Mahon admits to poor signings
PETE Mahon has conceded that he got it wrong on player recruitment for 2017 and won’t be ‘diving in’ when he puts together his Drogheda United squad for next season over the next few weeks.
The 70-year-old manager compiled what looked on paper to be an excellent squad considering the club’s limited playing budget, but some big-name players departed during the season for various reasons and the upheaval was undoubtedly a factor in Drogheda’s plunge to the foot of the table and eventual relegation.
Speaking after wrapping up the season with a 0-0 draw at home to Sligo Rovers last Friday, Mahon was asked if there was one thing he would have done differently during 2017, with the benefit of hindsight.
In response, he said: ‘I would have paid far more attention to player recruitment, that’s for sure. Even at my age you learn things in life and I would be far more selective [about recruitment] and won’t be diving in.
‘We lost eight players this year which is a team, and people can complain all they like, but all I’ve asked for is that people train properly, do what we ask them to do and lead a sportsman’s life off the pitch. Once that happens, there’ll be no complaints from me.’
The departures at least allowed some of the club’s younger players to experience significant game time, and that was something which Mahon took some satisfaction from.
‘It’s been a terrible season for us and there’s not a lot of positive things to look back on, except for the fact that in the Finn Harps game we had seven Under-21s playing. We had four on the pitch tonight [against Sligo] and Conor Kane, Colm Deasy and Jamie Hollywood on the bench which is seven.
‘The secret now would be to try to keep those lads and try and get a few more experienced players.
‘We have one or two that we’re going to try and keep as well - obviously Dave Mulcahy and the goalkeeper [Stephen McGuinness] and Chris Mulhall. They would be very, very important for us because not only are they decent players, they are good lads as well and set a good example for young players and are really good role models.
‘That’s what I’ll be doing for the next few weeks.’
Mahon hadn’t yet spoken about 2018 to chairman Fiachra Kierans as we went to press and so hasn’t entered into discussions with members of the squad, who gathered after Friday’s match for the traditional Player of the Year Awards.
The main accolade, voted for by the supporters, went to keeper McGuinness, while the Players’ Player was Adam Wixted, both Under-19 awards went to Stephen Meaney who broke into the first team recently and the Under-17 winners were Derick Dunn and Stephen Doran.
Tenure native Thomas Byrne, a hugely talented Under-19 international, might have been expected to feature in the awards, but he was sent off on two occasions and those disciplinary issues probably cost him one of the two main honours.
Earlier, Drogheda had put it up to Sligo Rovers and gained an encouraging draw, on the back of the win in the rearranged game with Finn Harps four nights earlier, and Mahon was happy at the way his team had finished the campaign.
‘We had a tough week, with two trips to Donegal, but I did say weeks ago that no matter what happened, we would keep it going to the end of the season, and to be fair to the players we managed to do that.
‘We have been found wanting in a lot of the games, but you can’t fault the effort we’ve had in the last round of games. I know we didn’t win many, but we gave a good account of ourselves up in Derry. We got beaten 1-0 by Pats, we did okay against Rovers, but that’s no consolation because it was a very poor season and obviously I’m the one who has to shoulder the blame.
‘The big disappointment for me was the match in Galway where we were really, really poor.’