Home and Away
Credit:
BRIAN de SALVO on the volatile nature of Irish domestic football.
Their debuts, when they came on Saturday, were low key. Messrs Behan and Gamble trotted out in Limerick colours and the visitors duly won one-nil in Athlone. What registered with me was that Galway United’s eight-nil defeat twenty four hours earlier was less of a surprise than the narrow margin of Limerick’s victory. When eight goals conceded at home produces no more than a sad shake of the head the professional credibility of the Airtricity League is in doubt.
Financial circumstances have caused Galway United to struggle all season. The club’s original budget may have been a laudable attempt to balance the books but it produced a squad that was below par to compete in the Premier Division of the national league. These modest resources were decimated when it was found necessary to make all the club’s contracted professionals available during the summer transfer window. Eight players were released and now the club’s energy is directed towards fulfilling its remaining fixtures.
I have seen Limerick in worse straights. During a sojourn as guests of Pike Rovers only six years ago the team changed in a windowless haulage container and secretary Michael O’Sullivan collected admission money in a satchel at the gate. The Blues were so short of players that the manager, the same Mike Kerley who managed Athlone against Limerick last Saturday, had to press himself into service more often than he might have wished and rarely had a full complement on the bench. On one notable occasion he started with two goalkeepers, one playing as a striker. The extraordinary thing in the circumstances was that the team’s playing record was far better than it had any right to be.
Nobody in Limerick seemed to want senior soccer in those days. There was an eighteen month embargo slapped on any player who wanted to return to junior soccer after failing to make the grade at national level. The current edition of the Limerick Leader on one of my visits boasted ten pages of GAA coverage but not a word about the city’s professional football club. I was moved to ask at the end of my column on RTE radio’s Friday Night Sports Show, “Is there no one…with a business plan and sufficient disposable income to rescue a great soccer tradition from oblivion?”
Limerick has been through a number of soccer experiences since that plea was broadcast, Hogan Park, Danny Drew, Jack McCarthy, Limerick 37, Paul McGee, Jackman Park. Tumultuous times but suddenly it’s come good. The dynamic chief executive Pat O’Sullivan has his business plan and, with J.P McManus bringing a revitalised Markets Fields stadium to the table it’s fashionable to be talking soccer in Limerick once more.
But it should not be forgotten that general manager Kieran Judge was a key member of the club’s management long before the good times appeared on the horizon. Or that manager Pat Scully signed up before he knew the club had a viable future. “I like a challenge,” he smiles. There is no doubt about his commitment. He’s shown it before in taking a moribund Kilkenny City to the fringes of the promotion playoffs and in restoring Shamrock Rovers to the top flight, both within the confines of a single season.
On Friday Galway United’s squad contained only two players of repute, 29 year old striker Alan Murphy, on his way back after losing the whole of last season to injury and 32 year old Bobby Ryan, a sensation on Bohemians flank during the 2002/3 season but now, it would appear, past his best. All but one of the rest were kids, one admittedly with a Brazilian passport but he was not sure of his place when Sean Connor had his full squad. The promising goalkeeper is nineteen years of age, his deputy eighteen.
Youth development is, of course, a vital aspect for any Airtricity League club today. Limerick has the prodigious sixteen year old McGann; striker Coughlan is only eighteen. But bringing these youngsters through at the right time and in the right company is important. Having to push them over the top as cannon fodder is no use to anyone.
There is one further member of the current Galway squad I didn’t mention. Veteran defender Eric Browne had an honourable career in intermediate soccer with Mervue Utd and clocked up a respectable number of games when the club stepped up to Airtricity League status. But, at 33 years of age, he was no longer an automatic choice at Mervue, clocking up only seven appearances this season. Now, such is Mr Connor’s plight, Browne has been drafted in to Galway’s defence to inspire his youthful colleagues in the Galway defence to seize the day. So we have the unusual situation of a player coming to the end of his career in the First Division being drafted into a key role in the Premier.
I suspect Mr Browne has not taken on this onerous challenge for financial reward. Rumours of how much Joe Gamble and Dennis Behan earn playing for Limerick are exaggerated but it is safe to say that Sean Connor couldn’t have signed them at any time. Of course Limerick FC are currently a First Division side and, such is the state of the Airtricity League at the moment, I have no doubt of the impact the club could make in the Premier Division. The club’s real challenge is that they must win promotion in order to do so.
