Monksland United confirms new manager for next season

Monksland United FC has announced Tommy Naughton as the club's new first team manager.

Naughton was manager of the Moore United team which won the RDFL Premier Division title in the 2022-2023 season, and he will take over at Monksland next season from Tony O’Sullivan.

Expressing delight over the appointment of Naughton, Monksland United pointed to his "extensive experience" with various teams in the Midlands, including Athlone Town U19s (coach), St Peter's FC ('B' team manager, first team assistant and manager), Tullamore Town (assistant manager), the Irish Defence Forces international team (coach), the Roscommon & District League Oscar Traynor Cup team (assistant manager) and, most recently, Moore United.

"Everyone at the club wishes 'Nacho' the best of luck and we look forward to him starting with the club in July for pre-season training for the 2024-2025 CCFL season," Monksland posted online.

Monksland's title challenge in this season's CCFL Senior Division faded badly over recent weeks, and the Cushla Park outfit currently lie seventh in the nine-team top flight.

However, Monksland Utd was understandably keen to acknowledge the contribution of Tony O’Sullivan, who led the club to the Combined Counties Cup on two occasions.

"Monksland United would like to thank outgoing first team manager Tony O’Sullivan for all his work over the last four seasons. It began in difficult circumstances as we came out of Covid and a period of lockdowns. 'Sully' guided the club to back-to-back Counties Cup titles (2021-2022 and 2022-2023) and runners-up in the league and Paddy Potter Cup in the 2021-2022 season.

"Sully put in a huge amount of work in the background that goes unnoticed to the general public and everyone at Monksland United thanks him for his efforts over the past four years. Sully is taking a step back from management and will be joining the club's committee as we continue to build on work put in over the past few years," the club added.