Greene delighted to be back following two week break

St Patrick’s Athletic extended their run of victories to five games on Friday evening at Richmond Park, when Liam Buckley’s side recorded a 3-0 win against Longford Town. After the game Extratime.ie spoke to Pats winger Aaron Greene about his sides performance.

“Yeah it was good” he said, “a good run out, it was a tough game at times the ground was very hard, we got what we needed from the game and look forward to next Thursday against Skonta, a clean sheet and three goals nothing else we can ask for.”

After a two week break, Greene was delighted to be back on the pitch but he was quick to point out that St Pats were not given a long break to rest on their laurels and Liam Buckley had his side back training late last week.

“I think when you get the break you’re more than happy to get it and when you come back after a break you’re eager to get going, every one of us were Liam brought us back in I think last Thursday so we’ve been in pretty early, we only got about 4/5 days off, so everybody was dying to get back in and get the ball rolling which we done.

“We have had a great month now and been really really strong, we haven't conceded many goals, scoring a lot, playing the way Pats usually play so it’s good coming into this European run.”

Despite having a huge impact in St Pats being unbeaten in their last five games in all competitions, Greene was quick to deflect the praise away from himself and explains while it is nice to score goals, he is just happy to be in the starting XI.

“It’s been nice, it’s always nice to play I don’t mind who scores or who sets them up, I just want to keep playing and staying in this good quality team, that’s my aim for the season, just keep playing.

“There’s so much quality within the team between myself on the wing, Conan Byrne, Chris Forrester and even Jamie McGrath as you seen tonight he came in and done really well, I’m disappointed that he didn’t get a chance to get a goal but theirs top quality players in this side and I think we all know we’re not doing as well as we done in the start of the season but hopefully we can put a good run together and you never no.

“We don’t earn the respect that sides like to be looking at the likes of Dundalk and Cork so we can just look to start closing the gap Shamrock Rovers and Bohs because their doing well at the minute and then start looking up and finish as high as we can finish.”

When reflecting on the quality in the Pats side Greene is happy that the players are given a licence to switch positions by the Saints boss but he is also aware that it must be done at appropriate times.

“If you see the first goal tonight I started left wing, me and Forrester changed straight away Sean Hoare sixty yard ball over the top and Forrester is in over on the left wing, it just shows we can change, then I went upfront and Jamie McGrath went out, Chris Forrester we can all change.

“Liam has no problem with you changing and freedom to do it once you do it in the right area of the pitch, you can't be changing left full if the right winger is running at you, you’ve got to have your boundaries but we’ve being doing really well since the Dundalk game.

“Every time we play a good team we seem to get a man sent off or start really badly, so it was nice to come back after the break and really kick on as we’ve been playing very well.”

As the Saints look forward to next Thursday’s Europa League clash in Latvia, Greene was quick to praise both St Pats and Cork City manager’s for getting their upcoming league clash postponed to allow both sides to concentrate on their respective Europa League fixtures.

“You’ve to be grateful to Cork, Liam [Buckley] and John [Caulfield] getting the game called off the pair of them the two teams showed a bit of great professionalism to get the game called off, I think we’re going to be long traveling.”

Whilst conceding that St Pats do not know much about their next opponents, Greene is aware the importance of ensuring that the tie is still alive when the side meet in Richmond Park on July 9th.

“We don’t know a lot about them we will come in tomorrow[Saturday] and do a bit of analysis on them, European football is always a something you want to play in, it is one of the most important thing in this league, Liam loves it so we need to go out and put on a good showcase and don’t get beaten over their because we need to come back here and hopefully win the tie as don’t play in front of big crowds, so a big crowd here at Richmond could turn them over.”