On Friday Stuart Taylor's Limerick played their last game of the Irish season away to Derry City needing a win plus Cork City to lose to secure 6th place. Limerick went into the game having taken 13 points from a possible 18 in their previous 6 games and must have been optimistic. This was the conclusion to Stuarts' first season as a full time manager and Limericks' first season back in the Irish top flight for 19 years.
Limerick with a similar emphasis on youth to Accies fielded a team averaging 20.5 years, half of them teenagers against a Derry City team considerably older and experienced. Trailing a goal to nil at half time, unfortunately the flood gates opened in the second half and Limerick ended up on the end of a 6 - 0 drubbing bringing the curtain down on what otherwise might be described as a successful season.
Stuart took up his position in January this year giving him just less than half the Irish close season to get to know his club and players so securing a seventh slot after so many years out of the top league and doing it with a young squad must be regarded as a positive story. Not surprising that already his name has been linked with vacancies in Scotland even if it was rivals Airdrieonians!
Quoted on the official Limerick site, Stuart has already begun planning for the new season. "We're a club that is always looking ahead and always looking to progress," he said "We're in negotiations with the players that we want to keep at the club. We have one player tied up from outside .... and we have another couple that we have been talking to.." I hope to get back over next season to see how things are developing and if his team progresses I expect Stuart to be gracing our touchlines or possibly even the english leagues.
This blog is about Hamilton Academical Football Club - the Accies.
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