Nenagh AFC confident of ending season with Cup glory

SOCCER: Limerick District League - Lawson Cup Final Preview

By Thomas Conway

NENAGH AFC v AISLING ANNACOTTY

Jackman Park, Limerick

Saturday, 15th June

Kick-off @ 6.30pm

Referee: M Kennedy

This isn’t quite David-vs-Goliath but it’s probably something close. A Lawson Cup Final, inside in Jackman Park, pitching the all-conquering league champions Aisling Annacotty against the mid-table hopefuls Nenagh AFC. Limerick versus Tipperary. The champions versus the outsiders.

In theory Nenagh shouldn’t win this. Annacotty, based on their ruthless league form and current winning streak, should technically cruise to victory. But a Cup Final is a Cup Final. Look at what happened in Wembley when Manchester United snatched the FA Cup title off City just a few weeks ago. That wasn’t meant to happen, and yet somehow Bruno Fernandes ended up being the one lifting the trophy.

The lesson? Strange things can happen in Cup finals and the same rules apply to the Lawson Cup as they do the FA Cup. It’s a long shot, but Nenagh are going into this with lots of hope and lots more confidence. They think they can do it, and they might, but it will be difficult.

Aisling Annacotty have been blistering this season. They inched their way past Pike Rovers to claim the league title, finishing with 58 points from 22 games, scoring 81 goals in the process. They’ve only been defeated twice.

In contrast Nenagh, who finished a respectable sixth, garnered 26 points with a win-lose-draw ratio of 7-10-5. But the Tipperary club endured a difficult year.

As their manager, Mark McKenna explains, their first half of the season was blighted by injuries and absences. Midway through the campaign their previous management team, Cillian & Oisín Fitzpatrick, departed to take up a contract with Treaty United. It wasn’t ideal. By Christmas, Nenagh were in the doldrums.

“Cillian and Oisín left, they went to Treaty. And to be honest we were probably in a bad state when that happened,” McKenna reveals.

“We were in the relegation zone, second from bottom, confidence very low. Now, we had lost five players to Australia as well, which didn’t help. Three of those have since returned, which gave us a boost, but there’s no doubt we were in a very bad place midway through the season - we only had about six or seven points. Out of nine league games, seven were away from home in that first half of the season, so everything was really going against us.

“But a new management team came in and took over at Christmas, and immediately we signed six or seven new players, and they’ve all done a job for us. The back half of the season we picked up something like twenty points, which was a big improvement.”

As a football team, Nenagh have potential. They’re a ball-playing side, keeping everything on the surface and endeavouring to play a possession-based game. Really and truly, Mark feels, they should be pushing for a top four place - which will almost certainly be the aspiration next season. It wasn’t possible this year, for various reasons, some of which have been outlined, but the Nenagh head coach genuinely believes his side can punch above their weight, and he’s bullish about their prospects in 2024/25.

“With the players that we have, we’ve actually underachieved,” McKenna says bluntly.

“Really, we should be pushing towards the top four. But between lads being unavailable, lads coming and going with injuries, the consistency wasn’t there.”

Their Lawson Cup odyssey has been an incredible journey. Written off by most, they eked out an early win against Holycross and from there momentum started to build. The games came thick and fast, and the belief started to grow. Soon enough, they had reached a semi-final against Janesboro, in which they prevailed against the odds.

“We probably got a favourable draw,” McKenna added.

“But at the same time, prior to the semi-final, all of our games were away from home. We played Holycross, Caherdavin, and Hyde Rangers away from home. And they were tough games, but we got over the line in each of them. The Holycross game was particularly tough - the pitch was poor, and the weather wasn’t great either, but we came through it. Then it was a similar story with Caherdavin - a narrow pitch.

“Our semi-final against Janesboro was actually our first home game in the competition, but Alan Sheahan scored, after three minutes, and we were pretty comfortable. We had a couple of chances which we failed to take early in the game, but we held steady, and we came through it, so that was a huge win for us.”

And now they’re here, in a Lawson Cup Final, against the league champions Aisling Annacotty. Anything other than an Annacotty victory would rank as a major upset. On paper the Castletroy club are far superior - they play with pace and conviction.

But for McKenna - who was on a short break to Madrid and had just visited the new Bernabéu prior to conducting this interview - nothing is beyond the realm of the possible. He’s confident that, like Real Madrid, Nenagh can “find a way”. They have talent in their ranks, as Mark notes.

“Eamon White and Alan Sheahan are two very good ball players in the middle of the field. Ryan Gilmartin has been good in patches as well, and we’ve a number of other guys like that. So, we’re confident. We’re going in there to win, no question,” said the Nenagh manager.

Should Nenagh win it, should they completely upset the odds and outplay Limerick District League’s top side, it will surely rank as a golden achievement for the club. By right it shouldn’t happen - Annacotty just have to be too good.

But there’s something in the air in Brickfields at the moment. The new astroturf has just been launched, the club is buzzing at both adult and children’s level, and ambition is everywhere. Nenagh might be underdogs but don’t write them off. This season has been a difficult one, but the final chapter might have a happy ending.