Rovers and North End to lock horns
THE Wexford Football League returns after the summer break at the weekend as clubs set out on a nine-month crusade for honours.
With nine adult divisional titles up for grabs, as well as four youth leagues, on top of the various cup competitions there’s plenty of silverware to play for throughout the season.
Shamrock Rovers and North End United look set to battle it out for the big prize in the top flight, and a repeat of last season’s tug of war could well be on the cards.
After getting off to a lightning start and leading all the way, the Enniscorthy men finally made it over the finish line to shrug off the persistant challenge of the Belvedere Road outfit and a similar prolonged battle could ensue again this season.
Shamrock Rovers will certainly be giving it their all to hold on to their Premier Division crown and manager Nicky Murphy says that’s where their priorities lie.
‘Trying to retain the league title is the main objective and after that if we could get our hands on the cup it would be a great bonus,’ he said.
While Murphy believes North End United will pose a massive challenge again he doesn’t think it’s a simple case of it being a twohorse race.
‘North End are obviously going to be up there, but Moyne Rangers, Campile and Gorey Rangers will all be strong,’ he said.
Striker Danny O’Reilly has parted ways with the champions during the summer break as he has decided to return to Rosslare Strand and Murphy says the goalscorer will be a big loss, but they have also moved to strengthen the squad.
‘Danny will be a loss, he scored 14 goals last season. It will be hard to replace those goals.
‘But we’ve signed Jamie Fox from Ajax and Paudie Cullen from Cloughbawn. There’s also a couple of lads from the B team. Hopefully Seán Wildes and Podge Doyle will come up from the B team,’ he said.
Although North End United added to their already bulging trophy haul by winning the Wexford Cup for the 11th time last term, long-serving manager John Godkin admitted to being a little disappointed with their season, given that they lost their Premier Division crown, although the margins were tight.
‘At the end of last season there was very little in it. We dropped nine points for the season, which would normally be enough to win a league, and we took four points off Rovers, we lost one and drew three and they lost one and drew two. It was tight, but we didn’t do enough,’ he said.
North End have lost a couple of players recently, with powerful midfielder Shane Dempsey joining his former Sky Blues colleague Paul Murphy at Wexford Youths and goalkeeper Dylan Owens signing for Athlone Town, while many of their promising underage players have already taken the League of Ireland route.
Lee Aust may also have to take a year out due to work commitments, but Godkin has brought in a couple of new faces.
‘At the moment we definitely have two new signings, Paul Murphy from Kilmore and Gary Byrne from Wexford Bohs, and I’m still working on another couple but nothing confirmed yet,’ he said.
Godkin says although his squad is a little bit lighter than in recent seasons he still expects them to be challenging on all fronts.
‘I’d be disappointed if we’re not challenging, but we are going through a transition period. The squad is changing. We’re going to try to blood in some young lads now,’ he said.
North End have reached the business end of some of the national cup competitions in recent seasons and the manager would like to continue that trend this time around.
‘I don’t think we’ll be as strong as the last couple of years, but we’d always aim to do well, because I think that’s important for players coming into the squad that they get experience of that.
‘If we could stay in those competitions until around November, I’m sure we’ll get a couple of players back out of the League of Ireland set-up for a period. If we could hang in there that could benefit us,’ he said.
Godkin sees defending champions Shamrocks Rovers as their obvious rivals for domestic honours, but believes Moyne Rangers could also make a name for themselves.
‘I think Moyne could be dark horses.
‘They’ve flattered to deceive the last couple of seasons but they have the squad to challenge,’ he said.
North End will be the favourites in many people’s eyes to wrest back the title from Shamrock Rovers and the Wexford town side are certainly ready for the big kick-off.
‘We had a decent pre-season and we won the Moc Lawlor Trophy again, beating Freebooters from Kilkenny.
‘Hopefully we can hit the ground running,’ said Godkin.