The only way is up for century-maker Furlong

DANNY Furlong is a familiar face around the Ferrycarrig Park dressing room and on Friday the prolific striker wrote himself into the history books by netting his 100th League of Ireland goal to send Wexford F.C. on their way to a 2-0 victory over Athlone Town.

The 29-year-old looks to be regaining his sharpness with each passing week, and with the team as a whole improving all the time, the striker is likely to hit the back of the net with more regularity, although he does stress that getting wins on the board is what it’s all about.

‘There’s been a few disappointing results where we’ve lost by the odd goal and conceded in the last ten minutes of games, which is very soul destroying. To get the three points, which we all feel have been coming, is a nice feeling,’ he said.

‘As a striker, you’re judged on your goals so it was nice to get on the scoresheet but the main thing is the performance, the clean sheet and the three points,’ he said.

Furlong has been linking up well with the impressive Jack Doherty, who got the other goal for the Slaneysiders, and the striker says the partnership will only get better as they get more game time under their belts.

‘We bounce off each other, it’s the same in training, I make the runs and he finds the passes so we suit each other down to the ground the way we play. We’re only getting going.

‘We’ve only played a couple of games together really, with my suspension and injury, so yeah we’re really only getting going. Hopefully the rest of the season will be a lot better than the start of it,’ he said.

Doherty was a potent attacking threat against Athlone in a man of the match performance, and had he taken his chances he could have had a hat-trick, something which earned him a bit of gentle slagging afterwards, although Furlong admits being in the position to get the chances bodes well for the future.

‘We gave him a bit of guff in the dressing room afterwards but in another game you might not create any opportunities, so if you’re getting on the end of chances that’s the main thing,’ he said.

Furlong was also delighted with their application at the other end of the pitch and keeping a clean sheet obviously brought great satisfaction to the whole squad.

‘We’ve been working hard on that in training for the last couple of weeks. We’ve been conceding some sloppy goals. That comes from all over the pitch as an eleven. We have to work all over the pitch as a unit. Thankfully tonight we managed to get the clean sheet,’ he said.

While Wexford may not have set any lofty ambitions for the campaign, they are starting to look like a side capable of troubling anyone, and Furlong says they’ll keep on giving their all and see where it takes them come the end of the season.

‘Our main aim was to do better than last season and I think we’ve already shown that in our performances. We thought at the start of the season that there wouldn’t be much between a lot of the sides and there’s no real team to fear in the division. Everyone is capable of beating each other, so all we can do is try to win as many games as we can and see where we end up,’ he said.

If Furlong can keep hitting the back of the net, where they end up could be higher than most expected.

One hundred not out, and there’s sure to be plenty more to come.