Durrus can't wait for next season

BY GER McCARTHY

ARE Durrus the best prepared club to gain promotion to the PremierHiSpecCars.com Premier Division in West Cork League history?

That’s the question Durrus manager Tadgh O’Sullivan laughed off but was happy to answer following his side’s third trophy success of a sensational 2018-19 campaign. 

Not content with winning the WCL Championship Division and Parkway Hotel-Maybury Coaches Cup, the newly promoted club added the WCL Division 1 trophy to a bulging cabinet following a recent 2-0 defeat of Kilbrittain. 

‘We are coming up to the Premier with a target on our backs following the last couple of weeks,’ O’Sullivan said.

‘If someone had told us at the start of the season that Durrus would gain promotion then I would have been absolutely delighted. To achieve that plus adding a couple of cups certainly makes for pleasant reading. 

‘I’m glad the season is over because I couldn’t have taken much more of it! Between my mental fragility and the damage to my liver, I’ve definitely had enough of this season!’

Irrespective of their manager’s current mental and physical state, Durrus will enter next season’s top tier with huge momentum and the majority of the squad that helped deliver success during a memorable campaign. 

‘There are a couple of fellas talking about going off travelling so we might be down one or two when the new season comes around,’ the Durrus manager admitted.

‘We still have a good squad. The positive thing from Durrus’s point of view is that we have always have quality replacements ready to come in whenever anyone was missing. We can afford to lose one or two without being too hurt. There are also a couple of younger players coming through who are capable of stepping up as well.’

O’Sullivan is aware that his club are gaining entry to possibly the strongest West Cork League Premier Division line-up in the last decade. Dunmanway Town, Ballydehob and Drinagh Rangers’ three-way battle for the title coupled with Beamish Cup winners Togher Celtic, Bunratty United Lyre Rovers, Clonakilty AFC and Clonakilty Town’s abilities means the old cliché that there are no easy games in the top flight was never more apt. 

‘We managed to beat two of this year’s three Premier Division title contenders but that doesn’t mean for one second that we will be better than them next season,’ O’Sullivan noted.

‘If we can be mid-table and finish one or two places above relegation, then great. If we can push on and challenge, then I’ll be even more delighted. We are not assuming things will be easy just because we have won three trophies.

‘This group of players want success. You could see it in the way we beat Drinagh in the Parkway Hotel-Maybury Coaches Cup final and with ten men for most of it. All we can do is our best and try and keep ourselves up there. 

‘The people of Durrus have gotten behind this team which is fantastic. It isn’t often that you play Drinagh Rangers in a cup final and have more supporters than them. Hopefully, we can keep the momentum going and give them even more to shout about next season.’