Terenure FC

UCFL Div. 3
19 May 2012

Terenure FC 3rds 0 – 3 Glasnaoin 2nds

UCFL Div. 3
23 May 2012

Terenure FC 3rds 1 – 2 Phoenix Athletic

I was gutted to miss our last two games of the season, having to attend a communion on the Saturday and then getting a tooth out on Wednesday, and unfortunately neither game went well. Glasnaoin were playing for a possible 2nd place finish in the first game and from what I’m told they were well deserving of their win. The lads put in a good shift first half and felt a bit unlucky to be 1-0 down but Glas had much more to play for and upped their performance level second half to pull away.

Due to my late defection on Wednesday the lads had only eleven available for a game on one of the warmest evenings so far this year. Once again they put in a tough shift and were rewarded with the lead in the second half through a Paul Whelan strike, unfortunately fatigue set in towards the end and Phoenix were well on top and missed a penalty on the way to the victory.

The punishing schedule of games in the last few weeks really did us no favours as the squad suffered from fatigue and injuries. I can’t remember a season with so many players picking up medium and long term injuries and with other players emigrating and withdrawing from the squad for other reasons it proved to be a real test. Many of the players involved this year were new to the club and hopefully we’ll come back stronger next season, having got to know each other better and recovered from the various injuries that have plagued us.

In a season that lasted 31 games it was player/manager Niall McCall that topped the appearance chart, playing in 27 games, closely followed by Gary Clarke on 26 and Noel O’Brien and Gary Revins on 25. We found goals hard to come by all year and that’s clear from the top scorer charts, Paddy McCauley only played 8 times for us, as he went on to become a major part of the first team squad, but he topped the chart with 9 goals. Graham Maher was our other outstanding goal scorer but his season was devastated by injuries and he only managed 13 appearances with 8 goals in only 10 starts, Noely was third highest with 5 goals. We managed to keep 4 clean sheets, with Niall between the sticks for them all.

Personally it was a strange season, despite missing long chunks with groin and knee injuries I still played 22 games, with 18 starts, and I played 90 minutes more often than in any of my previous seasons with the club, for the first time ever I’ve also gone two full seasons without a goal and 54 competitive games to be precise!

We'll regroup in the summer and come back with plenty of enthsiasm and belief for pre-season. I've a few games to play in the civil service league to keep ticking over and hopefully break my scoring duck, altough missing two sitters in my first game doesn't help the confidence.