Limerick fearful of cost of drop into abyss

Defeat in tonight’s SSE Airtricity League Promotion/Relegation play-off final second leg and relegation to the First Division would be a disaster for Limerick FC and could see all the good work carried out over recent years unravel in an instant.

Limerick hold a slender lead over Finn Harps going into the second leg thanks to Shaun Kelly’s strike at the Markets Field on Monday night. But tonight’s game will very much have a cup final feel about it with anything possible. Limerick’s self-styled ‘Great Escape’ is still on but if that route is finally blocked off by Harps then it will be back to the drawing board in the wasteland that is the First Division. That’s a place the club and its fans don’t want to see again.

The memories of a barren period for the club, played out before low crowds at Hogan Park, along with spells playing at Jackman Park and a season-long stay at Pike Rovers’ ground, are not ones that Limerick football people look back at with fondness. Money was usually in short supply with the club sometimes hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons – on one occasion at Hogan Park brush handles were used when the corner flags couldn’t be located. Every year seemed to bring rumours of potential new investors with big plans but it wasn’t until the arrival of current chairman Pat O’Sullivan that fans genuinely felt the good times could return.