Keely rues recent form as Shels stay in First
Credit:
Shelbourne face a third season in the First Division after a spirited
second half display failed to knock the increasingly classy Sporting
Fingal off their upward march. There was a sense post-match however;
that for all the enthusiasm shown by the Reds, promotion to the top
flight was perhaps a step too far this time around.
“Look, in the last six weeks we’ve been beaten by Wexford, drew with Athlone, beaten by Longford. That’s shockin.” conceded Shels boss Dermot Keely.
Trailing by two at the interval in this play-off encounter, Keely felt his side acquitted themselves well after the break while in turn restoring some pride for the north-siders.
“I thought in the second half we were fantastic, couldn’t have asked any more of them. When they went out for the second half I just said ‘Make sure you can look me in the eye coming in’ and there was nobody looking at the floor.”
The bitter pill swallowed in Drumcondra in 2007 with league demotion has proven to be a weight not easily shrugged off, both beyond the playing field as well as on it. The initial exodus of players left Shelbourne with more than a mountain to scale in their first season in the second tier.
“The first year didn’t count because we barely got a team out, but we went within a minute last year [ losing out to Dundalk for promotion] and then beaten in a play-off this year so…. some people will look at that and say it’s quite successful but it’s not where this club wants to be going.” reflected Keely.
With financial irregularities, payment issues and overspending the issues that have wafted through domestic football like a bad smell for all of 2009, Shelbourne’s troubles three years ago, more than any other singular incident of malpractice perhaps, has been looked at as the main precedent to the leagues current woes.
The learning curve Shels had to go through has left Keely in no doubt as to the reality of financing major club sides in the country. “We are one of the few clubs in the country running within a budget at the moment which is a bit ironic when you think about it. I think other clubs are going to have to come back from the sugar daddy era now and run a club on gates and sponsorship and that’s a very big call for some of them who haven’t done it for so long.”
Keely went on to suggest that it’s not only the clubs that need to tighten up on the current plight hitting all sides within the league and players in particular.
“What ever you’re doing with contracts is a no-no, but if you don’t pay the players for eight weeks it’s ok. It’s a very unusual profession that you can work eight weeks and not get paid and no one says anything.”
Whatever about keeping within the parameters of survival in the First Division there has been a tendency to go all out financially in the Premier Division in recent times, in order to attain glory by whatever means are possible. The Shels’ boss fells this is a road that his current club will not go down in a hurry for any time in the foreseeable future.
“Joe Casey [Shelbourne chairman] said to me ‘Dermot I’ll push the boat out for you as far as I can but we’re keepin it tight to the shore and I think that sums up the directors of the club in that they pushed the boat out as far as they could, they gave me a decent enough budget by First Division standards but kept control and never missed anything.
He’s [ Casey] a fantastic chairman and this club would be ruined without him, he’s been absolutely brilliant so no, there’ll be no more chasing dreams in this club.” stated Keely, at the end of yet another season for one of the leagues true veterans.
“Look, in the last six weeks we’ve been beaten by Wexford, drew with Athlone, beaten by Longford. That’s shockin.” conceded Shels boss Dermot Keely.
Trailing by two at the interval in this play-off encounter, Keely felt his side acquitted themselves well after the break while in turn restoring some pride for the north-siders.
“I thought in the second half we were fantastic, couldn’t have asked any more of them. When they went out for the second half I just said ‘Make sure you can look me in the eye coming in’ and there was nobody looking at the floor.”
The bitter pill swallowed in Drumcondra in 2007 with league demotion has proven to be a weight not easily shrugged off, both beyond the playing field as well as on it. The initial exodus of players left Shelbourne with more than a mountain to scale in their first season in the second tier.
“The first year didn’t count because we barely got a team out, but we went within a minute last year [ losing out to Dundalk for promotion] and then beaten in a play-off this year so…. some people will look at that and say it’s quite successful but it’s not where this club wants to be going.” reflected Keely.
With financial irregularities, payment issues and overspending the issues that have wafted through domestic football like a bad smell for all of 2009, Shelbourne’s troubles three years ago, more than any other singular incident of malpractice perhaps, has been looked at as the main precedent to the leagues current woes.
The learning curve Shels had to go through has left Keely in no doubt as to the reality of financing major club sides in the country. “We are one of the few clubs in the country running within a budget at the moment which is a bit ironic when you think about it. I think other clubs are going to have to come back from the sugar daddy era now and run a club on gates and sponsorship and that’s a very big call for some of them who haven’t done it for so long.”
Keely went on to suggest that it’s not only the clubs that need to tighten up on the current plight hitting all sides within the league and players in particular.
“What ever you’re doing with contracts is a no-no, but if you don’t pay the players for eight weeks it’s ok. It’s a very unusual profession that you can work eight weeks and not get paid and no one says anything.”
Whatever about keeping within the parameters of survival in the First Division there has been a tendency to go all out financially in the Premier Division in recent times, in order to attain glory by whatever means are possible. The Shels’ boss fells this is a road that his current club will not go down in a hurry for any time in the foreseeable future.
“Joe Casey [Shelbourne chairman] said to me ‘Dermot I’ll push the boat out for you as far as I can but we’re keepin it tight to the shore and I think that sums up the directors of the club in that they pushed the boat out as far as they could, they gave me a decent enough budget by First Division standards but kept control and never missed anything.
He’s [ Casey] a fantastic chairman and this club would be ruined without him, he’s been absolutely brilliant so no, there’ll be no more chasing dreams in this club.” stated Keely, at the end of yet another season for one of the leagues true veterans.
