The League of Ireland Premier Division season reached a milestone at the weekend. JOE.ie’s Dessie Baker sums up the first quarter of the campaign for the top flight sides.
There have been a couple of shocks in the first quarter of the season, but it isn’t much of a surprise to see my former teammates at Shamrock Rovers leading the way. Dundalk and Sligo will be a bit disappointed with a lot of their results, while on the flip side Bray Wanderers and Bohs have performed better than expected.
Derry, too, are flying high in second place – which isn’t hugely unexpected, because it’s a good club with a great tradition, but it’s still a hell of an effort in their first season back up in the top division.
They have a good squad with a good manager. Stephen Kenny knows the League inside out, but I doubt they really have the capacity as Rovers and Sligo to last the pace. They were flying before coming a cropper against Sligo on Monday night, and it’ll be interesting to see how they respond to that, especially as they had three men sent off so there’s a few suspensions coming down the tracks.
It was difficult for Bohs at the start of the season. There was uncertainty about whether Pat Fenlon was staying or going, and it was difficult for him to get a squad together in the first place. But they’ve done well, and it’s encouraging for them to see them in the top half, although it must be said that they don’t have the same quality on the bench so if they get a few injuries or suspensions as the season goes on they could feel the pinch.
Seagulls flying high
People might say Bray are punching above their weight, but I was at the game when they came from two goals down to beat St Pats. They have good young players coming through, they also have the experience of Gary Dempsey and Danny O’Connor in the middle of the field, players who’ve been there and done it.
The biggest thing about Bray is the manager. Since Pat Devlin came back in the latter half of last season, he’s brought his own players in, he has them organised and they’ve started to pick up points away from home too, which they never really did. They all play together, they all know their jobs, there are no individuals that you might have at other clubs, but that suits Bray. Everyone gives it 100 per cent. Every team playing Bray now knows you’ve got to match them for hard work to have a chance. If you don’t, and they get their noses in front, they can be a very hard team to break down.
Overall, though, there’s no doubt Rovers are the team to catch. I went up to training a couple of weeks ago there and the camp was buzzing. I was talking to Michael [O’Neill] and Trevor [Croly] and they were fairly happy with the way things were going.
More improvement to come
They’re top of the League, three points clear, but there are games where they’ve dropped points when they shouldn’t have. Dundalk have taken points off them twice, Bray beat them, so all that’s encouraging for the rest of the League. At one stage, after four or five games, you’d have thought Rovers were going to walk away with it. It doesn’t look like being quite as easy for them now, but you’d still have to say that you’d expect Rovers to improve as the season goes on.
I know from past experience that Michael breaks the season down into quarters and sets targets. They took 20 points from their first nine games. I’d say that won’t be far off what they were looking for, and it leaves them well placed to kick on now in the second quarter.
Sluggish Sligo
A lot was expected of Sligo at the start of the year and they’ve struggled to live up to that a bit. They’ve brought in a few new players and it’s probably taken them a while to settle in. They got a great result on Monday night. Derry are flying so to beat them 3-0 could be just what they need to get a bit of a run going.
Dundalk haven’t had the start they’d have hoped for. They’ve drawn too many games, four of their first 10, but they’ve got good players now – Jason Byrne and Mark Quigley have come in to join Ross Gaynor and Danny Kearns – so it’s only a matter of time before they start climbing the table. It will be interesting to see in the second quarter how they improve.
Pats have two wins on the trot now so they might start pushing up the table and that would be nice to see. UCD had two big results at the weekend, beating Sligo on Friday night and Drogheda on Monday, so that’s a big boost for them. I didn’t give them much hope this year but they pulled another cracker out of the works against Sligo, who were starting to hit a bit of form. UCD now have six points in hand over the bottom two, so those two wins could play a big part in keeping them in their division at the end of the season.
Overall, though, I feel Rovers and Sligo have by far the strongest squads in the League. With the number of games that have to be played, midweek games and Cup games coming thick and fast, you need seven or eight players to be ready to slot in whenever they’re needed, so with that in mind I still think Rovers and Sligo will be the ones who are up there at the end of the season.
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