Janesboro lead the way at the Christmas break

With every Limerick District League club playing at least half of their league games by the Christmas break, the Limerick District Members Committee will be delighted with the volume of games completed at this stage of the campaign with seven clubs playing 13 matches and over in a 22 game season. While crossing both fingers and toes, the hierarchy will be hoping that we don’t have a poor January and February to slow proceedings down once more like in previous years.

It is Janesboro who lead the way in the PJ Matthews Premier League with 12 wins from 14 matches. Despite just one defeat so far, joint managers Shane O’Hanlon and Aidan Ryan will be bitterly disappointed with the club’s showing in both national competitions. ‘Boro were knocked out of both the FAI and Munster Junior Cups before they reached the ‘out of town’ phase of either competitions. For a team that reached the Munster Junior Cup final and have been so dominant in the league, it will prove a disappointment.

However, the club are also representing the Limerick District League in the Oscar Traynor Trophy. Despite a recent 2-0 defeat to Galway, Janesboro defeated Clare 2-0 and still have every chance of progressing to the knockout stages. With the addition of Kevin Barry and Aaron Grant, the management team will be hoping fresh competition for places will spur the rest of the squad on and prevent stagnation.

Hot on the heels of Janesboro are fierce rivals Pike Rovers who have been impressive on all fronts so far. While manager Mick Sheil does not boast a massive squad, he possesses great quality with many ex League of Ireland players adding to it. The acquisition of Johnathan Grant from Carew Park appears to have been particularly shrewd as the striker is the top scorer in the league and helped the club advance to the last 32 of the FAI Junior Cup with a vital winning goal against St. Kevin’s.

They remain in all competitions and are four points off Janesboro with a game in hand. Having only conceded nine goals and with experienced duo Wayne Colbert and Pat Mullins returning recently, few will bet against the Crossagalla outfit pushing for honours on all fronts.

Both Ballynanty and Regional have enjoyed good seasons so far but due to the pace being set by the top two, they remain 12 and 11 points off top respectively. Regional made big improvements to the squad with Jack Lynch, Clyde O’Connell, Alan Murphy and Sean McSweeney all joining following spells with Limerick FC.

A thumping win over Killarney has helped build confidence. Although the Dooradoyle outfit have caught the eye, the lack of experience in the squad caught them recently when they failed to take advantage of possession against both Pike and Prospect. They squandered particularly good chances against Pike.

Ballynanty Rovers started the season at a ferocious pace and won all 12 of their opening games in all competitions. However, the last six weeks have not been kind to Donal Magee’s men. Losses to title rivals Pike and Janesboro as well as a draw against Fairview and a recent defeat in the FAI Junior Cup to Muirhevna Mor has cast doubts over the northsiders challenge. It is amazing that Ballynanty find themselves 12 points off the leaders even though they have three games in hand.

Scoring goals has proven a slight problem for the club and they have the lowest goals scored of the top five teams. It certainly cost them against Janesboro in a game they dominated. Magee will be hoping that the Christmas break is coming at the right time and his strikers Kevin Nolan and Arron Nunan can provide the firepower to re-ignite their challenge.

At the other end of the table, it looks as though Carew Park will need more than a miracle to remain in the premier division. They are currently -3 points with 14 games played and are 12 points from safety. The club suffered the loss of a manager and a whole team at the very start of the season.

It is a sad state for the 2014 league champions but no premier division side would be able to deal with the loss of Johnathan Grant, Adam Frahill and Kieran Hanlon among many more as the season kicked off. The young players at the club as well as the older clubmen must be commended for togging out on many occasion just to keep the show on the road.

Charleville, Killmallock, Nenagh and Prospect look like the other clubs who will be embroiled in a relegation scrap in 2019. Recently, Kilmallock, Prospect and Nenagh have all taken points from each other and have ensured that no team is pulling away. Charleville managed to stay up by a small margin last season but look in grave danger this year as they are five points from safety but their rivals all have two games in hand. Conceding 63 goals in 14 matches is exceptionally poor and despite strikers Pat O’Callaghan and Shane Dillon scoring frequently, it does not look promising.

Geraldines have accumulated 16 points in 11 games and have enjoyed a solid return to the premier division. Despite being knocked out of the FAI Cup recently, they remain in the Munster Junior Cup, a competition they reached the final of in 2014. Fairview and Aisling still have the opportunity to break in to the top three in the new year as they are just three and six points off Regional respectively.