We begin this issue with the news that after five fantastic years at the helm first team manager John Young has decided to step down, the announcement in early October was unexpected but work commitments must come first. The club reluctantly accepted John’s resignation and set about the task of finding a successor placing Tony Roe temporarily in charge. St Patrick’s CY would like to put on record our deep appreciation and respect for the amazing job done since taking charge in November 2007, at the time the club had just been promoted to the intermediate grade having had as successful period in junior football. CY needed new and disciplined direction which was exactly what John brought to the club, not just to our first team but throughout our three senior sides. We reaped the rewards with many, many league and cup titles but most notably was our first team’s meteoritic rise through the Intermediate Divisions gaining three straight promotions to find ourselves competing at the top level of the amateur game. During John’s tenure a League and Gilligan Cup double were secured along with appearances in the Noel Ryan Cup final and most recently the biggest game in the club’s history when facing Shamrock Rovers in the Leinster Senior Cup final which was to be one of his final games in charge. A huge thank you from all at the club and we wish Wembo all the best in his future career and life.
Hard to believe we are almost at the mid-way point already this season, unfortunately for our Senior Sunday side it could be argued that the distraction of the Leinster Senior Cup final against Shamrock Rovers at the start of September has impacted on performances in the league. Currently we lie third from bottom with some very mixed performances and results, all said we do have a huge Intermediate Cup game coming up at the beginning of December. A home tie with Cork giants Rockmount will determine who goes into the third round and qualifies for the FAI Senior Cup, more on that game in the next update.
Thankfully the slump in first team fortunes has not cascaded down to our Major1 Saturday and Division 2 Sunday sides who are both having a fantastic league season to date. Our Saturday side, despite starting off with two defeats has won their last six league games to put themselves within touching distance of the top spot. That added to strong runs in the FAI and Leinster Junior Cups means they will make the turn of the year once again chasing silverware, the same can be said of our development side who have taken Division 2 Sunday by storm, dropping just two points from 27 on offer thus far, they have also reached the third round of the Leinster Junior Cup Sunday section.
To finish up we would like to wish Mark Benson all the best as he manages our first team going forward, we would also like to wish all our supporters, committee and players a very happy festive season and a prosperous new year, our annual Christmas bumper draw will take place as always and tickets can be obtained from the usual suspects priced at 20 Euro.
By David Thomas Nolan
