Mahon hoping for cup success
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With St. Patrick’s Athletic playing Belgrove in this weekend’s FAI Ford Cup Fourth round tie, manager Pete Mahon relieves his former days as the gaffer of his soon to be opponents.
“To be honest I can thank Belgrove for getting me back into football, after I left Bohemians I was approached by Jackie Lyons from Belgrove and he asked me to manage their team. At the time I felt I was finished with football so I said no, but he rang me again and asked me to come out and have a look at them which I did and I still said no. But he was persistent, he kept calling me and eventually I agreed”, Mahon told stpatsfc.com
“They were in the first division of the Leinster Senior League at the time and similar to this season at Pat’s I brought in a whole new team and kept about 4 or 5 of their existing players. We went on to win the League and the FAI Intermediate Cup and the Cup meant a lot to me as it was the one trophy I had missed out on with St Francis.”
“I went from Belgrove to UCD but part of me was very sad to leave Belgrove - they had got me back into football and in a way I had helped get them back up and running as a football club.”
Belgrove are the last remaining non Airtricity league side left in the competition, but Mahon doesn’t believe that a non-league side can make the impact as seen in 1990 when St. Francis progressed to the final.
“No, I don’t think we will see a non league team get that far again. St Francis even in junior football were an exceptional side and I don’t think we’ll see their likes again. There is just too much of a gap now, the change to summer football puts teams at a disadvantage to clubs like us in terms of match practice and fitness and I think the standard in our league with fulltime football has improved greatly in recent years.”
“That’s not to say that cup shocks won’t happen and we’ll have to guard against that g on Friday. Belgrove had a great win against Avondale in the last round and are a very strong team.”
With so many strong Premier Division teams still involved in the FAI Cup this year, Mahon knows it would mean a lot to the supporters to make it to the final.
“I was involved in the first final in Lansdowne and that was a bit special. There’s only one “first” and knowing what the cup means to our supporters it would be a bit special. Our goal at the start of the season was to try and win some silverware, we came close with the Setanta Cup and that is still our goal.”
Having beaten Sporting Fingal earlier this week, St. Pat’s go into the game lying in second place in the league and in winning form.
“We’ve scored a few times late on in games, against Bray recently and we had a disallowed goal late on against Rovers. It shows how determined this team is not to be beaten. People will expect us to win against Belgrove on Friday night but we will have to be prepared and certainly show them respect.”
“From my point of view, John Gill and myself must always ensure that our players are prepared mentally and physically as well as they can possibly be regardless of who we are playing. We are certainly not in a position to show disrespect to any team.”
“To be honest I can thank Belgrove for getting me back into football, after I left Bohemians I was approached by Jackie Lyons from Belgrove and he asked me to manage their team. At the time I felt I was finished with football so I said no, but he rang me again and asked me to come out and have a look at them which I did and I still said no. But he was persistent, he kept calling me and eventually I agreed”, Mahon told stpatsfc.com
“They were in the first division of the Leinster Senior League at the time and similar to this season at Pat’s I brought in a whole new team and kept about 4 or 5 of their existing players. We went on to win the League and the FAI Intermediate Cup and the Cup meant a lot to me as it was the one trophy I had missed out on with St Francis.”
“I went from Belgrove to UCD but part of me was very sad to leave Belgrove - they had got me back into football and in a way I had helped get them back up and running as a football club.”
Belgrove are the last remaining non Airtricity league side left in the competition, but Mahon doesn’t believe that a non-league side can make the impact as seen in 1990 when St. Francis progressed to the final.
“No, I don’t think we will see a non league team get that far again. St Francis even in junior football were an exceptional side and I don’t think we’ll see their likes again. There is just too much of a gap now, the change to summer football puts teams at a disadvantage to clubs like us in terms of match practice and fitness and I think the standard in our league with fulltime football has improved greatly in recent years.”
“That’s not to say that cup shocks won’t happen and we’ll have to guard against that g on Friday. Belgrove had a great win against Avondale in the last round and are a very strong team.”
With so many strong Premier Division teams still involved in the FAI Cup this year, Mahon knows it would mean a lot to the supporters to make it to the final.
“I was involved in the first final in Lansdowne and that was a bit special. There’s only one “first” and knowing what the cup means to our supporters it would be a bit special. Our goal at the start of the season was to try and win some silverware, we came close with the Setanta Cup and that is still our goal.”
Having beaten Sporting Fingal earlier this week, St. Pat’s go into the game lying in second place in the league and in winning form.
“We’ve scored a few times late on in games, against Bray recently and we had a disallowed goal late on against Rovers. It shows how determined this team is not to be beaten. People will expect us to win against Belgrove on Friday night but we will have to be prepared and certainly show them respect.”
“From my point of view, John Gill and myself must always ensure that our players are prepared mentally and physically as well as they can possibly be regardless of who we are playing. We are certainly not in a position to show disrespect to any team.”
About Brendan White
Brendan White is Extratime News Editor and is responsible for the news section of Extratime.ie. Brendan also covers matches in Dublin and Waterford. You can contact Brendan on twitter @whitebrendan. View Full Profile