Focus On.....Liam O`Neill

A series on players who have spent some of their careers as a player or manager in the Southern League.

This focus is on Liam O`Neill who was a hard-working midfielder who spent several seasons in the Southern League after his professional career came to an end.

Since finishing playing, Liam has gone successfully into coaching and is currently the academy manager and head of coaching at Rugby Town, having held a similar role at Nuneaton Borough until May 2018 and before that as the first-team coach at Stratford Town and Leamington and manager of Bedworth United.

Previous Clubs:

Coventry City, Blackburn Rovers, Mansfield Town, Cheltenham Town, Atherstone United, Leicester United, Racing Club Warwick, Evesham United, Bedworth United, VS Rugby, Banbury United and Shepshed Dynamo

Best Game Played In?

In 1991 against a Manchester United side which included the likes of Jim Leighton, Martin Donaghy, Gary Pallister, Andrei Kanchelskis, Bryan Robson and Mark Robins and we won 1-0!

Best 11 Played With:

1 Alan Nicholls (Cheltenham)

2 Les Robinson (Banbury)

3 Kevin Willetts (Cheltenham)

4 Lee Howells (Cheltenham)

5 Terry Angus VS Rugby)

6 Paul Fitzpatrick (Leicester United)

7 Paul Devlin (Rugby)

8 Paul Tait (Banbury)

9 Mickey Nuttell (Cheltenham)

10 Norman Sylla (Banbury)

11 Andy Turner (Banbury)

12 Howard Forinton (Banbury)
14 Christian Moore (Leicester United)
15 Robbie Beard (VS Rugby, Bedworth)
16 Gerard Carr (Coventry)
GK Ian Marsden (Leicester United)

Best Captain?

Kieran Sullivan (left) - Banbury United

Funniest Team-Mate?

Nick Kirk who is no longer with us. God bless Kirky (Bedworth United)

Best Manager:

Can’t choose between these two - Jim Barron (Cheltenham Town or Kevin Brock (Banbury United)

Best Mate in Football:

My best mate who is still involved in football is Tony Annan, who is currently academy director at MLS Side Atlanta United and my best mate who is no longer in football has to be the little pest of a striker, ex-Brackley Town, Rugby and Bedworth Robbie Beard (right)

Words of Advice?

Well I work as academy manager at Rugby Town running the football education programme for 16-19-year-olds, so I deal with young upcoming players on a day-to-day basis.

The players of this generation are made slightly differently, and the world is vastly different compared to when I was a young YTS lad.

With all the outside distractions available to them, it is more difficult for them to be single-track minded in terms of their football pathways in my opinion.

The most important piece of advice I would give any young aspiring player would be practice with every spare second they have, study players of their ilk, and dedicate fully to the game, both on and off the pitch