Henderson hoping Cobh can survive the year in order to have crack at promotion in 2018

Cobh Ramblers have one of the best coaches in Ireland working with them in Stuart Ashton, according to manager Stephen Henderson.

Ramblers boss Henderson, who spoke to Extratime.ie at the League of Ireland Launch held in the Aviva Stadium this past Wednesday afternoon, described how Ashton has made a big impact already at the St Colman's Park club.

"Stuart Ashton is probably one of the best coaches around in the country. The training sessions themselves have gone up another level, so he has  been a great addition that way."

The newly introduced changes to the league structure by the FAI have not gone down very well with the First Division clubs generally and Cobh are no different. With the likes of Waterford, who have strongly invested in their squad and have eyes on winning the division, clubs like Cobh could have nothing to play for come the middle of the season.

"Hopefully if we can get through this season, without getting ourselves into trouble financially, we will be able to re-invest in the team for next year and have a proper whack off of promotion. 

"The playoffs are not there anymore and we don't have the finances to challenge the likes of Waterford, Longford and Shelbourne. It looks like the three of those will fight it out for promotion," added Henderson, who also gave me his thoughts on what he would like to see happen from a Ramblers perspective in 2017.

"At this moment, we at Cobh just want to win more games than we lose. 50 points is what we hit last year. The quality of the teams and the investments made by some of the other teams will make that harder to hit this year.

"We would like to get a good run in the cup competitions also. But overall, I would like to see us win more than we lose and then see where that takes us," concluded Henderson, who now has just a week left to wait before the season gets under way.

For Ramblers, that will be with a home game with Wexford Youths, who make the trip to St Colman's Park on Saturday week, February 25th, with kick off set at 7:15pm.