Clare man captains Limerick FC to honours

LIMERICK FC were crowned First Division champions of the Airtricity League last weekend, captained by Shannon’s Pat Purcell.

It was the best moment of his career to date, Purcell acknowledged. “I’ve been lucky enough to win an FAI junior medal with Fairview and a League Cup with Limerick but winning the first division is by far the most significant thing I’ve done in my football career and I’m absolutely delighted and proud to have done it.”

As a schoolboy he played with Park Rangers and is now a firm fixture in the Limerick defence.

“All in all I’ve played with them for nine seasons. I’m one of the older lads anyway. For definite!”
Winning the division came after a few seasons of steady improvement.

“We’ve been building towards this for the last few years to be honest and I think with the manager we’ve had there’s been a progression each year for the last number of years and we got some new players in this year.

“It was one of those seasons when it was time to do it. I think the players applied themselves and it worked well on the management side as well.”

Limerick finished the season four points ahead of the pack and Purcell says the players were confident all through the season.

“We lost to Waterford a few times and there were question marks, but we were strong favourites at the very start and I think we always believed that we were going to do it.

“There were a few small blips along the way and it was the last six or seven weeks before we really took a firm grip on the trophy and got over the line.”

The centre-half was particularly proud of Limerick’s strong defensive record.

“We kept 14 clean sheets, we conceded the least amount of goals and as a defender myself, it was a massive plus from my perspective. I just think that the players didn’t really panic when it was put up to us, I think we finished three points off what we had last year, but there were five less games.”

The season was also memorable for the visit of Manchester City, even if it was sandwiched between a number of important domestic fixtures.

“It was a massive, massive success, a massive highlight. The only problem was we had a game the following day, a cup game against Shamrock Rovers. we had three games in four days so we couldn’t savour it as much as we would have liked.”

Purcell is looking forward to playing in the top flight and is thrilled that the club is now heading in the right direction.

“Limerick haven’t been in the Premier Division for nearly 20 years. I had a taste of being in the Premier Division with Waterford, but this is with my local club and it’s on an upward curve, so to be part of it at this time is fantastic.

“I’ve been there through the dark days, when we had no money, no support, literally nothing, and to have come from where we were then to where we are now has been a massive honour and there’s great excitement about the place.”