Pat Scully: ‘I think the next two or three years could be very exciting’

DESPITE losing one-nil away to Shelbourne on Friday night Pat Scully, installed as successor to Mike Kerley just last week, was heartened by the Limerick display at Tolka Park in Dublin.
Speaking to Leader Sport in the wake of the Super Blues’ second defeat of the season Pat Scully was eager to highlight the positive: “It was disappointing to get beaten.
“It will take a bit of time for the players to get know me and for me to get to know the players.


“The way I like to do things might be completely different to what the players are used to so it will take a bit of time to get things sorted out, but in saying that I don’t like losing and I didn’t like losing on Friday night.
“It was disappointing to give away a poor goal early in the game, but the players’ response in the second half was fantastic. We pinned Shelbourne back and it was obvious late in the game how worried Shels were.
“I think we deserved at least a draw out of the game. We can take plenty of positives from the game; we’ve loads that we can improve on and now we’re looking forward to the Monaghan game on Saturday.”
Limerick’s preparations for the clash with Shelbourne were hampered by injuries to the first-choice strike partnership of John Tierney (hamstring) and Paul Cummins.
Tierney is not expected to be ready in time for the game against Monaghan while the news concerning Cummins is much more encouraging. Cummins was forced off against Mervue United with a suspected broken bone in his foot, but the diagnosis now is that the former Aisling Annacotty man has a bruised bone in his foot and is expected to make his return to the starting eleven reasonably soon.
Nevertheless Pat Scully is looking forward to working with his squad of players: “We’ve some good young players and some experienced players. In terms of preparation the lads’ pre-season was disturbed so it will take a while to get them fully fit.
“We’ve already seen players pick up injuries because they didn’t get through a proper pre-season, but we’ve got to move on now. We have to forget about what went on before and as the weeks go by we will get better and better. They’re a good set of lads with a good spirit and their attitude to the game is top class.”
For a man regarded as one of the best up-and-coming managers in the league Pat Scully’s decision to join Limerick FC was always going to occupy the minds of League of Ireland supporters.
“I’d had two or three offers before speaking to Limerick,” Pat Scully explained to Leader Sport.
“I wanted to take a bit of time out after leaving Shamrock Rovers in October and I was enjoying my time with my family. Then I spoke to the chairman (Jack McCarthy) and I must say I like the challenge of it.
“I like the idea of a club in a big city like Limerick that’s a bit of a sleeping giant. People don’t associate the club with trying to achieve things and that’s something I would like to change. And, it’s not just about getting promoted; it’s about getting promoted and then staying up there. It’s about being ready for the Premier Division. I like to think I’m good at developing young players and developing a team. I think the next two or three years could be very exciting for Limerick. I believe you can achieve great things if you work hard and that’s what I intend to do here in Limerick.”
The Super Blues host Monaghan United at Jackman Park on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 5pm).
Pat Scully is looking forward to the game and who could blame him.
Monaghan have only managed a single point thus far (a draw with Longford) while they have lost to Mervue United, UCD and Shelbourne - Limerick clashed with Monaghan on four occasions last season winning two, drawing one and also losing one of those encounters.
“Monaghan is a big game for us,” admits Pat Scully.
“Without being disrespectful to Monaghan that’s a home game and it’s a game we should be winning.
“It will take time to get the players fit and to get my ideas across, but at the same time we have to keep getting results. We need to get a result against Monaghan and it would be great to win at home.”
Following Saturday’s crucial game Limerick FC will host a fund-raising greyhound race night in the Market’s Field. The night will comprise of a 10-race programme with race eight a ‘Buster’ race: the ticket with the correct finishing order in this race will receive a prize of €1,000 plus two tickets to see the Republic of Ireland take on Italy at Croke Park. ‘Buster’ tickets cost €20 each and are available from Limerick FC. Admission price is €8. For more information contact Limerick FC: 061 324 563.

