Liam Buckley: It will be a tougher league this year

The capture of the EA Sports Cup by St. Patrick’s Athletic was the undoubted highlight of last season for the Saints.

However their league finish was their worst in over a decade, as they failed to qualify for Europe for the first time since 2010. Having lost a couple of key players Liam Buckley knows the challenge for the season in what he called “a very competitive league” when he spoke to extratime.ie this week.

The Saints boss acknowledged the loss of players from last year’s squad but emphasised the experience that he has brought in and retained, as well as promoting youth to give him a quality pool of players to call from.

“Listen we have lost one or two noted players,” said Buckley speaking at this week’s SSE Airticity League launch in the Aviva Stadium. “Jamie McGrath and Sean Hoare went up to Dundalk but we have brought in some interesting signings this year.”

Those new arrivals include Gavin Peers, who made close to 350 appearances for Sligo Rovers, Kurtis Byrne from Bohemians, along with Pat Cregg and Barry Murphy from Shamrock Rovers. Murphy, who has 266 league appearances to his name, makes a return to Inchicore where he played in 2012.

“We have experience upfront with Christy Fagan, Conan Byrne, and the two Dennehys (Billy and Darren). With Gavin Peers and Paddy Cregg too, we have that experience to go with the youth.”

Buckley is excited about some of the younger members within his squad. “We have one or two lads coming through from the under 19s. Our goalkeeper Conor O’Malley will give stiff competition to Barry Murphy. He is only a young fella. Sam Verdon (21), Jack Bayly (20), Darragh Markey (19) show we’ve got quite a lot of good young lads.

“Alex O’Hanlon (20) is back from Liverpool and he looks a good player. We have players who are 20 to 21 years old who we are hoping can step up and do well this year.”

At the league launch it was announced that Bray Wanderers and Sligo Rovers, as the next highest teams not to qualify for Europe, would play in Scotland’s Irn-Bru Scottish Challenge Cup. The fact showcased St. Pat’s poor league finish. Seventh place shows how disappointing a league campaign they had last year but Buckley feels that he can still build on success that the Saints have had in recent seasons.

“It is a very competitive league. We have had a bit of success as we were the last team to win the league before Dundalk (2013). We’ve won the FAI Cup (2014) and success in the EA Sports Cup (2015 and 2016).”

So can Dundalk be the first team to make it four-in-a-row since Buckley himself helped Shamrock Rovers manage that feat in the 1980s? He hopes his team will no doubt be in the mix to prevent that but what about Dundalk’s other challengers. “Cork did well last year. Rovers are on the way back. There is a lot happening in the league.

“It will be a stronger league this year. A lot of teams have invested, look at Rovers who have invested quite a bit. So have Bray bringing in some players. Derry and Sligo did really well last season. Limerick and Galway are throwing a few bob at it to see where they go. It will be extremely competitive. It will be an interesting campaign.”

Buckley’s men begin their campaign against Bray in Richmond Park next week. The sides have already met in competitive action this season with a 4-0 at the seaside for the Saints.

“We played them recently in the Leinster Senior Cup but we won’t be reading too much into that as it was pre-season and the game was about getting ourselves fit. Pre-season has been going well. We’ve half a dozen games under our belt.

“We’ve been working hard as you do in pre-season. We’ve been looking to avoid injuries which we have done to some degree. We are looking forward to the start of the season against Bray.”