Cup final is ‘Mutch’ of the day for Homers stalwart

Now Mervyn Barr is hoping that his love affair with the Harryville club, which stretches back almost four decades, can have its finest moment in next Monday’s Coca-Cola IFA Junior Cup final.

In that time, ‘Mutch’ is he is commonly known, has fulfilled all manner of roles for the club from player, assistant manager, manager and, currently, chairman and physio!

“It’s a wonderful club and we’re enjoying everything that is happening at present.

“We’ve been celebrating our 40th anniversary this year and we’ve had a great time - if we could win the Junior Cup it would be the icing on the cake.

“There are players at our club who could play at a higher level, I have no doubt about that, but we have a group of boys who enjoy being at the club. It means something to them and they train hard and play hard.

“To win the Junior Cup would mean a lot to the club - it would put us on the map in footballing terms.

“It has certainly created a real buzz - we’ve had lots of wellwishers and that includes people who aren’t even interested in football but who know how big an achievement it is to reach the stage we have.

“To be honest, the Junior Cup run has been a real bonus this year.

“We were wanting to try and have a good go at winning the Saturday Morning League.

“We have always been competitive in recent years and picked up one or maybe two of the cup competitions but we’ve been a bit of a ‘nearly team’ in the league behind Carniny and then All Saints as well last year.”

Mervyn pauses for a moment when asked if this is the best Harryville Homers squad he has seen in the club’s 40-year history.

“It’s difficult to compare different teams from different eras.

“My brother Jimmy, who has a great history in football in this area, said to me recently that while there have been some great Homers teams over the years, he believes this is the best one, so I’ll not argue with him!” laughs Mervyn.