Shortage of youth talent prompts Ardee rethink

FOLLOWING a dismal season last year, Ardee Celtic unceremoniously dropped to the First Division of the North East Football League, but the Townsparks side are hoping to begin the bounceback this season.

With the season drawing to a close last year John Flanagan was replaced by Paul Sharkey to work alongside David Martin and this was the first step to rebuilding the club as Sharkey had a chance to come in under no pressure and see how things were at the senior side.

Sharkey has been playing and coaching at underage levels in the club for a long time, he started out at the same time with Martin, the two are neighbours and they seem very aligned in philosophies.

To help remedy what was a lack of bodies last year, the club entered an Under-19 side in the DDSL and to date it has been very successful.

Both Martin and Sharkey will look to bring those players through to the senior team,

‘There was a lack of youth coming through and really that’s what we want to fix and that was part of the idea of having an under-19 team. We’d get guys together and bond them together and then progress them into the senior team,’ explained Sharkey.

While an investment of youth won’t fix all the problems, Ardee Celtic have managed to assemble their footballing a squad which both managers are happy about.

‘What we have is players who used to play with the club before and guys who maybe went off to college and are back now, but we have had no problem getting lads back who used to play with the club before. Everyone who is there wants to be there.’

The weather has, for many clubs, played havoc with pre-season friendlies and Ardee managed to get their first game under their belt last week. A 3-0 win at home to Abbey Celtic gave the guys their first look at the team and despite the win they won’t take too much from the game.

‘Everyone was trying to get minutes under their belt, so I wouldn’t look too much into it, but it was a good run out.’

The gradings were released last week and Sharkey is expecting a tough campaign.

‘I don’t see any team doing a Liverpool and running away with it. We are hoping to go out and compete, and what we want to do is have a system of play which will allow us compete in the division,’ he said.

But this isn’t a short-term fix. Sharkey and Martin are planning more long-term to get Ardee back to the top flight and to keep them there.

‘The emphasis for us is to create that conveyor belt of players. It’s not just the Under-19s, the Under-16s are doing well also and we want to build for the future,’ he explained.

As the saying goes, if you’re good enough you’re old enough and introducing youth into the team won’t hold any fear for the managerial partnership.

At the time of going to press the draw for the Kilmessan Shield had yet to take place, but Sharkey says that the club are hoping for a home draw,

‘It’s interesting this year in that it’s a knockout competition, but look, we’ll wait and see what the draw brings and then see what happens.’