The youth club manager who coached tragic teen Josh Dunne said his team fell apart after the talented young footballer’s killing.
Mark Tierney, former manager at St. Kevin’s Boys, believes the 16-year-old from Ballymun in North Dublin was destined for “great things on the pitch”.
Josh died after he was stabbed during a row in East Wall on 26 January 2021.
Delivery cyclist George Bento, 36, originally from Brazil, was found not guilty of his murder after a lengthy trial in the Central Criminal Court.
Josh’s former manager paid tribute to the gifted youngster as his pals came together to play a memorial match in his honour yesterday.
Mark said Josh would have been training on the night he died only for Covid restrictions and his death left his coaches and teammates “shattered”.
He told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “We held a memorial match against St Kevin’s for Josh six weeks after he died.
“A year previous we had won the cup against them, and Josh was brilliant on the pitch that day, like he always was.
“But the players were struggling at that stage. We were back training, we played some games, but we sort of knew the writing was on the wall and that the team wasn’t going to be able to keep going.
“We knew the team was struggling, the lads didn’t want to be there when Josh wasn’t there. They were all only young kids, like Josh.
“It was terrible because it was a very good squad, they were all very good players.
“All the players would admit, and everyone would admit, that Josh, he just had the extra bit of talent and was a character.
“He was loved in the dressing room and great fun. Even now, it’s very hard to talk about him. He is missed sorely by all those lads and us.
“He would have been training that night at 9.20pm at St Aidan’s, he would either go home on his bike or had gotten a lift
from us.
“There were five coaches looking after that team, the coaches and all the players were distraught.
“It rocked us all, the team didn’t last long after that really. When they get to that age too, they are under 18, they are only a year from going senior but that really did knock the stuffing out of it when Josh died.”
And Mark said he had no doubt that Josh Dunne was going to be a professional footballer and that his loss is a waste of talent to the sport.
He said: “We were top of the league. We had a trip arranged to play Blackpool, Fleetwood Town and Tranmere Rovers; so, we could showcase the boys.
“We knew Josh would catch the eye of one of those clubs over there and there were a few other players too. It was a very good squad.
“He was absolutely heading for the professional world.
“He had a lot of talent, his goal scoring, he was decent in the air, his pace and his finishing, he could finish with both feet.
“He was a target on the pitch, other teams, they wanted to stop him, they’d try and kick him and take him down.
“He was always getting that type of treatment, he was known as the man to stop if you wanted to beat the team.
“I think with time he would have been ready, there was interest in England.
“It’s just a terrible waste, he’s a player we wont ever forget.”
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