Their debuts, when they came on Saturday, were low key. Messrs Behan and Gamble trotted out in Limerick colours and the visitors duly won one-nil in Athlone. What registered with me was that Galway United’s eight-nil defeat twenty four hours earlier was less of a surprise than the narrow margin of Limerick’s victory. When eight goals conceded at home produces no more than a sad shake of the head the professional credibility of the Airtricity League is in doubt.
Financial circumstances have caused Galway United to struggle all season. The club’s original budget may have been a laudable attempt to balance the books but it produced a squad that was below par to compete in the Premier Division of the national league. These modest resources were decimated when it was found necessary to make all the club’s contracted professionals available during the summer transfer window. Eight players were released and now the club’s energy is directed towards fulfilling its remaining fixtures.
I have seen Limerick in worse straights. During a sojourn as guests of Pike Rovers only six years ago the team changed in a windowless haulage container and secretary Michael O’Sullivan collected admission money in a satchel at the gate. The Blues were so short of players that the manager, the same Mike Kerley who managed Athlone against Limerick last Saturday, had to press himself into service more often than he might have wished and rarely had a full complement on the bench. On one notable occasion he started with two goalkeepers, one playing as a striker. The extraordinary thing in the circumstances was that the team’s playing record was far better than it had any right to be.
Nobody in Limerick seemed to want senior soccer in those days. There was an eighteen month embargo slapped on any player who wanted to return to junior soccer after failing to make the grade at national level. The current edition of the Limerick Leader on one of my visits boasted ten pages of GAA coverage but not a word about the city’s professional football club. I was moved to ask at the end of my column on RTE radio’s Friday Night Sports Show, “Is there no one…with a business plan and sufficient disposable income to rescue a great soccer tradition from oblivion?”
Limerick has been through a number of soccer experiences since that plea was broadcast, Hogan Park, Danny Drew, Jack McCarthy, Limerick 37, Paul McGee, Jackman Park. Tumultuous times but suddenly it’s come good. The dynamic chief executive Pat O’Sullivan has his business plan and, with J.P McManus bringing a revitalised Markets Fields stadium to the table it’s fashionable to be talking soccer in Limerick once more.
But it should not be forgotten that general manager Kieran Judge was a key member of the club’s management long before the good times appeared on the horizon. Or that manager Pat Scully signed up before he knew the club had a viable future. “I like a challenge,” he smiles. There is no doubt about his commitment. He’s shown it before in taking a moribund Kilkenny City to the fringes of the promotion playoffs and in restoring Shamrock Rovers to the top flight, both within the confines of a single season.
On Friday Galway United’s squad contained only two players of repute, 29 year old striker Alan Murphy, on his way back after losing the whole of last season to injury and 32 year old Bobby Ryan, a sensation on Bohemians flank during the 2002/3 season but now, it would appear, past his best. All but one of the rest were kids, one admittedly with a Brazilian passport but he was not sure of his place when Sean Connor had his full squad. The promising goalkeeper is nineteen years of age, his deputy eighteen.
Youth development is, of course, a vital aspect for any Airtricity League club today. Limerick has the prodigious sixteen year old McGann; striker Coughlan is only eighteen. But bringing these youngsters through at the right time and in the right company is important. Having to push them over the top as cannon fodder is no use to anyone.
There is one further member of the current Galway squad I didn’t mention. Veteran defender Eric Browne had an honourable career in intermediate soccer with Mervue Utd and clocked up a respectable number of games when the club stepped up to Airtricity League status. But, at 33 years of age, he was no longer an automatic choice at Mervue, clocking up only seven appearances this season. Now, such is Mr Connor’s plight, Browne has been drafted in to Galway’s defence to inspire his youthful colleagues in the Galway defence to seize the day. So we have the unusual situation of a player coming to the end of his career in the First Division being drafted into a key role in the Premier.
I suspect Mr Browne has not taken on this onerous challenge for financial reward. Rumours of how much Joe Gamble and Dennis Behan earn playing for Limerick are exaggerated but it is safe to say that Sean Connor couldn’t have signed them at any time. Of course Limerick FC are currently a First Division side and, such is the state of the Airtricity League at the moment, I have no doubt of the impact the club could make in the Premier Division. The club’s real challenge is that they must win promotion in order to do so.