Brian McDonnell

Pat Scully may succeed Mike Kerley

LIMERICK FC could be on the verge of landing a notable coup if they succeed in tempting Pat Scully to replace Mike Kerley as first team manager.
Scully, who guided Shamrock Rovers back into the Premier Division in 2006, attended Limerick FC’s clash with Athlone Town on Friday night in Jackman Park and it has been rumoured that the club are mere days away from confirming the Dubliner as the club’s new manager.
Club CEO Andrew Mawhinney however has been quick to dispel that rumour. Mawhinney told Chronicle Sport this morning: “No definite decision has been made as of yet. The chairman of the club, Jack McCarthy, has been in Limerick for the past few days and he has taken the opportunity on this visit to interview possible candidates for the job.”
Even though Andrew Mawhinney would not be drawn on the identity of the candidates in question the indications are that Scully remains the favourite to succeed Mike Kerley who departed the club several weeks ago.
An accomplished central defender during his playing career Pat Scully won the 1988 FA Youth Cup with Arsenal and after loan spells at Preston North End and Northampton Town he moved to Southend United in January 1991 before moving to Huddersfield Town in March 1994. In 1996 Scully joined Shelbourne who he captained to a league title before signing for Shamrock Rovers in 2001.
After a glittering playing career Scully was eager to stay in the game and when offered a chance by Kilkenny City in 2005 to begin his managerial career he took it.
Pat Scully then earned himself a reputation as the best up-and-coming manager in the League of Ireland when he took over at Shamrock Rovers and led them to the First Division title in his very first season (2006). Scully followed that achievement up with fifth place finish in the Premier Division (2007) - Pat Scully departed Shamrock Rovers last October by mutual consent.
Considering what Pat Scully achieved at Shamrock Rovers Super Blues supporters are sure to welcome such an appointment especially since the Dubliner proved capable of developing a side on a limited budget.
Meanwhile, under caretaker managers Paul O’Donnell and Mike Shiels, the Super Blues are preparing to face Dermot Keely’s Shelbourne at Tolka Park on Friday night (kick-off 8pm).
Shelbourne are joint-top of the First Division having opened their 2009 campaign with three consecutive wins. And, Shels will be further motivated by memories of November 16 last when a Colin Scanlon strike earned the Super Blues a one-all draw at Tolka Park and effectively cost Shelbourne promotion to the Premier Division. On the night Shelbourne needed to beat the Super Blues, but despite taking the lead through Anto Flood Limerick fought back to score a late equaliser and deny Shels the league title.
Shelbourne opened their 2009 league campaign with a 2-1 home win against Wexford Youths before winning twice on the road against Monaghan United and most recently Waterford United at the RSC.
Shelbourne are many observers’ favourites for automatic promotion this season. Dermot Keely can call on plenty of talent especially strikers Anto Flood and Paddy Madden while Richie Baker and David McAllister feature in midfield for the Dublin club.
Limerick’s caretaker managers Paul O’Donnell and Mick Shiels will have to plan without Paul Cummins for the next fours weeks after the centre-forward suffered a broken bone in his foot against Mervue United while they will also be concerned about the fitness of John Tierney who limped off after shipping a heavy challenge against Athlone Town on Friday night last. However this Limerick side are as good a footballing outfit as there is in the division and they are well capable of getting a result.
In other news Limerick FC have been drawn at home against the Wexford Youths in the first round of the League of Ireland Cup - the first round will take place on April 13-14 with the winner of that clash facing either the Kerry League or Cork City on May 4-5 in the next round.

Brian McDonnell

Maybe Limerick FC should auction off the manager’s job?

We’ve just heard from Limerick FC that Paul O’Donnell and Mick Shiels will take responsibility for the Super Blues until March 25.
Obviously the search for the man to replace Mike Kerley is on-going, but in the meantime maybe Limerick FC could make some money out of the situation.
Last year KFC Uerdingen, a fourth division German club, gave lucky punters the chance to manage the team for a 24-hour period after an eBay auction - the winner managed the team for a pre-season friendly against Rot Weiß Oberhausen with the help of real life coach Aleksander Ristic and was ‘sacked’ after the game.
The men and women behind KFC Uerdingen are no slouches and that wasn’t the first time the 1985 German Cup winners took their chances with an amateur in an effort to stay in the black.
In 2006 an insurance salesman bought a temporary spot on the team for three minutes of glory on the field during a friendly game against Bayern Munich. The 33-year-old insurance salesman paid €2,688 for the honour of playing four minutes against the Bavarian giants.
It might be something Limerick FC should look into doing?
In the meantime maybe they could give the manager’s job to me! That’s not as ridiculous as it might first sound.
Forty-one years ago, with the Brazilian national team in a shambles, CBF president Joao Havelange gave the manager’s job to Joao Saldanha, a journalist. In actual fact it was Saldanha who led Brazil through the qualification process for the 1970 World Cup, but early that year he was replaced by Mario Zagallo when he was accused of being emotionally unstable - apparently when Saldanha was criticised by his predecessor Dorival Yustrich he went looking for him with a gun.
Joao Saldanha was as committed to the cause as they come. He was always recognisable at Brazil games for the remainder of his career - he often wore a Brazilian jersey in the press box and died covering the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

Brian McDonnell

Newspaper coverage doesn’t make sense!

