It was a season that sparked to life in the last couple of weeks for Treaty United. Falling just short in the First Division Playoff Final but a season that needs to built on going into 2026.

Following a disappointing 2024 season where the Limerick side finished in 7th place, 7 points off the playoff spots. It was the second consecutive season that Treaty United had been outside the playoff spots and knew investments would be needed if they were going to make a return to the top 5 in the First Division.

Off Season Transfer Business

The off season didn’t get off to the best possible start with the departures making most of the headlines coming from the Markets Field, with key players such as Enda Curran, Thomas Considine, Oisin O Reilly, Stephen Christopher, Ben O’Riordan and Willie Armshaw also departing the club midway through the 2024 season.

Incomings in the offseason included a number of players from outside of Ireland, with Tommy Barrett making use of the Canadian links with the Treaty United ownership to sign Eoin Martin, Joe Hanson, Benjamin Lee and Connor Wilson. Treaty also made a number of signings with previous LOI experience with Ben Lynch, Carl Williams, Valeriy Dolya and Roy Lawlor putting pen to paper for the Limerick side. Other signings included Vojtech Ptacek and Dean Owens. The signing that did get Treaty United supporters looking forward to the start of the new season was the return of Karl O’Sullivan to the Markets Field.

 

Valentine’s Day Heartbreak

Opening night of the season came around, and Treaty United hosted Munster rivals Cobh Ramblers on Valentine’s night and it was looking like it was going to be a opening night victory after 82 minutes on the club with Treaty United 2-0 infront thanks to goals from Richkov Boevi and Lee Devitt. But heartbreak struck from the 83 minute, with Cian Coleman pulling one back on his debut for the Rams.

And in additional time, disaster struck. Goals from David Bosnjak and Cian Murphy turned a 2-1 lead into a 3-2 defeat in the space of 2 minutes to send Cobh Ramblers back down to Cork with all 3 points. The bit of optimism about the new season eroded in the space of a few minutes with many thinking it was going to be the same as last season not being able to see out results.

Tommy Barrett’s side did respond to this result in the best possible way in gameweek 2, defeating a highly fancied Athlone Town side to push for promotion 5-0 at Lissywollen and finished off the month of February with a 3-1 win at home to Finn Harps.  Treaty started off the month of March in dramatic fashion when they made the trip to Oriel Park when they were on the right side of late drama when Lee Devitt scored in injury time to rescue a point in 2-2 thriller. The next game against Wexford would be remembered not just for the 1-0 defeat but for stuff off the pitch.

The Protest

Before kick off for the clash of Treaty United and Wexford at the Markets Field, Treaty United supporter group held a protest against  the clubs ownership looking for Treaty United CEO to leave her position.

 

This would start a week of statement’s from both Ciara McCormack and the Blue Army regarding the protest and matters off the field. It was another late goal that proved decisive in this game as a 93rd minute strike from Mikie Rowe secured all 3 points for Wexford.

As mentioned in our season preview for Treaty United, the main problem we saw at the start of the season was going to be not replacing Enda Curran in the striker department and Treaty failed to score in 4 out of the 5 games in March picking up defeats against Wexford, Longford Town, Kerry FC and a draw against UCD.

It Can’t Go On Like This?

Heading into July before the summer break and Treaty were in playoff contention starting the month with a 1-1 draw away to UCD and backing that up with a 2-1 victory over Cobh Ramblers. Supporters were hoping this would be when Treaty make their push to secure their place in the playoffs but that’s not how the script went.

That win on the 11th July would be the last win Treaty United would pick up until September 5th a run that would see them pick up only 1 win in 11 games in all competitions. Some notable results in that run was a FAI Cup second round clash with Derry City at the Markets Field losing 5-1 and probably the most embarrassing result was the 7-0 demolition by Dundalk at the Markets Field. All hope of making the playoffs seemed to be gone after that result with some calls for manager Tommy Barrett to be replaced.

Everyone Loves An Underdog Story

And that was exactly what Treaty United’s run to the playoffs was defeating Bray Wanderers 2-1 at the Markets Field before going to Ferrycarrig Park for a final day showdown with Wexford FC for the final playoff spot. First half goals from summer signing Patrick Ferry and Mark Byrne were the difference as the Limerick side extended their season for another couple of weeks with a playoff semi final against Cobh Ramblers.

The first leg of the playoff semi final was played in front of a massive crowd at the Markets Field and the crowd got what they came for when a 76 minute header from Joe Hanson gave Tommy Barrett’s side a 1-0 lead heading to Cobh for the second leg on the Tuesday night.

 

It all came down to the second leg and it looked like Hanson’s header was going to be enough to send Treaty through to the First Division playoff final but Matthew Whelan had other plans scoring in the 94 th minute to send the game to extra time. And it was the Limerick side that came out the traps the quickest in extra time and they got the all important goal in the the first half of extra time from center back Eoin Martin and this time it was enough to set up a playoff final showdown with Bray Wanderers.

It would prove to be heartbreak for Treaty United in the First Division Playoff final when it was a 90th minute overhead kick from Justin Ferizaj that won it for Bray at the Athlone Town stadium.

 

Overall, Treaty’s strong end to the season and finishing just short of a chance at the Promotion/relegation final when many had them predicted to come 10th at the start of the season has led for this being a good season for Tommy Barrett’s side but it does need to be a platform for the to build on.

With rumoured departures of Lee Devitt and Karl O’Sullivan, how Treaty United recruit in the offseason will be crucial for what their aims are for 2026. In interviews since the season finished Tommy Barrett has said the club are looking to bring in “experienced2 players.

Season Rating: 7.5

Player Of The Season: Lee Devitt