O’Connor thankful for League of Ireland experience

Former Limerick manager Noel O’Connor joined us to discuss his career with Limerick, Cork City and Wexford Youths. O’Connor was heavily involved in re-forming the Limerick youths team in the mid 1990’s and managed the side, producing many players who graduated to the first team and won the Eircom League Cup in 2002. O’Connor’s gradual progression to manager of the first team occurred in 2001.

Following two years as manager at the club, Cork City manager Pat Dolan appointed Noel as his assistant manager at Cork, a time which Noel looks back on with great fondness.

“The experience was unbelievable. I learned a lot from Pat. We (Limerick) played them in pre-season and Pat contacted me to join him. He did a massive job down there and produced some great players as well.  He built that team that went on to win the league in 2005. In our second season we played six European ties and won 3 of them.”

The Limerick native returned to the Super Blues in 2005 under the stewardship of then new owner Danny Drew. O’Connor says he enjoyed his two year return despite being removed ahead of schedule.

“When I came back again and Aidan Ryan joined me, it was fantastic. Limerick had a very rough year the previous season. We got 56 points in our first season back. The likes of Colm Heffernan and Pat Purcell had come back and we had signed the likes of Tommy Barrett and Robbie Kelleher. There was a bit of a buzz again but behind the scenes, it was impossible to see a future as it was all week to week and one crisis after the next.”

Following a great start to the season in 2006 when Limerick were five points clear at the top of the table in June, Danny Drew decided to remove O’Connor following a winless run in July. O’Connor is not bitter but would have loved to stay on as manager for longer.

“Into our second year we had won 7 or 8 games in a row and had beaten Shamrock Rovers twice in a week. We had beaten Drogheda in the FAI Cup and got to the league cup semi final but the chairman wasn’t happy. When I look at what Pat O’Sullivan has offered Limerick in the last few years, I feel if he was around then I would have saved him a hell of a lot of money and we would have built something that was more sustainable.”

When asked about the best team he managed during his time at Limerick FC, O’Connor mentioned the team of 2006 with the likes of Pat Purcell and Colm Heffernan. However, he reserved special praise for his group in 2002 who won the Eircom League Cup despite finishing bottom of the first division, who O’Connor felt “kept the show on the road.”

“The beginning of that season was very tough and we did ship a lot of defeats but we kept on believing. The lads turned up three nights a week and trained really hard. We did a hell of a lot of running. From Christmas on our results picked up including the results we got in the league cup. A team that wins a trophy like that has to go down as a good team.”