*Aidan and David Russell. Photograph: Joe Buckley
BACK TO BACK league titles was no more than Avenue Utd deserved according to their ever-defiant manager David Russell.
Avenue Utd’s 2-0 win over Bridge Utd in Roslevan on Sunday morning saw them claim successive league titles and a third Premier Division win in four seasons. It is the third league won during Russell’s six-season tenure to accompany their three Clare Cup titles in this spell, their 2022 breakthrough ended a nine-year trophy drought.
When their hopes of winning either the Munster Junior Cup or FAI Junior Cup were all dashed within the space of a fortnight not to mention a shock league defeat to Kilrush Rangers and exiting the Clare Cup to rivals Newmarket Celtic, it left Avenue with only the league to win.
Finishing with a run of thirteen wins on the bounce seemed a challenge back then but it was Avenue achieved. Russell told The Clare Echo, “Job done from when we were in March a few of ye wrote us off, wrote me off, I was written off outside the dressing room, inside the dressing room, media, social media, the whole lot, it makes it sweeter, it’s not a two fingers up to anybody because we knew the quality that we had, a couple of unlucky things happened throughout the season but to get thirteen wins on a row on a spin like that is very satisfying and it is probably the sweetest one of the last couple, it is no more than the lads deserve because they have worked hard and we deserved it”.
On the potential raising of two fingers, centre-half Seán O’Callaghan who had been dropped from the Avenue starting eleven regained his place for their final two outings and scored the all-important goal on Sunday to put them on their way to success. “Every player is going to look at the manager and blame him when he is not playing, Seán didn’t blame me, we had frank discussions, I pick the team a lot of the time based on the opposition we’re playing, it bore fruit for the last thirteen games so I can stand by my decision but Seán obviously none of us are professional but he was professional to the end and got his start last week and again today, two clean sheets in the two biggest games of the season, he scored his goal, I’m made up for Seán, he is a top guy as are everyone of those. You nearly have to micromanage the lads, that is not just Avenue I’m fully aware it goes on in every clubs, there’s a lot of egos and there’s a lot of lads not happy when they are not playing and it is up to the manager. I’ve a great phrase ‘players win games managers lose them’, I was fully aware I was in the firing line if we didn’t win this game”.
He admitted “it was a huge challenge” to try get Avenue back on solid ground following their tumultuous spell in February and March and he labelled the internal fallout as “petty”. David recalled, “I thought the Tallaght fallout last year from the FAI was difficult to manage but this year with the probably unrealistic expectations we’ve put on ourselves seeing Newmarket win it (FAI Junior Cup), the fallout was petty enough to be honest, written off inside the dressing room by a couple of people, outside the dressing room by a lot of people, to steady the ship and get lads back on board, that is not all through me I’m not naïve enough to think I’m the man that steadied the ship with all of it, a couple of the senior players need to step in and give a small bit of realisation to some of the other players that life does go on and there’s a bigger picture than some of the individual pettiness that goes on within a dressing room, the ship steadied with thirteen wins in a row, you’re not always going to like everyone within a dressing room I’m aware of that after playing with Avenue for twenty years and Éire Óg for fifteen or sixteen. On reflection during the week I’ll take great satisfaction in those lads winning another trophy”.
A period of reflection was needed to steady the ship with senior players also stepping up, the Clarecastle native flagged. “You step back out of it for a couple of days. Losing to Coachford missing Steven (McGann) and Elias Kunz was a huge loss, losing to Kilrush was an absolute off the Richter scale to be honest with you, everybody was flat and it was like everybody was on strike that week that we’d been knocked out of the competition and ‘oh okay I’m done I’m not going to play’. Senior players stepped in, copped themselves on, knuckled down and worked hard again from there, we haven’t looked back”.
Before Sunday’s game, a minute’s silence was held for Carmel Russell McGann, mother of Avenue talisman Steven and David’s own first cousin and godmother of his youngest child Aidan. “It was a huge week losing Steven’s Mum Carmel, a very close cousin of mine, not ideal but credit to Steven McGann that he actually wanted to play, he rang me last night and said ‘put me on the match card’, there was never a chance I wasn’t going to put him on it once he told me that, a man of serious talent, I was delighted for him”.
Confusion over who would referee Sunday’s game was criticised by the former centre-half. “The distraction with the Clare league, it was an absolute circus to be honest. Not finding out who is refereeing the game until an hour before the game, the Clare league would want to have a look at themselves, trying to open up lines of communication with the refs and being told on Saturday night that the FAI are putting sanctions in on top of us and Bridge Utd were not going to play the game, it was laughable really, that is why my message when I came in from 09:30 this morning was no distractions, we have the ability, mental capacity and discipline to ride through any circus that was around us, it proved when we deservedly won the league”.
Nothing has been confirmed for next season but Russell is anticipated to bow out as manager. He has since joined Shane Daniels’ Éire Óg senior football management as a selector but was tight-lipped on his next steps in junior soccer. “Plans for the next thirty six hours Paudie we’re going to one of our sponsors Patricks, we’ll watch the hurling and the soccer, I’ll wake up tomorrow and we’ll make another plan. I’m committing to absolutely nothing, there’s always rumours in a dressing room about what I’m doing irrespective of me or my management, the players should look at themselves and realise the work that was put in for them and then go forward, there’s no point leaving a winning team when it could have been four in a row Clare Cups but due to injuries and absentees, we’ve won back the league so the players should look at themselves and as a core group of players decide what they want going forward, it will have nothing to do with me”.
Finishing the season with silverware still brings a strong sense of satisfaction. “I am a winner, I’ve always been a competitor, that is what I’ve prided my teams on for the last six years, it took a year or two to get the team that I wanted moulded into physicality and fitness, then ability always comes in, in the Clare league you always need physicality and fitness, we had that in spades, our ability throughout the team is second to none, they’ve deserved it, I’ve deserved it and we’ll move on from here”.
