Cobh Ramblers players will sweat blood for the jersey as Henderson's charges get set for promotion battle

By Gerard Mulreaney (@gerardmulreaney)

Following consecutive top 3 finishes, Cobh Ramblers head into the 2018 season with hopes of reaching the playoffs at the end of the season. That’s according to their manager Stephen Henderson.

After 3 Premier Division teams were relegated at the end of last season, due to both leagues going to 10-team Divisions, the First Division promotion race will be extremely competitive. Most other teams will probably have much larger budgets than Cobh, but Henderson feels his squad are talented enough to make a run for one of the playoff places. He told us, “It will be a fantastic achievement from a fantastic group of honest hardworking talented players if we made the playoffs. The budgets we are up against blow us out of the water.”

Cobh kick-off this season’s campaign with a long away trip to the City Calling Stadium to face Neale Fenn’s Longford Town, and Stephen and his charges are looking forward to getting started. He said, “Yes. It’s a long off season so you’re always chomping at the bit to get back . We’ve got a tough start with longford being one of the favourites, and rightly so. However, we are not bad ourselves so it should be a decent game of football ball. The lads are ready to go. Pre-season has been excellent.”

Henderson expanded further, “Eoin Fehily done an excellent job regarding our strength and conditioning, while Stuart and Decky have been excellent on the football side as you would expect. Kavs has the keepers in great shape and Bar has watched nearly all our opponents, and his information will be key to our success this season. Orla has made sure any knocks were dealt with quickly and efficiently. We had a couple of late arrivals who are bit behind the others fitness wise but they are catching up so it’s all systems go. Craig Donnellan is recovering well from his cruciate operation so we expect him back around June hopefully.”

Cobh have made lots of new additions to last season’s squad as Henderson outlines, “John Dinneen, Jack Lynch, Anthony McAlavey, Adam O’Sullivan and Denzil Fernandez have come into the squad while Dave Hurley and Peter Callanan have arrived from U-19s and Jaze Kabia and Bennon Whitmarsh Obrien have come in from our 17s.”

When asked about the expectations this season Henderson did his best to play them down, “There are no expectations on us. Relegated clubs from Premier have very strong budgets as do the likes of Longford, Shels and Cabo. UCD are always very strong so I would imagine the only expectations will come from within our own group and that’s fine.”

Cobh have also made headlines today with the announcement of a new club sponsor, with Fota Island Resort coming on board (players pictured above at the launch earlier today). Henderson was thrilled with the announcement, “Yes it is fantastic that Fota have shown great faith in us. They are a huge organization and one we are thrilled to be a partner of. It’s a testament to the incredible work been done over the last few seasons. 

He also pleaded with football fans in Cobh and the surrounding areas to come and have a look at his side play, they might very well be surprised, “Please come out in big numbers and support the lads. The club will be facilitating nearly 100 players through the different age groups, so your support for the senior team will help us finance the infrastructure needed to improve and facilitate all our teams. On top of that we will sweat blood for the jersey, and we can also play a bit as well.”

Cobh take on Neale Fenn’s Longford Town this Saturday with a 7.30 kick-of at City Calling Stadium.

Picture Credit: Cobh Ramblers FC