Tracy pays tribute to Scully as Limerick FC look to the big time

Limerick FC’s Shane Tracy paid tribute to the work of manager Pat Scully and his backroom staff after the Blues secured a long-awaited promotion to the Premier Division.

Tracy was one of Scully’s first signings for Limerick in 2009 and he thanked the manager for showing faith in him at a time when he was plagued with injury.

“Pat signed me when I was going through a bad spell in my career. I got injured up in Galway and I was looking for a club. He took a chance on me and I can’t thank him enough for that,” said Tracy.

“Pat and the backroom staff are great and I can’t speak highly enough of them. They’ve done everything for us and they’ve been brilliant.”

The 24-year-old, who scored ten goals in the league for the Blues en route to promotion, declared it as the highlight of his career to date.

“It’s amazing. This is without a doubt the best night of my career. We’ve worked so hard over the past four or five years and some of us have been here through all that. The club has been through a lot in that time so to see all the fans here, it’s unbelievable. I can’t describe how good it is.”

Another prolific goalscorer for Limerick in their successful bid to return to the Premier Division was Rory Gaffney, who is now relishing the thought of squaring up to the country’s most famous clubs.

The Blues already got a taste of top flight opposition this year, having played twice against Shamrock Rovers in cup competitions, and Gaffney is eagerly awaiting trips to other illustrious opponents.

“It will be great to go and play the best teams in Ireland. We already went to Tallaght twice this year and we gave Rovers two good games. I can’t wait to go away and play at good grounds against the best teams.”

The midfielder is in no doubt that Limerick’s success was fully merited, with the team showing enough consistency to come through a challenging seven-month league schedule as champions.

“It was a tough league. Every game we played was a tough game so it’s great to win the league because that was our goal. The Manchester City friendly and the cup runs were nice but what we wanted to do was win the league.

“We definitely deserve it. We were the best team and in a league the best team always comes out on top.”