New Athlone Town boss Carberry looks forward to challenge

Athlone native Adrian Carberry was appointed as the new head coach of Athlone Town’s senior team last week.

He takes over from Terry Butler who recently departed from his position as manager.
Carberry, who had three spells playing for the club, was a real crowd favourite when Athlone played their home games at St Mel’s Park. And he’s hoping to give Athlone Town supporters something to cheer about next season.
Speaking to the Westmeath Independent, Carberry said he was delighted to get the opportunity to manage his hometown club.
“It’s a great honour to get the opportunity to manage Athlone Town. It’s a fantastic club steeped in tradition and history. In total, I played 11 seasons with Athlone Town and I have great memories with the club. I would love to create new memories for all the loyal Town supporters who have supported the club through thick and thin.”
Carberry, fondly known to Town supporters as ‘Cabsy’ during his playing days, is under no illusion about the challenge that lies ahead.
“We are looking at this as a long term project. I’ll be sitting down and chatting with all the underage managers and we’ll be putting a structure in place to develop home-grown talent. Some wonderful work has already been carried out by the club so we’ll be adding to that in an effort to maximize our talent pool,” he said.
Carberry said the club’s budget “won’t be anywhere near” some other teams and, in that light, he’ll be looking to find local talent and players from surrounding counties. 
“There are some exciting footballers playing locally so we’ll be hoping to get them into the set-up. We have only two months to prepare before the new season kicks off, so we have to hit the ground running. I’ve started the process of talking to last year’s squad so I’ll have a good idea where we stand over the coming weeks. We have to be realistic and cut our cloth to measure. Athlone Town, in my opinion, is a sleeping giant; we have fantastic facilities and our focus is about building for the future now.”
Adrian works as an FAI development officer in Roscommon, but he explained that the FAI didn’t have any concerns in his combining the two roles.
“It wasn’t an issue with the FAI, I spoke with them and they were very supportive. My role as the FAI development officer in Roscommon is to promote and develop underage football in the county. There will be an element of that in my position with Athlone Town too. I’ll be looking at closely at all the local leagues in the midlands and further afield in an attempt to build a solid squad that will be able to complete in the First Division,” he added.
The 2020 First Division season is due to commence on Friday, February 21.