A man I know places Moses’ 40-year trek across the Sinai in the shade; his efforts to guide the fortunes of junior and schoolboy football in Limerick dwarfs that biblical character’s commitment to the cause. And what thanks does he get for it, well very little - at least Moses’ got his hands on the Ten Commandments.
My man doesn’t mind though, he loves what he’s doing, but he does have a point to make: he believes the coverage of soccer in Ireland is utterly skewed.
Here’s his point: next week in Leader Sport we will attempt to make a fuss about the launch of the 2009 Eircom League season in general and Limerick FC in particular. On Friday night Limerick will travel to Belfield to take on UCD in their opening game of the season and will probably take a 20-man squad to Dublin.
But here’s the rub: despite the attention we will foist on Limerick FC for the remainder of the season the involvement of those players will only represent 1% of the total number of players taking to the soccer fields of Limerick on a given weekend. This weekend, between junior and schoolboy football, 153 games will take place in Limerick. So if you assume that 22 players start every game with a possible six players introduced as substitutes you have 2,142 kicking a ball in anger.
Now although Leader Sport makes a genuine effort to cover junior and schoolboy soccer on Shannonside as best it can, the figures suggest we should be trying harder. Indeed the media as a whole should be trying harder.
Every week the national newspapers are flooded with coverage of the English Premier League and while they often fail to do the domestic league (Eircom League) justice they often ignore junior and schoolboy soccer completely.


Tomorrow, right here in Limerick, you can sample what junior soccer is all about by toddling along to what promises to be one of the most entertaining games of the season when Janesboro (starring Shane Clarke who is pictured above) take on Clonmel Town in the last 16 of the FAI Junior Cup at Pearse Stadium (2.30pm).
Put those eyebrows down immediately. This is going to be a serious game with the winners claiming their place in the last eight of the biggest amateur soccer tournament in Europe (680 teams entered).
Don’t bother watching the Carling Cup final - for God’s sake you know Man United are going to win the damn thing. Get along to Pearse Stadium and give it a go, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed!

Brian McDonnell

‘We will be ready for UCD’

LIMERICK CEO Andrew Mawhinney has defiantly greeted the news that Garry Sheahan and Peter White have signed for the Wexford Youths by insisting that the club will be ready to face UCD on March 6.
“We would like to wish both players all the best for the future,” Andrew Mawhinney explained this morning.
“They are both talented players and we’re sorry to lose them, but the set-up in Wexford is good and we expect both players to progress down there.
“There is no need for supporters of the club to be concerned. We have signed the players we wanted to sign and the bottom line is that we will be ready to face UCD on March 6.”
Although Peter White was a regular in the side last season Super Blue supporters will particularly miss Garry Sheahan. Sheahan’s all-action style endeared him to the Limerick FC fans in 2008 when the striker notched nine goals in 18 league appearances.
Limerick FC expect to finalise their playing squad for the season this week. The Super Blues most significant signing thus far has been that of centre-half Brian O’Callaghan who previously played for Cork City, Notts County and Barnsley, among others.
The majority of last season’s squad have also been re-signed while Paul Cummins, formerly of Aisling Annacotty and a potential replacement for Garry Sheahan up front, has impressed in pre-season training.
The likely starting XI for the clash with UCD next week could read along the following lines: Davy Ryan, Conor Molan, Brendan Daly, Pat Purcell, Brian O’Callaghan (pictured below), Paul Walsh, Tommy Barrett, Jason Hughes, Thomas Lyons with John Tierney and Paul Cummins leading the line.


