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Chairman’s Welcome. A word from our Chairman, Pat O’Sullivan
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would like to offer a special welcome to our visitors from Longford Town to this afternoon’s Airtricity U19 League match, the first of what promises to be a very special season for us, here at LIT/St.Nessan’s. We’ve had a very exciting offseason which has created a sense of anticipation and expectation around the team. The summer started off brightly with no less than nine players receiving call-ups to National training squads which gave great experience to the players and gave huge credence to what we’re trying to achieve here in Limerick with our approach to underage football. Four of these players, Ronan Coughlan, Val Feeney, Michael Guerin and Ross Mann were called up for full international duty with the Irish U18s in Ipswich for some friendly matches and to have four of our players on the Official National Squad was a huge achievement for all involved in the current U19 and scouting structure. This was followed by the wonderful results achieved by Declan Farmer, his backroom staff and especially our U19 players in their magnificent Macron Galway Cup win a few weeks ago. Defeating Elite squads from Salthill Devon and Cork City on the way to lifting the trophy, it was a competition won in fine style.
A successful summer was rounded out with a pre-season tour of the UK where the U19 squad defeated Huddersfield’s and Blackpool’s respective Development squads, both by large margins. It was a huge statement about the quality of our underage set-up and it was done in front of some very high-profile people, who have been hugely complimentary of our squads. The coming season needs to build on the recent success. Promotion to the Elite Division is our target and we hope to get off to the best possible start. With your support, I’ve no doubt that our young stars can continue to impress.
PAT O’SULLIVAN
LONGFORD TOWN
MANAGER DECLAN FARMER
MANAGER MARTIN RUSSELL
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Nathan Murray Gavin Whyte Colm Murphy Tony Whitehead Paudie O'Connor Mark Hoban Nathan Kelly Shane Walsh Kieran Hanlon Seรกn McSweeney Cian O'Donoghue James McGrath Gavin Dillon AJ O'Connor Matt Keane Evan Shine Conor McGuire Ross Fitzgerald Mikey Greed Evan Cusack Tadhg Ryan Val Feeney Shane Costelloe Ross Mann Michael Guerin
Manager: Mark Connors David McNamara Darren McGarry Sean Duarte Karl Byrne Jamie Mulhall Giordano Cinelli Adam Coates Dean Murphy Ciarรกn Grogan Brian McNamara Karl Malone Craig Fitzgerald Paul Kennedy Dylan Nolan Joe Lawrence Lee Higgins Alex O'Callaghan Adrian Bajgora Aaron Brilly Dylan McKeever Darren Clarke Ryan Carberry
LONGFORD TOWN
06 super blues
Managers Notes. Matchday notes from U19 Limerick FC manager, Declan Farmer.
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ood afternoon and welcome to the first game of our Under-19 Southern Division season against Longford Town. We extend a warm welcome to our visitors today. They are a very good team who are well organised. We’ve had them watched twice in pre-season. They are not the same Longford team that we faced last year. They have looked at over 60 players, so they have stepped it up this year in terms of what they want to do and how they want to develop players. It should be a good and even game. We’ll take each week as it comes. Our goal this season is to get the club into the Elite Division, but the first thing to concentrate on is today’s game and then build from here. I’ve been really happy with how pre-season preparations have gone this year. In the last couple of seasons, we’ve scored the most goals but we’ve also conceded a lot. One of the things we wanted to do this year was improve in the centre of defence, and the young lads we’ve brought in and those who developed through last season and who are stronger means we look more solid at the back. The one goal we conceded was from a mistake, so overall we’re pleased with how it has gone. We’ve tried different formations as well in pre-season, so depending on the opposition or how a game is going, we can change around. The trip to England last week has also really cemented the group. We spoke to them individually after it and they all
said that there was good banter within the squad and that there were no cliques or anything like that, so that’s good to hear. All the players are buzzing and can’t wait to get going. As I’ve said, our aim this year is to win promotion to the top tier, but when I took this job at the beginning, I knew that the main thing was to develop players for the first-team squad and that’s what we’ve been doing. We’re certainly up there as one of the top clubs in Ireland doing that, and it remains the objective going into this season. But we also need to be playing against the better players in a better league. Players are only going to get better and better that way, so hopefully we can reach both of our targets this term.
DECLAN FARMER