‘We just keep going, that’s all you can do’

There's a lot involved in running a soccer club these days - and few are better versed on what exactly the challenges are better than John Conaty, secretary of Navan Town Cosmos FC .

He was in attendance at MDL last Thursday evening as his team took on Parkvilla in a local derby. There were the bragging righs up for grabs but also some valuable NEFL Div 2 points. As it turned out nether team ended up with all the plunder on offer. The full on, end-to-end contest ended 2-2. Honours shared. Pride salvaged.

Both managers - Parkvilla's Damien McCoy and his counterpart Colm Gilsenan - had reason to be pleased, and also frustrated, with the way the game finished. Both teams could easily have snatched victory yet they could also have ended up empty handed. One point was something from their exertions on a dry evening at the MDL. To end up with nothing would have been a real downer.

When the contest was over Conaty spoke about the challenges of running a club these days - and right up there at the top of the table was the familiar issue of finance - and it takes a lot to run a football club these days. The rising cost of living affects sports clubs like everyone else.

There are the many formidable expenses for clubs to grapple with from the cost of footballs to the price of a new set of jerseys - and you need a lot of jerseys when you have 18 underage teams (270 players) as well as one senior side. The club also fields three under-age girls teams.

Navan Town Cosmos are one of the more ambitions clubs around - with enterprising plans to develop and grow further. They have two pitches at their base in the Bawn just up the road from the MDL with work going to develop two more.

Ambition is one thing, turning theory into reality is something else and Navan Town Cosmos have managed to do that. They are a club of course that came into existence a few years ago when Navan Cosmos and Navan Town merged. Mergers don't always work, they are full of pitfalls. This one has.

"We are lucky in that we have a good committee," John Conaty said, adding that for the club to meet their financial commitments they need to hold "seven or eight events" with sponsorship also playing a part. It all takes a lot of organisation and effort.

"We've being lucky also to get money from the government sponsored schemes and the national lottery but whatever grant you get you have to match it yourself. We got €180,000 last year but we've had to raise €180,000 ourselves to go with that.

The FAI are not much of a help either to clubs like Navan Town Cosmos - or any other grassroots outfit for that matter. The game's governing body is €60 million plus in debt itself. In 2016 John Delaney arrived down to Navan Town FC to hand over a cheque of a couple of thousand euro to the club. It was something the then FAI chief did throughout with clubs the country - but nobody could have guessed then the financial storm the Association was sailing serenely into.

"We need more help from the FAI now. They did give us help from the processing side of things but moneywise it's a lonely furrow we are ploughing," added Conaty. "We just keep going, that's all you can do." There is another issue confronting clubs - a cashless society. Bucket collections no long reap the rich harvests they once did.

Summer soccer remains one of the burning issues for the local game. Not everyone likes it. Parkvilla manager Damien McCoy, however, is one of those who does. He likes the games taking place in the warm weather and the dry pitches. Yet for a manager like him, charged with the task of getting a team out on the field week by week, there are difficulties that go with the change of season. "Summer soccer is working well to a certain extent but you have players now going on holidays, there's a summer break coming up shortly but it doesn't coincide with your core players going on holidays."

And tactics, the strategy utilised by a team, can have as much impact at grassroots level as they do in the Premier League. At half-time on Thursday Navan Town Cosmos trailed 0-1. It could have been three or four. They did leak a second soon after the break. Something had to be done. "We went to a 3-4-3 and got back into the game. I think we should have won it in the end," added their manager.

Not that he was taking the praise for the turnaround. He knows that you can devise the most innovative, imaginative tactics in the world but it will all count for nothing without the players having the fire in their bellies. The innate hunger to succeed.

"The players got us back into it, not the tactics. It was their character. I can't fault the team's character," he added with a sense of pride. "Character and belief" he suggest can carry any team a long way. Can take anybody a long way.

Manager McCoy has no doubt those qualities saved his team from defeat. That's something for the 'Villa to build on as the summer of soccer on our local playing fields continues to unfold.