While Dave Mahedy has taken responsibility for putting the side through their pre-season paces the club must now widen their search for a new first team manager.
The club had hoped to convince Pete Mahon to succeed Mike Kerley, but it is understood by Leader Sport that the logistics of travelling from Dublin to manage the Super Blues has ruled out the former UCD boss.
“There has already been huge interest in the vacant managerial position for Limerick FC,” Andrew Mawhinney explained, “and a suitable successor will be put in place ASAP.”
As part of the club’s fundraising drive Limerick FC will host a Greyhound Race Night at the Market’s Field on April 4.
The night will consist of a 10-race programme. Race eight will be a ‘Buster’ race and the holder of the winning ticket, with the correct finishing order, will receive a prize of €1,000 and two tickets to see the Republic of Ireland take on Italy at Croke Park. ‘Buster’ tickets cost €20 each and are available from Limerick FC. Admission price on the night is €8 while any person who purchases a ‘Buster’ ticket will gain free entry to the stadium on the night. Contact Limerick FC at 061 324 563 or by email at info@limerickfc.ie.
Limerick CBS’ Jason Hughes and Eoin Hanrahan, along with Crescent College’s Ian Storan have been included in the under-18 FAI Schoolboys squad which faces Wales at Wexford’s Ferrycarrig Park on Thursday evening (kick-off 7pm) in the Carnegie Centenary Shield.
This will be the first competitive fixture in the competition for manager Hugh Colhoun. And, he will be hoping that home advantage will give the Irish side the edge they need to overcome a strong Welsh side. Ireland enjoyed a 2-1 victory away to Wales last season and should confidently face into this crunch encounter.
Jason Hughes is a likely to feature strongly for the under-18 side having won the Celtic Cup and Centenary Shield with the schoolboy side in 2008.

Brian McDonnell

Will Limerick FC miss Mike Kerley?

I think the club will. The 36-year-old manager never had much time for me, correction the 36-year-old man who played Eircom League football for 16 years and who resigned as Limerick FC supremo on Thursday night never had much time for the press.
The very first time I talked to Mike Kerley, on the occasion of his appointment as manager (round this time last year); he was impatient and obviously wasn’t too interested in making my job any easier. I liked him immediately.

Here was a man who meant business, a man who meant to take Limerick FC places.
Once Limerick got going last season, once Kerley got the players fit and playing the way he expected them to play, the Super Blues were irrepressible - from the half-way point of the season Limerick were the best side in the division.
And, that is what makes Kerley’s departure all the sadder. Last season was like watching an emerging painter at work on his first, unmistakable masterpiece. When the 2008 Eircom League season concluded Mike Kerley had just finished the preliminary sketch. Limerick were now playing composed, confident football and we couldn’t wait for the 2009 campaign. That campaign kicks off in two weeks time against UCD. That was the time, on the back of a decent pre-season, that we expected Kerley to mix the colours on the palette and see whether the first draft might sustain deeper dimensions.
Then, bang, Mike Kerley resigns for whatever reason and we’re left . . . well what are we left with?

Brian McDonnell

What do Macclesfield Town and the Eircom League have in common?

It's hard to imagine a more perfect analogy for how Premier League soccer, or rather the determination of Irish fans to support English clubs, is crushing our domestic Eircom League game than the example set by Macclesfield Town.
Macclesfield is located in east Cheshire and only 20 miles from Manchester.
They’re an active bunch these Maxonians - in 2006 Sport England published a survey which revealed that residents of Macclesfield were the third most active in sport in the entire country.
So why do Macclesfield Town, 15th in League Two, struggle to attract an average home crowd of 2,000 in a town of 51,000? Well, the reason why Macclesfield Town are 91st in the attendance chart of the 92 football league clubs (only Accrington Stanley attract less), is because every Tom, Dick and Harry in the borough either supports Manchester United or Manchester City.
Indeed Macclesfield Town’s hand-to-mouth existence contrasts wildly with the wealth displayed by some of the leafy borough’s residents i.e. Wayne Rooney, Mark Hughes, Alex Ferguson and Robinho (said footballer pictured below).



The situation is just as ridiculous here in the good old Republic. Every week thousands of ‘Irish soccer fans’ (ha!) travel across the Irish sea to take in Premier League games - if only a fraction of that number stayed at home and attended Eircom League games domestic soccer in Ireland would be completely transformed.
In 1956 West Germany, the world champions at the time, paid a visit to Dalymount Park and were handed a 3-0 thrashing by a Republic of Ireland side dominated by seven individuals who were plying their trade in the domestic league.
God be with the days when Irish domestic football was on top of the world.

Brian McDonnell