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Chairman’s Welcome. A word from our Chairman, Pat O’Sullivan
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elcome to today's Airtricity Dr. Tony O’Neill Under-19 League Southern Division match against Wexford Youths. I'd like to offer an especially warm welcome to all those who have travelled with the team on the long journey from Wexford for this afternoon’s game. It's our first competitive home game in five weeks and it's an important one for us as we need to get our season back on track after a tough last month for our young players; which started with a Cup exit to a strong Cobh Ramblers side and then an away loss to a Bohs side much improved from our previous meeting. Since then the players have had an opportunity to test themselves against a very strong side, with our recent win over the Irish Schools Under-18s, a team which featured some of our own players competing against their club. The game was hugely entertaining and of very high quality and showed again that we have some great players coming through from the underage set-up that will form the basis of our senior side in the future. Off the field it has been a busy few weeks for the club. The Gap Programme which we brought to Limerick in partnership with LIT and LEDP was
launched officially last week and we were delighted to see the coverage of the launch in national media including RTÉ news. The programme gives young people from the region and beyond access to a life-altering programme which enables them to positively impact on the lives of others across the globe. We're also in preparation for next season and before Christmas we will have a number of very exciting announcements to make. Enjoy the game.
PAT O’SULLIVAN
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WEXFORD YOUTHS
MANAGER DECLAN FARMER
MANAGER TOM ELMES
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O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O
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
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TEAM
PL
W
D
L
PTS
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Mervue United Limerick FC Bohemian FC Wexford Youths Longford Town
8 7 7 7 7
5 4 3 1 1
2 0 2 2 2
1 17 3 12 2 11 4 5 4 5
Danny NIEKIS Peter GOLDSMITH Ryan DELANEY Aaron MADDOCK Nevin ROSSITER Conor MAHER Liam WALSH Andrew WALL James SHIGGINS Ethan O'NEILL Daryl POWER Jake FIRMAN Tony SMITH Podge DOYLE Eoin DUNNE Eoin DELANEY Donal SHANLEY Jason MCHUGH Ian CARTHY Conor GIBSON Ross MOORE Liam DOYLE Dan CARTHY Danny BOLGER
FORM
Limerick FC Wexford Youths
W LW D L L L L D L
NEXT FIXTURE
Saturday December 7 th: Limerick FC v Longford Town
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WEXFORD YOUTHS
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Managers Notes. Matchday notes from Limerick FC U19’s manager, Declan Farmer.
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ood afternoon and welcome to today’s game against Wexford Youths in the Southern Division. I’d like to extend a warm welcome to Tom Elmes, his players and backroom staff, the officials and supporters of Wexford who have made the trip west for the match. We’re all looking forward to the game as we go in search of what would be a valuable three points. I’m expecting a very defensive challenge from Wexford. They play a 3-5-2 formation with one of the front men even dropping back, so essentially they have nine men behind the ball. They are set up to counterattack in a very Italian style formation and they can be difficult to break down. Our aim will be to get an early goal, to make them come out and attack us. The longer it goes on at 0-0 the more it will suit them. We have to be patient, though, and hopefully we will be able to get in front early doors. The Irish Schools game ten days ago was a good exercise for us and gave us an opportunity to look at the younger lads in the squad. Now, we will look to get back on track in the league having gone down to Bohemians in Dublin a fortnight ago. The lads have discussed that 2-1 loss between themselves and it’s something I’m sure we’ll learn from. If you don’t learn from your mistakes then you won’t develop as a player and ultimately you won’t progress to the first team. Under-19 football is about learning to compete to win but it’s also about learning to develop as a player, and we’ll do that. The beauty
of this group is we don’t dwell on things and we don’t look at the past. We put it behind us and move forward and now we’re looking at our final five games in the Southern Division and we’re aiming to win all of them. Our aim at the start of the season was to win the league and that is still our objective. We’ll take each game as it comes. We’re very positive and focussed on the task in hand. I must mention our coaching staff too. I don’t talk about them much when speaking about the team but Tommy Barrett and Eddie Hickey and the whole team have been fantastic. They’re great for the lads and, altogether, we’re striving for success. Hopefully, we can reach our goals. Enjoy the game.
DECLAN FARMER
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Cian O’Donoghue scoring from distance against Cobh Ramblers in the Cup. PHOTOS: Conor Wyse Photography.
Cobh ‘keeper Stephen Hickey with his head in his hands after Cian O’Donoghue’s shot went past him.
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