MSL soccer: Patrick O'Donoghue on travelling to the Uefa Regions Cup with Ireland team

Castleview’s Patrick O’Donoghue is one of nine Munster Senior League players travelling to Switzerland to represent Ireland in the Uefa Regions Cup qualifiers.

The Munster squad comprises players from leagues in Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford and O’Donoghue will be joined by fellow MSL players, Ringmahon quintet Nathan Broderick, Christopher McCarthy, Adam Delurey, Jamie O’Sullivan, and Roy Kenny along with Rockmount duo Eoghan and Cian Murphy, and UCC’s Ewan Lee.

Ringmahon Rangers' Jack Cairns and UCC's Ewan Lee are on standby.

Munster earned the right to represent Ireland when they won the inter-provincial series in Sligo earlier this year, winning all three of their games against Leinster, Connacht, and Ulster.

O’Donoghue and Kenny weren’t part of the squad in Sligo, but team manager Jason Purcell had indicated during the summer that the window of opportunity remained open for players to break their way into the squad.

O’Donoghue has been one of the most consistent players in the Munster Senior League for the past 10 years or so, and while Castleview have played a lot of those years in the first division, the talented 28-year-old’s services were always in demand by the top clubs.

Still, he was taken aback by his call-up.

“I wasn’t involved in Sligo, but in June the club got a message to say that I was invited to a training session with the squad in Tipperary. Two or three others who weren't involved in Sligo were also invited, I didn’t really know much about the set-up,” O’Donoghue explained.

“It was certainly a surprise, a very good surprise. 

"I had never been involved with any Cork underage teams growing up, or the Michael Ward sides, so it was a totally new experience for me.”

For the remainder of the summer O’Donoghue remained in Purcell’s plans as the team built towards a warm-up weekend in Reading; part of the preparations for next week’s tournament.

“We trained every two weeks I think; we went to Waterford and Tipperary, and we also trained at Turner’s Cross.

O’Donoghue was named in the squad for the trip to Reading where they played two high intensity games against Reading’s U21 team and Watford’s U23 side, which, he said, were valuable preparation for next week.

“We played against two really good teams in Reading. The standard was high, and we didn’t see a lot of the ball at times, but the experience was fantastic, playing on excellent pitches and playing in a tournament setting.”

When the team returned home, their preparations went up a notch with four testing challenge games, with O’Donoghue playing in all four.

“When we came back we played against Cork City, Treaty United, Kerry, and the Waterford Oscar team.

“I played in all four games, I came on against City and against Treaty. I scored in the Treaty game and then started against Kerry.”

Munster ended their preparations with a training session at Turner’s Cross last Saturday and will fly to Switzerland on Saturday morning before playing their first game on Monday against the Georgia representatives.

O’Donoghue says there is a good spirit in the camp and while he wasn’t familiar with many of the players when he first joined the squad, he believes there’s a real togetherness there now.

“There are nine Cork players going – that’s nearly half the squad — and I know all of them well enough, but I’ve got to know the lads from the other leagues in the last couple of months, and there is a good team spirit there.“

The players had a free weekend with their clubs before Saturday’s trip and O’Donoghue will be boarding the plane on a high note having scored twice in Castleview’s 4-0 win over Leeside United in their most recent outing, and there is no doubting his passion for the northside club, having played with them since he first kicked a ball.

He was part of a very successful youth team that won the FAI Youth Cup and were runners-up in the Munster Youth Cup the same year.

It was during his U19 season that he made his senior debut, and he’s played with them ever since, though it’s not that he hasn’t been in demand at other clubs, but he spurned all approaches — a testament to his ability and his love of his club.

“I’ve been with Castleview since I was five years old and I’ve never played with anyone else, though I had the chance to go to Cork City, but I wanted to stay with Castleview.”

“I have had offers to join other clubs, every season really, but every time I was asked, I knew in my head that I wouldn’t be leaving.

“I’ve been with them all my life and there are great people involved with the club and they have always been very good to me.”

Castleview were relegated from the premier division two seasons ago and failed to return at the first attempt, while this season hasn’t brought the best of starts.

O’Donoghue played a key role in Castleview winning the first division title in 2022, but picked up a serious injury that sidelined him for a couple of months towards the end of the season.

“I suffered a collapsed lung after coming together with the goalkeeper in a game against Avondale in February of that season,” O’Donoghue recalls.

“They said I would be out for four months, but I came back two months earlier than I should have really.”

At that time Castleview were heading back to the first division and O’Donoghue’s return couldn’t help stop the slide.

There was danger of a second successive relegation last season, but the return to the helm of Patsy Freyne and Ger Rennie helped get them out of trouble.

“We didn’t have a good start to last season. In fact, we weren’t great throughout, and it looked like we could be relegated, but then Patsy and Ger came in towards the end of the season and turned it around.

“Patsy is one of the best managers around and we won three and drew one of our last four games and we stayed up.”

The recent win over Leeside saw them climb out of the relegation places and with games in hand on all of their rivals, they are poised to make a push up the table.

 For next week though, O’Donoghue’s focus will be on helping Munster qualify for the Regions Cup finals.