The LOI is the second-youngest league in Europe, and yesterday platformed some of the best of its teenage talent.
Gavin Cooney YEATS WAS AT least in his early sixties when he was writing about this being no country for old men. Nowadays, there are League of Ireland footballers not even in their thirties who are thinking the same.
Substitutes Tommy Lonergan and Alex Nolan, meanwhile, were teenagers at the start of the season, while starting duo Kian Leavy and Conor Carty are both 21. The captain Joe Redmond is only 23, and Pat’s oldest outfield player still on the pitch to hear the final whistle was left-back Anto Breslin. He is a comparatively crepuscular 26.
“I actually wasn’t going to make that change first”, admitted Daly. “When Mark Doyle was down, I was talking to Anto Breslin about what I was going to do. I said it was probably too early for Mason but Anto looked at me like I had 10 heads and said ‘No, it’s not’. I was like ‘You’re right, let’s do it.’
A couple of years ago, Melia sat in a room at St Joseph’s Boys listening to a presentation given by Joe Redmond, who was then at Birmingham and telling the audience of young footballers in front of him what was expected of players at an academy. Now Melia will be learning from Redmond in more direct ways at Pat’s.
“I knew he would take to it like a duck to water and he would be walking out there believing it’s the occasion he is supposed to be in”, said Daly of Curtis. “And it is, to be fair. He is going to have a big career wherever he goes. We will try and convince him tonight to stay on for a few years, we will see what happens with that.
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