Ian Bermingham - "We've got to work hard until the end of the season. We're starting from scratch now."

Every player or fan from a club no matter how big or small wants to be in the mix for titles and silverware as the business end of the season approaches. Even the excitement of a run for a European place can give everyone attached to a club such a lift and a boost as the games are ticked off and the standings start to take shape.

With just three games left in the league season and the recent departure of their manager Liam Buckley after six years at the club it has been a disappointing season and another season of what if's for Inchicore side St. Patrick's Athletic. 

The Saints had to watch Dundalk celebrate winning the league title on Friday night – Pat Hoban's late equaliser getting the Lilywhites over the line in the title race.

Losing to Shelbourne on penalties in the Leinster Senior Cup final, ensured it would be another season without any silverware for the Dublin club and also brought to an end a disappointing few weeks for the club with well-respected manager Liam Buckley calling time on his reign at St. Pats.

Ger O’Brien has taken over as caretaker manager until the end of the current season with Martin Doyle and Darius Kierans stepping up from the Under-19’s to help out for the last few weeks.

“I found out when everybody else found out. It was a sad day for us all.” reflected Ian Bermingham about the mangerial change when extratime.ie caught up with the player recently.

“We've had some great times with Liam over the past few years – we won a lot of trophies and it was a sad day for us to see that he was gone. But that's football, isn't it? We've all got to move on now and look to the future. 

“We owe him a lot. He's been great for me. The style of football he plays is a big factor in what we've achieved over the years. He plays an attacking style of football and we won a lot of trophies. It is sad to see him go. 

“There'd be a lot of Pats fans around my area. It's a good club to be at. There are good plans there. If you look at the esteem he's held in with the fans, if you look at Twitter, the one word that keeps getting bandied about is 'legend.'

"He'll be remembered fondly by St Pats fans. We'll move on and he'll move on. I'm sure he'll get a new job and whatever he does next I wish him all the best.”



Cup finals and title run in’s may seem quite a distance away for St. Pats at the moment but fan favourite and club captain Ian Bermingham is already feeling positive ahead of the 2019 season and sees plenty of reasons within the club itself for the fans and players to share their positivity.

“We were right up there for a while. It was going to be a long shot to get Europe but we still had hope we were going to get it. We lost eight games in a row during the season and that killed our chances. If we'd won a couple of games in there, we would have been right up there. 

“The inconsistency killed us. We've got to work hard until the end of the season and try to impress the new manager. We're starting from scratch now. "

There are lads out contract at the end of the season and they're going to be playing for a new contract with St Pat's or someone else. It's a big few weeks and we've got to go and perform.”