This week, Dessie looks back on a magnificent win for Bray over Shamrock Rovers and tells of how he has been impressed with Sligo Rovers this season
My own team, Edenderry Town, were in action on Friday night (we beat Celbridge Town 4-2), so I didn’t get to any of the games at the weekend and I certainly didn’t see Bray’s victory over Shamrock Rovers coming.
I have been talking to a couple of the Rovers lads since the game and they said that they struggled to break Bray down, even when they had four or five strikers on the pitch in the second half. Bray seem to have something of a hex over Rovers though; Rovers have really struggled against them in recent years.
In one of my earlier columns, I mentioned how I had seen Bray in action against St. Pat’s earlier in the season and I thought they were well organised and by all accounts it was a well deserved three points on Friday night.
Other teams are going to have to follow Bray’s lead and go at Rovers if they want to get anything out of the game and I think they will from now on after what Bray achieved at the weekend.
I know Michael O’Neill wasn’t happy with the Rovers performance at all and from what I gather, he had them in the following day looking at videos to analyse where exactly they went wrong on the night. From what I heard, Bray went at Rovers and weren’t obsessed with sitting back and stopping Rovers from playing, which was something that disappointed me about Pat’s when they played at Tallaght Stadium earlier in the season.
Teams always up their game against Rovers when they’re playing in front of a big crowd on a nice pitch, and being league champions, Rovers are going to have to adapt to that. When players from other teams go there, they’re also trying to impress the opposition manager and often up their game by 20 or 30 per cent because everyone would love to play at Rovers and don’t want to miss out on a chance to shine.
Bray set a good example
In the end it was a great three points for Bray and the other teams are going to have to follow Bray’s lead and go at Rovers if they want to get anything out of the game and I think they will from now on after what Bray achieved at the weekend.
Danny O’Connor got the goal that made the difference for Bray in the end, that’s two in two weeks for Danny, he seems to be coming into a bit of form and it’s great to see him doing well. Himself and Gary Dempsey are two good players in the middle of the park for Bray and that experience could prove very valuable and might be what keeps them up, as the likes of Drogheda and UCD don’t have that experience in their squad.
Danny O’Connor is mobbed after scoring the winner for Bray against Rovers at the weekend
My brother Richie was there last season and he told me that they were much more organised under Pat Devlin than they had been when Eddie Gormley was in charge. Pat got rid of the deadwood that was in the squad and worked with the players a bit better, but he’s been around Bray for a long time and has always done pretty well with them when he’s been in charge.
As I said, I saw them against Pat’s earlier this season and they were very well organised and they’re a team that are well capable of taking points off the bigger sides, something they proved again at the weekend. If they can stay organised at the back, with that experienced duo in midfield they’re always capable of getting a goal; I would just worry for them if Danny or Gary Dempsey got injured as they might struggle.
Saying that, Derek Prendergast at the back is a very good player for them; Chris Shields is as well, so when you add those lads into the mix with the experience they already have in the squad, it will stand to them at the end of the season. When you look at UCD getting turned over again by Bohemians and Galway drawing with Drogheda, getting three points away from home is a big boost for Bray and will get their confidence up ahead of the game with Drogheda next week.
Dessie on Sligo Rovers, Bohs and Derry City
Sligo looking good
With Rovers losing out to Bray, Sligo Rovers joined them at the top of the table after a good victory over Pat’s on Saturday night. I’ve been impressed with Sligo and the way they play. Paul Cook has them playing in a nice little formation with Alan Keane sitting in midfield and keeping things ticking over nicely for them.
Alan Kirby, another former team mate of mine, scored both goals at the weekend and Kirbs going to Sligo is going to add that little bit extra to their squad because he won a couple of cups with me at Longford, he won another one with Sporting Fingal and he’ll give them that extra bit of experience that could prove crucial.
As an out and out Derry man, for Gareth McGlynn to go back there this year was a big boost to Stephen Kenny and the squad.
Eoin Doyle is another good player in their squad as well and they certainly know how to score goals and keep the ball. In the FAI Cup final last year, we found it very difficult to play against them, they had three in midfield and they like to play it from the back. But up front, with the likes of Matthew Blinkhorn, they have players that can score goals as well. I know he hasn’t scored for a while, but when he regains full fitness, he’ll get goals for them as well so they’re looking good all round.
In the other games, Derry had another good win over Dundalk and are up to third place as a result. The Brandywell is never an easy place to go, but when Derry start winning games, the crowds get bigger and bigger and it’s going to be even more difficult for opposition teams to get a result up there.
After a shaky start, Eamon Zayed has settled in well at Derry City
Eamon Zayed scored again for them at the weekend; he seems to be hitting form and could turn out to be a big player for Derry. Gareth McGlynn got the other and as an out and out Derry man, for him to go back there this year was a big boost to Stephen Kenny and the squad.
The result against Dundalk was a very good one because Dundalk are an excellent side and were coming off the back of a good win against UCD the week before. When they look at the league table and see that they’re only two points behind Shamrock Rovers and Sligo Rovers, I think Derry will be pretty happy with their lot at the moment.
Bohs position could turn out to be false
Bohemians are also only two points off the lead at the moment, but with all due respect to them, they’ve played a lot of the lower-ranked teams in the league so far this season and they have to play Shamrock Rovers on Friday night and Sligo Rovers the week after, so we’ll see how they’re going after those games.
They had a decent win over UCD at the weekend, but UCD are really struggling at the moment, they’re not scoring goals at one end and they’re conceding them at the other, so it was hard to put a value on Bohemians’ performance. Owen Heary and Anto Flood got the goals for them, but after Flood, I wouldn’t be too convinced about the options they have up front.
I think the next four games are going to be a big four games for Bohs in terms of where they’re at this season and I think you’ll have a pretty good idea of where they stand once they have those games out of the way.
The game against Rovers this weekend will be a big one and it’s the sort of game that I’ll really miss now that I’m not playing any more. There’ll be a big crowd at it, there’ll be a good build up in the papers and it will be exciting on match day, but unfortunately, I won’t get a chance to play in that sort of game again and I’ll certainly miss it.
I’ll be going along to watch it anyway; it will probably be my first game like this in a couple of years. It might even be a more enjoyable occasion for myself than when I was playing and I’m certainly looking forward to seeing how it goes.
Reaction
As for the game itself, I think Rovers will get back on track and I think that the game against Sligo Rovers in the Setanta Cup is crucial as it will give them a chance to rectify what went wrong against Bray immediately. I know when I was playing, Michael used to like having a game almost immediately after getting beaten as opposed to having to wait a week or ten days and I think Rovers will be in with a good shout against Sligo.
With Michael having had the players in so quickly after the Bray game to try and sort out the problems in the team, it will be interesting to see how they react against Sligo and against Bohs at the weekend. Having had to come off against Bray, it doesn’t look as if Gary Twigg will play against Sligo or Bohemians, but Rovers have a big enough squad to cope so Michael will probably make a few changes to the side.
The defeat to Bray might just be what Rovers needed as it will get rid of any complacency that might have been creeping into the squad after going unbeaten at the start of the season. It’s like Leinster losing to Munster in the rugby, that game woke them up before they took on Leicester and beat them in the Heineken Cup at the weekend.
I know Michael is keen to win the Setanta Cup this year, he’s keen to win every competition that Rovers play in, so he’ll be happy to have two big games so soon after their first defeat of the season.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
