Powerstown FC hope to take advantage of having their own ground for the season ahead

Some of the members of Powerstown FC training at their home ground in the former Redmondstown grounds

placeholder image — Some of the members of Powerstown FC training at their home ground in the former Redmondstown grounds

The newest club in soccer’s Tipperary Southern and District League (TSDL), Powerstown FC, are looking forward to the season ahead having secured a home ground.

Powerstown FC was formed last year and entered Division 3 of the league last season to play in the league for the first time.

It was a club that was formed from scratch and they performed reasonably well last season as newcomers to the league, despite the disadvantage of having to play some of their home fixtures away from home.

Powerstown FC were very grateful to Clonmel Celtic, Clonmel Town and to Jim Walker of Tusla at Ferryhouse for allowing them the use of the pitches last season for training and matches.

On some occasions, however, the pitches were unavailable because they were needed by the clubs and as a result Powerstown had to forfeit home advantage and travel to take on their opponents away from home. Now they can look forward to playing all their home games on the grounds leased to them by Medite, and which were formerly the grounds used by Redmondstown FC.

Having got off to a great start to the league with a victory away from home last weekend against Kilsheelan, they take on Burncourt FC in their first home game on Sunday.

The new pitch was used for one game at the tail end of last season but a lot of work has gone into the ground to get it ready for the new season.

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“The players, their families and friends helped out getting the pitch into good shape for the new season ahead. They put in a huge amount of work to get it ready. We are all excited about having the new pitch available,” said James Brennan, who started up the club with friends Brian Quirke and James O’Brien.

“We were very happy with how we performed last season when we finished sixth out of eleven teams. It was a solid showing and we hope to do better this season. Playing all our home games at our new pitch will be a big help,” said James Brennan.

James, who has just finished a degree in Sports Science in WIT, said having their own pitch now for training and games will make a big difference to the club this season.

James did his internship with Shamrock Rovers and does work with Cork City as an analyst. He is going to start a Masters in Performance Analysis in Carlow in September.