels the dreadful start obviously cost Copany any chance of promotion. "Losing you're first six games is a disaster. But a lot of them games could have gone either way and I said, even when we were in the poor run of form, that we were capable of going on a run. When i was playing with Cranford, we didn't win any of our first seven games, but then went on a mad run and got promoted. We were lacking in confidence, but when we started to get a bit of confidence, we were a match for anyone in the division. We had a good win up in Kerrykeel, got a good point up in Rathmullan and then comfortably beat Arranmore - who ended up getting automatic promotion. We were savage unlucky to lose against Raphoe in Ballyshannon and that ended any faint hopes we had."
"But that experience of last season will serve us well ahead of the new season. We know what is needed, and we should have the elements in place to make a challenge this season. A bit of luck and you never know...", says Glen.
|