On Friday the Sporting Fingal winger, on the eve of their promotion play-off against Bray Wanderers, said that it would be heartbreaking to miss out on promotion to the Premier Division and be condemned to another season in the First Division.
“Obviously it would be heartbreaking to get this far and to be pegged back for another year, it’d be terrible,” the 23-year-old winger told the Irish Independent.
“The First Division is like a pub league compared to the Premier Division. The standard of player and facilities is just 10 times better in the Premier -- the First Division is horrendous in comparison.”
“Every league has a two-tier system so you are always going to have a situation where one division is slightly weaker and made up of younger players who need to develop before they become Premier Division players. You can’t dispute that,” Pat Scully said.
“But that was an arrogant comment to make. All players have to start somewhere. It’s easy to look at a lower level and criticise it. I’ve no problems with the First Division at all. There’s plenty of good clubs and good players in it.”
Pat Scully was also surprised that a Sporting Fingal player would make such a comment about the division - after all Sporting did not win the First Division and required a play-off win over Bray Wanderers (4-2 on aggregate) to book their place in next season’s Premier Division.
“The funny thing is that Sporting Fingal had the biggest budget this year in the First Division and because of that they should have won the division,” Pat Scully said.
“Instead they had to get through a play-off with Bray Wanderers to be promoted. So it’s a bit hypocritical for a player from that team to criticise the division after they failed to win it in the first place.
“Shaun is entitled to his opinion, afterall football is all about opinions, but, for me, the First Division has a lot of plusses, a lot of good players and a lot of good facilities.
“From our own point of view we have some things to improve on and work on. And, we’re working hard to move the club forward.”
Supporters will be heartened to learn that Limerick FC have already signed 11 players for the 2010 season and that they have made approaches to sign up to six more players to strengthen the squad.
Super Blues fans will be most concerned about the future of striker Stephen O’Flynn who scored 14 goals since he joined Limerick FC in July. It is widely understood that several rival clubs have their eye on O’Flynn, but Pat Scully is hopeful that the talented centre-forward will sign for another season.
“Stephen has really enjoyed his time with Limerick and we know that other people are trying to sign him,” Scully added.
“We’ve met with Stephen and we have done everything we can to convince him to stay, so we hope that he will.”
Although the Limerick FC playing squad missed out on a proper pre-season campaign for the past two years Pat Scully will not allow that to happen this time round.
The squad have already received details a three-week programme which each individual player must carry out before pre-season starts on January 16 next while the club are also currently attempting to organise a series of pre-season friendlies.
Brian McDonnell
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