Season Preview: UCD

UCD

Year Founded: 1895
Stadium: UCD Bowl, Belfield
Manager: Martin Russell
Key Player: David McMillan

For a club like UCD, season previews can seem somewhat repetitive. Phrases like “relegation battle” and “replacing outgoing key players” are rattled off, but is this necessarily a negative thing?

In a highly competitive league where the fans of any one of five or six clubs believe they have a shot at the title, UCD refuse to get carried away and cut their cloth accordingly. Most of these five or six clubs will have flirted with extinction for financial reasons over the years, but all the while the Students continued to live within their means which can only be a positive.

Each year it also seems that there is a squad reconstruction of sorts at UCD and this season is no different. The likes of Paul O’Conor, Danny Ledwith and Paul Corry have all departed from the team that embarked on last season’s campaign a year ago.

All have gone to “big clubs”, in Corry’s case a switch to the Holy Grail that is the English Football league. But this trend is no coincidence and is indicative of the great footballing education that these young footballers are receiving at UCD.

Martin Russell is well equipped for the task too, and he will once again look to the seeming conveyor belt of talent at Belfield as he seeks to plug the gaping holes left by last year’s star performers. So what can we expect from the Students this season?

For starters we can expect what we always get from Martin Russell-managed sides. We can expect a team that likes to play attractive football on the ground rather than kicking it long in hope.

We can expect a team that plays as a team rather than a collection of primadonna footballers. We can also expect a team that are not afraid to mix it with the “big boys”. Shamrock Rovers were the only team other than UCD to register wins against last year’s top two.

The big games for the Students this year will be against the bottom half clubs and they will need to pick up early points against these teams if they are to consolidate on last year.

It wasn’t all bad news for Russell in the transfer window however. Captain Mick Leahy has been a rock at the back at Belfield and his re-signing will have been a big boost for the club.

Perhaps the most important piece in Russell’s jigsaw this year will be striker David McMillan however. Having returned from Australia last summer, the former St Patrick’s Athletic man brought potency to the UCD attack that had been missing and his goals will be needed again this year if they are to gain valuable points against their fellow bottom half clubs.

Dinny Corcoran has been brought in from Bohemians as Graham Rusk departed for Drogheda United, while Russell may have done some shrewd business in acquiring 21-year-old Craig Walsh from Longford Town.

Sure UCD won’t be league champions this year, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have future league champions in their squad. After all, each of last year’s top five have snapped up players who learned their trade at Belfield.