Buncrana native William O'Connor eyes promotion with UCD

UCD manager and Buncrana native William O’Connor admits that he has taken great learnings out of his first full season as a manager of a League of Ireland team, and hopes his side goes one step further this Thursday on their road to promotion.  

The Students, who finished second in the League of Ireland First Division on 56 points, will travel to fifth-place side Bray Wanderers for their first semi-final leg of the play-offs.  

In what has been a topsy-turvy league, where almost all teams were taken points from each other, O’Connor admits that it was a great season for his young side to build and gain experience, something he admits he’s done along the way too.  

“It’s been a successful year in that we’ve finished second because some wouldn’t have thought we could even get to the play-offs, but thankfully we have,” O’Connor told Donegal Live.  

“We’ve had a massive turnover in players since the start of the new cycle with 10 new players who have never played League of Ireland football before, they’ve come in and have done great.  

“So, it’s a full new group and for those boys to come out and finish second in a really tough league is great, but we have to move on now really quickly to the play-offs.  

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“This is like a new cup competition and we know it’s going to be really difficult, but we’ll give it our best shot and see where it takes us.”  

While UCD hasn’t won a League of Ireland match since September 20, O’Connor admits that by that stage he already knew his side was going to be in the play-offs and the ambition was for his side to manage their bodies and prepare for this week.  

That is also just one of the learnings that the new League of Ireland manager has taken away from his debut season.  

“There’s a lot that I’ve learned, whether that be the tactical side, the man management side, the playing, the organisation, it’s all new,” he said.   

“Obviously, I’ve managed teams before but this is on a different level, but the group of players that I have are great players and are quite easy to manage.  

“The main thing we’re trying to do is get that consistency week after week, and in most of the games we played this year, I think we’ve been very good, but just trying to iron out the dirty side of the game has been the main improvement since the start of the season from myself as a coach, and the players.  

“We weren’t too concerned about not making the play-off towards the end of the season. I think we knew we were going to make it, albeit it was a really tight league this year. From two months out, we probably knew we were in the play-off so it was just about managing the players and getting everything ready for this week.”  

Having spent several seasons at Finn Harps as a coach, O’Connor notes that it was upsetting for Darren Murphy’s side to not still be in with a shot of getting promoted, considering the vastly improved season they’ve had this year.  

But O’Connor admits that they have no doubt gone above and beyond what many were expecting, and believes if they keep improving then they will no doubt will be in with a shout of promotion next season.  

“It was disappointing to see them miss out on the play-offs, especially with the incredible job that Darren has done,” he said. “I think there’s been massive improvements in the way the team has been playing.  

“Darren has brought through an awful lot of young players and no doubt they probably feel that they’ve done better than expected, it was just unfortunate that they didn’t make it to the play-offs but no doubt they have improved and if they improve again next season, then they’ll probably make the play-offs.”