O’Donoghue full of pride following career with Limerick

Last week, Current Regional United manager Shane O’Donoghue reflected on his relatively long career in the League of Ireland from the late 1990’s until 2005. The average lifespan of a league of Ireland footballer isn’t particularly long so at least seven years service to his hometown club almost made the left winger a veteran.

When asked about his feelings about his time with the club, O’Donoghue stated:

“Obviously I look back with a lot of pride to have played for Limerick. The whole overriding feeling would probably be enjoyment and pride. I got to play with so many good players and I look back on it with great fondness.”

O’Donoghue was part of a core group which kept the show on the road for Limerick during tough financial times in the late 90’s and early noughties but he doesn’t accept credit as it was an honour to play for the city.

“Yeah we never really saw it like that. I guess we were fortunate in that the club were struggling off the field. Overnight the club went from having an experienced squad to one which was very young. We just got on with playing football. We just enjoyed playing together and it was never a case of us flying the flag for senior soccer in Limerick. We could never really control what was going on off the pitch. You would hear stories and the rumour mill would be in overdrive but it never really affected us and it was just a case of enjoying playing football with a great bunch of lads.”

In 2003, Shane played a big role in helping Mike Kerley’s Limerick side reach the 2003 promotion/relegation playoff against Derry City. Considering the club were playing out of Pike Rovers at the time with a very young playing squad, this was no mean feat. He feels they came up against a Derry side who should never have been in the play off.

“We did have a very good squad that year. The age profile of that team was so young. there wouldn’t have been many players in the starting team against Derry who would have been over the age of 25. It was a brilliant young team. We were unfortunate in that we had to play Derry in the playoff.

“I don’t know how they were in the playoff looking back at the team they had. If we had played another team maybe it would have been different. We had played well enough down here in the first leg and were unlucky. Going away to Derry even though we were confident in the team we had, they battered us up there 4-0. Other clubs came in and took a few of the squad after that. It was a big demand on people.”

In 2002, Limerick won the league cup. Having spoken to many of Shane’s ex teammates before, it is clear that it meant as much to the Regional man as it did to the rest of the squad. “Yeah that was a great season even though the league table never lies and we had finished bottom.

The shining light was the league cup win. We beat Galway and people were thinking that that was a little bit of a shock but we went down to Cork and to beat them in Turners Cross with the squad and team that they had was superb. Derek McCarthy scored a bit against the run of play. I remember coming up the road with one of my best friends even to this day in Paul Finucane and the two of us were just looking at eachother laughing at how we had come away from Turners Cross having beaten Cork.

Having shocked Cork to reach the semi final unexpectedly, Limerick received their first home draw against Dublin giants Shamrock Rovers. It was played on a Wednesday afternoon and it was a wet and windy day as the winger recalls.

“We had Shamrock Rovers at home and it was a disgustingly horrible day in Limerick. We were just going into that game with no fear. A lot of the guys would have come up together through the underage ranks at the club. I remember playing on the right side of midfield and there was an Irish under 21 international at left back.

“Before the game Pat Purcell said to me not to worry and we ended up all having really good games. 1-0 didn’t flatter us in the end cause Jimmy didn’t have too much to do. Brian Donnellan popped up at the back post with a cracking goal. I remember coming in afterwards and the reception e we got from the people watching was great and the hair stood up the back of your neck.”

O’Donoghue has fond memories of the whole build up to the second leg of the final against Derry.

“I just remember the camaraderie and the buzz on the bus up to Derry. Everyone was just enjoying the experience because none of us had been there before and we didn’t know how to act or how we should act. I remember doing the warm up and flares were going off and drums were being hit. You could barely hear yourself talk. The quality wasn’t really on show during the game.

“It went to extra time and we weren’t really sure about the away goals rule. I had to come off injured as I had a dead leg and Noel really wanted me to stay on but I was concerned that I would give something away. The boys steeped up and stuck away the penalties It’s something that no one can ever take away from that group of players. “