This guest post by Rory Macbeth is one of a series written by sports management students in the Limerick Institute of Technology.
I would place my Personal Best in the 2013-2014 football season when I played for my local teams Newmarket A and B. These are a premier division side in the Clare League.
I started the season playing for the "B" side as I had to work my way up the "A" standard. The first match of the season was against Lifford, at this point I was with the "B" team. As the match progressed I was playing on the right side of midfield. After about 25 minutes we scored two goals. The match was one-sided so it was easy to have fun with the ball. At half time we were leading 4-0. The second half commenced and immediately from kick off my teammate played a lofted ball over the top and I went on to finish. We won the match 6-1.
After about eight games played with the "B" team I had six goals and five assists. The manager of the "A" team called me up to train with them over my great form. The "A" team had a League Cup match against Bunratty Cratloe who were in the third division. The Game finished 9-0 to us. I grabbed a hat trick from this game--two penalties and a header. This brought my goal tally to nine goals.
As I continued to play well with both the A and B team my performances on the pitch gave me more confidence. However we came up against and tough opposition in Kilrush Ranger. We lost to 5-2 to Kilrush. I picked up a goal in that game but after that we went on to lose the next three games. The scores were 3-2, 4-2 and 3-2 and I had scored 3 goals during those results.
The Cup games commenced again and we were up against a tough side--Turnpike Rovers--but on the day we won 4-1--two goals from myself. The following week was the quarter final against Connolly Celtic. We won 5-0. I got another two goals in this game. We didn't win the cup; we were knocked out by the Burren.
After this I went on to score six more league goals for the "B" team which brought my tally to 23 and along with the eight goals for the "A" team, my total tally was 31. It was quite a remarkable season. We didn't win any silverware but it was a good season for me.
[Rory Macbeth is completing a Business Degree with Sports Management in the Limerick Institute of Technology.]
