Spillane calls for more consistency from Coonagh

Coonagh United manager John Spillane is currently overseeing the club’s first season in the top flight of the Limerick District League following three promotions in a row.

Coonagh are fourth from bottom and two points above the relegation zone. The club had a welcome distraction on Sunday when they travelled to Pearse Stadium and beat illustrious opponents Janesboro in a penalty shoot-out following a 1-1 draw.

Spillane was happy to go through against a strong side and felt his team were thoroughly deserving of the win.

“It was a great day’s work by us in a really tough game. It went all the way to extra-time and penalties and we took the lead and had a very good first half.

We knew in the second half that Janesboro would come at us and they did. The had a very good second half and that was what took us to extra-time and penalties.”

Just two seasons ago, Coonagh were plying their trade in Division 1B and managed to reach the last 32 of the FAI Junior Cup in a surprising turn of events. Many of that season’s squad are still on the books and Spillane is hopeful of another cup run.

“We will see what the draw has in store for us. We had a great run two years ago and made the last 32. There is something special about playing teams in different leagues.

It’s a day out for everybody and it’s great for team bonding. Heading off on the bus and coming back with a win from those games brings a really good feeling. We will see what happens as there are a lot of good sides left in the competition.”

Spillane bemoaned the injury crisis his side are currently victims of and would like to gain positive results against the teams around them to pull away from the relegation area.

“We knew it was going to be tough. There or thereabouts it is where we thought we would be. The sequence of fixtures is very important and we have had some tough away games against the top three teams; Pike, Ballynanty and Fairview.

We have only played four league games at home. At this stage we are in a dogfight with the bottom four. Being realistic, it was probably always going to go that way. “

“We lost out to Nenagh and we feel we shouldn’t have lost it at home. We lost out to Kilmallock having been 2-0 up and produced a very disappointing second half performance and we drew with Prospect. They are the teams around us and we have dropped points all over the place against them.

We have picked up the points against teams above us. There is a lot football to be played. Hopefully we can stay injury free which has been a problem for us. We have had a lot of long term injuries hitting us which has been a factor.”

Coonagh have had no problems in front of goal in their maiden season at this level but have the worst defensive record in the league, conceding a huge tally of 37 goals in ten games, an average of three goals a game. Spillane is desperate to improve that record and feels it is necessary if the team is to stay in the division.

“We have to improve that. We thought we would get to the half way point in the original set-up for the season that we would be on either 9 or 12 points at the half way stage.

That isn’t going to happen as we have only one game left and we are only on six points. Its very tricky for us at the moment.”

It has been well documented that the Limerick District League reverted back to it’s original format of 22 games and every team facing each other home and away.

The LDLC had toyed with the idea of splitting the league into a top and bottom six after the first round of games. Spillane feels that the decision to change the format was rushed but once the decision was made, it should have remained in place for the season.

“I don’t think it was properly debated before it was done and changing the set-up once the league has started is never a good idea. But it is the same for everybody as you play each other home and away.

We haven’t played many home games and in the original set-up, there was a bit of complaining about that. Some teams were getting seven away games and four at home.

That wasn’t fair. I think the principle of it needs to be looked at because I am of the view that there are two standards in the division. The top teams are able to recruit in high-quality players with serious League of Ireland experience. That’s very formidable and teams like ourselves are a long way from that.