Supporters
- Saturday November 13th, 2010 @ 16:11
ST PAT’S FANS TEAM MAKES SOLID PROGRESS
The Saints season may have finished but the St Patrick's Athletic Supporters' team are well up and running in their own league season.
The team's treasurer and assistant manager Noel Cleary took time out to talk to Damien Byrne from stpatsfc.com and to give us an update on the team's progress:
How was the fans team set up?
“The initial Pat's fans team was set up 2 or 3 years ago by Niall Hannigan and they played friendlies against Polish and Romanian football fans teams, as well as other Airtricity League fans' teams.
He got them into the Night Owls League last year and they reached the cup final. In May the team captain John Doyle approached me and asked about joining the Leinster Senior League. We then had meetings with the club and they gave us the rights to use the club's name.
We are sponsored by McDowell's and our manager is John Mahon. Alan Farrell and I are the assistants. That's how we got started.”
What kind of support did the Supporters team receive from the club?
“The club were very good to us in helping us get the whole thing underway. They gave us a set of rules to adhere, a sort of code of conduct for all the players and they also helped us out with a set of gear.
They put the team on their Public Liability insurance, which was a great help financially. Without the club we probably would have needed around €1500 which would have made it much more difficult to set up the team.”
Is there much interest among supporters in the team?
“Well when we begun we had six or seven fans who went to the games, but at the last game against the league leaders we had around 25 – 30 fans, which was a good attendance.
We have 6 or 7 fans of the club on the team and the captain
John Doyle generally looks after getting players. We have a squad of 24 players signed for the season which is very good. We also have a Facebook site which is Patricks Sfc.”
How often does the team train and play?
“Well we train twice a week, Mondays in the BLCO in Ballyfermot and Wednesdays in Coldcutt. We play our home games at 11.00am in the CIE Grounds in Inchicore. Some of the away teams have 2.30pm kick offs but we generally stick to 11.00am.”
How is the league campaign going so far?
“We are currently fourth in the Leinster Senior League Division 3a.
We have three games in hand over the league leaders and if we win them all we will go three points clear, so things are going well.”
The supporter's team does offer Saints' fans something within the club to support in the off season. The chairman, Garett Moore, the secretary Ray Connolly and the management team of John Mahon, Noel Cleary and Alan Farrell have worked tremendously hard to give the supporter's team a solid foundation.
Of course ongoing and support effort is needed so anyone who can help should contact the team.
The next game for the St Patrick's Athletic Supporters' team is this Sunday in the CIE Grounds, Inchicore against Palmerstown United.
