LIMERICK MANAGER TOMMY Barrett says a lack of squad depth has been an issue after seeing his side lose 2-1 to St Pat’s and slip further into relegation trouble.

The embattled club have been dogged by financial issues recently, and Barrett believes the subsequent release of several first-team players has had a considerable impact on his team.

A lack of resources mean Limerick have been forced to rely heavily on youth of late, with two U19s starting, four on the bench and a 20-year-old goalkeeper all included as part of the matchday squad last Friday at Richmond Park.

“They’re in a different league to us financially, as most teams are at the moment,” Barrett said. “Pat’s can bring on the likes of Conan Byrne. We’ve a lot of 19s on the bench. Danny Morrissey, Shane Tracy and Shaun Kelly are experienced players, but did it help not having a game [last week]? I’m not so sure — at this time of year, you want a game every week.”

Barrett cited “inexperience” as another factor in the defeat. Having been the better side in the first half and gone ahead, they could not finish their opponents off, with a late brace from substitute Byrne turning the game on its head.

The manager revealed that youngster Killian Brouder, who will be disappointed with the second goal after Byrne was left unmarked, had been “struggling” with an injury and was close to be taken off.

“He said that he was okay to continue, but that’s something that will happen with 19-year-old centre-halves — lose a bit of concentration, learn from it and hopefully get better.”

Barrett played down suggestions that Limerick’s well-documented off-the-field problems had a significant impact on the performance, but added: “Obviously, we were flagging a bit towards the end, but if we had a couple of extra days training, they might have been a bit sharper, but in general, they’ve been really good.”

On the training situation, he added: “A few of the lads live locally and they said they couldn’t travel, there were three or four of them that couldn’t train. On the Saturday and Sunday, we didn’t train, because we didn’t want to upset the camp anymore by calling them in training if lads were going to miss it, so we had to manage that situation.

“On the Monday morning, they didn’t train and on Tuesday, they trained for 45 minutes, because they had the meeting with the union.”

Their financial woes meant Limerick were effectively forced to release a number of senior players last month, including Conor Clifford and Henry Cameron.

“We would have had one of the lower budgets as it was. We halved that again by releasing the higher earners. We hope that we can pay it. Pat and the board are trying their best to get some money in and get some investment. Hopefully, we can get bigger crowds in the Markets Field. We’re playing really well — obviously not getting the results, but we’re entertaining anyway.”

Additional reporting by Dave Donnelly

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