St Patrick’s CY go into 2014 facing arguably the club’s most challenging period for many a year. Both our teams head into the spring with league survival in mind hoping to preserve top-flight status and the club’s crown as the biggest and best in Dublin 4.
As we go to print our senior squad are preparing for a daunting last sixteen intermediate cup tie down in Cork where they will face Carrigaline United from the Munster senior leagues first division.
For the club it’s another shot at that elusive quarter-final berth having been knocked out at this stage in each of the past two seasons, however cup competitions are well down the priority list as senior division survival takes centre stage.
Going into the Christmas break CY were just about hovering above the relegation zone and signed off with a two a piece score draw at home to Malahide United in mid-December, an important morale boosting point after the unexpected mauling just days earlier away to Firhouse Clover. Our first fixture of the new year was to play host to league champions elect Tolka Rovers. The Finglas side came to Ringsend in fine form having won ten league games on the bounce to reach the summit and were unbeaten in 15 games across all competitions, but on the second Friday of the new year faced a CY side ready for a fight.
Despite being a man down for most of the second half, the home side battled to a 2-1 victory. This was followed up the following Thursday night with a 1-2 away win against Glebe North, six unexpected but valuable points to take Derek Bowden’s side up to eight in the table on 17 points, plenty of work still to be done but a good start nonetheless.
On to our Saturday side, now managed by the experienced duo of Wayne Byrne and Ray Doyle. CY currently enjoy a mid-table position, but they know that they are only a couple of bad results away from being dragged into a relegation dog fight, in cup action. While certainly not a priority, they have managed to find a path through to the last 16 stage of the LFA Junior cup, a great achievement for a rebuilding squad. The players can look forward to a home tie against St Kevin’s Boys who incidentally beat CY a couple of seasons ago in the semi-final of this great competition.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our sponsors and supporters for their continued support, in particular Fanagans our main sponsor, Sally’s Bar, P-Mac and many, many more contributors, hopefully we all have a prosperous 2014. Remember St Patrick’s CYFC offer the highest level of football outside league of Ireland and will continue to grow and set new and improved levels of achievement.
By David Nolan
