*Shannon Town Utd’s Seán Aylmer. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
SHANNON TOWN Utd are expecting “a strange season” with the reduction of teams competing in the Maloney Hardware Premier Division.
Bryan O’Donoghue a member of the only Shannon Town Utd squad to win the Premier Division in 2017, then under the stewardship of CDSL Chairman Donal Magee, has succeeded David Hogan as manager.
That success of almost a decade ago has not been backed up with the club struggling for consistency over recent seasons which has left them regularly at mid-table.
Player retention was cited by Bryan as a reason why Shannon Town have not added subsequent league titles. “We had the bounce of going from Limerick into the Premier Division, we had the mix of experienced players and the youth, it is not an easy one to win. Newmarket Celtic and Avenue Utd know how to do it, it is a question we’ve been asking ourselves in the club on what the right blend is, we’re seeing players leaving the town for Limerick or Galway at the wrong time for the club, if they were all there we would have backed it up, we will give it a crack and see where we land”.
After suffering a broken collarbone four years ago, Bryan moved into management, first taking charge of the Shannon Town B team for two years before operating as player/manager with the C team last season. That playing career also included a brief stint with Rineanna Rovers who he signed for after spending his twenties in Australia, prior to that his whole underage career had been with Shannon Town.
Making the step-up on a management level won’t be easy, he acknowledged. “The Premier has always been the top competition in Clare. It is a funny one, I managed the B team and that was a very competitive year in the First Division when Shannon Hibs were competitive, Newmarket B have won it more than not, that has stood to me”.
He continued, “the Premier Division with eight teams will be a funny competition, I don’t feel out of my depth, I’m looking forward to it and the challenge of playing Newmarket Celtic, Avenue Utd, we’d have played the other teams between the B team and then teams getting promoted so overall I’m looking forward to it”.
Points cannot be dropped, Bryan stressed while pointing out the age profile of his squad is very young. “It is a young squad, a couple of the lads like Darren Griffin and Gary O’Connell who have been stalwarts with their experience have moved on, the team is very young, they have been improving year on year, the management team of the last few years have done very well, we want to improve, keep going and keep them together. Young lads want to play football but you can only put eleven on the pitch so it can be hard to keep them all happy, we just want to improve year on year. Newmarket and Avenue have had the monopoly in terms of success, we want to compete with those top teams, it will be extremely competitive as an eight team league, dropping points will be detrimental, every game will be a Cup final so we are treating is a stepping stone and we’ll see where we are”.
Striving for consistency has been hindered by the lack of experience within their squad, he felt. “The schoolboys system in Shannon Town has multiple teams at underage level and trying to bring them into junior football and throwing them into the Premier has been difficult to do. We’re trying to find a balance of youth and experience, the results over the last few years have told a story, we were getting beaten 5-0 by the top teams but last year there was only a goal or two in it, we have been improving the last few years and we want to keep improving, we want to be more consistent. In an eight team league it will be a strange season”.
With the quality of footballers in Shannon, the lack of big titles won at junior level by clubs in the Airport Town certainly has it punching below its weight. On why Shannon has not fulfilled its potential, Bryan told The Clare Echo, “It is always a debate in Shannon with individual footballers coming out of the town, Park Rangers, Newtown, Shannon Hibs and Shannon Olympic have always had good individual players, it has always been the talk of the town that if you put them all together then Shannon would be a real force. You can’t fault young fellas that want to go and better themselves at the pinnacle, at the minute the Limerick league may be seen as better, there’s guys going to Treaty and Galway to ply their trade, if you kept every young fella from Shannon in Shannon and on the one team then it would be a real driving force but I don’t have the answer. If you kept them all in Shannon and there was one team absolutely but look at Ennis too, if they had only one team then they would field stronger sides, Newmarket seem to have the blend right”.
Shannon Town Utd Factfile
Management: Bryan O’Donoghue (manager), Ger Kelly, Adam O’Sullivan
Joint captains: Charlie Morrison & Kai Khetan
Key Player: Kai Khetan
One to watch: Rhys Regan
Fresh blood: Yan Zmija, Aidan Buckley, Rhys Regan,
Departures Gate: Gary O’Connell (retired), Darren Griffin (retired), Cody Waller (transferred).
Treatment table: N/A
Last season’s run: Finished in fifth spot of the Premier Division.
