St Patrick’s Athletic U-19’s reached the league final just 12 months on from the clubs U-17’s winning their league, only to lose 1-0 to a very good Bohemians side last Wednesday night at Dalymount Park.
As the season comes to an end St Pats manager Garrett Dodrill spoke to us about that game, and the season overall as his side just fell short at the final hurdle.
He said, “It's been a decent season all round. Happy to get to the final but I felt we were unlucky to lose on the night as we created more chances but that's football. Congrats to Bohs who won on the night.”
“We had some good chances to score on the night from Mick Cregan and Jason Grouse. Their keeper has made two superb saves during the game and we didn't get that bit of luck we needed. We were a bit sluggish on the night but it was always going to be an uphill battle being forced to play 2 games in 5 days, while Bohs had 10 days to prepare.”
Dodrill was disappointed with having such a short time period between the semi-final and final and thinks that the powers that be should take a close look at it in future, “I think there needs to be a re-think to the scheduling of games as we played 3 games in 39 days at the business end of season, with 2 of those coming inside 5 days. As coaches we cover off periodisation as part of coaching courses and then 3 of our final 4 games are moved on us which makes it harder to plan and prepare correctly.”
As for the players and their development as footballers Dodrill said, “From a development point of view the players have come on dramatically this season. A lot of them stepped up from the successful U-17’s last season and it was a bit of a shock for the first few months, as the pace and intensity of U-19’s football is much higher than what they were used to.”
His squad this season was very young, but by reaching the final means that they’ve got tremendous experience to build on for next season, “13 of the squad are available again next season and 3 of those can play again the following season. Aidan Keena also moved to Hearts over the summer which was super for him and the club. Despite that I think he still finished top scorer in the U-19’s section, which is a remarkable achievement as he missed the last 8 games of the season.”
With the season’s success many players went in to represent their country, something Dodrill can take great pride in. He said, “We had players involved with the Irish underage set ups at both U-17 and U-19 levels and a number of players made their debuts for the St Pats first team and were involved in squads. Most notable was Jamie Lennon who scored on his debut in the cup and captained the first team in the following round.”
“Hopefully now they can all kick on and continue to improve, including the 6 lads who are too old play U-19’s next season. I've no doubt, similar to last season with our players that were too old, that these will go on and continue to play in the league as all 6 are top players who would improve any team.”
Photo Credit: St Patrick's Athletic
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