Conan Byrne - A Sporting View

Welcome to the first of my fortnightly columns and I’d like to say hello to all the extratime.ie readers and hope that you enjoy the column over the next few weeks and months. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments section below and I'll try to answer them next time around.

First of all, I have to say that the Waterford game on Friday was definitely our worst performance of the season. The team were very poor. We created a few chances in the first half but didn’t take them. Their second goal that came just before half time was a real sucker-punch and once they got the third it was curtains.

We were all very down after the match but it’s not all doom and gloom. It just means that the UCD game on Thursday becomes a lot more important. If we can get a win there the gap will be back down to two points and that’s a huge incentive. It’s a must win game but I know we can play much better at Belfield.

On a personal level I’m really excited to be going back to play against my former club. UCD were always very good to me down the years and I really enjoyed my time there. They gave me my first break in professional football and I'll always be grateful for that.

Although their squad has changed a lot since I left them, I still have a lot of friends at the club and it’s no surprise to me that they are doing so well this season. I really didn’t have a good game against them at the start of the season at Morton Stadium when they beat us, so I’m looking to put in a better performance and hopefully help the team pick up the three points.

Away from the football pitch, what some of you probably don’t know is that I’m heavily involved with the local Fingal community. I act as the club's community development manager and it’s a job that I really enjoy doing. It was quite bizarre how I ended up with it when I think about it! When I signed it was purely as a player but one day I got talking to Liam Buckley in the car park and he asked what I studied in college. I told him I was doing sports management and he took it from there and here I am.

I'll just give you a brief description of what the job entails. Usually it involves visiting local schools and football clubs in the Fingal area and trying to create awareness and closer ties between the club and the community. The main project we are doing this year is organising a trip to Zambia for some of the local schools. Two kids accompanied by au pairs are visiting a village over there to do charity work, visiting orphanages etc. My job will be to help in the fundraising side of that.

This year I also helped set up the Sporting Fingal Special Olympics football team and the wheel chair football team. My long term plan is to establish all sorts of Sporting Fingal teams and also branch out into different sports, kind of like the model a lot of foreign clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid have with their hockey, basketball, handball teams etc.

You might think that this community work would clash with training but it's co-ordinated pretty well. Liam doesn’t allow me to do much after training but there are sometimes when you just have to…ah well what he doesn’t know wont hurt him!

I’m also the player’s rep at the club so I’m responsible for bringing the lads out to some functions and award ceremonies for the underage football teams. Usually other clubs would send one or two players but we try to bring everyone and I think it’s working well.

Like many of you, I’m a massive Liverpool fan and it’s been such a strange season for the Reds. We did the double over United, scored loads of goals, hammered Real Madrid but still no trophy at the end. If I was Rafa, I think the Pool need to improve their full backs. They really let the side down in the big games. Apart from that I think we should also bring in another striker just in case Torres gets injured again like last season.

As for the Champions league final well I reckon the match will be won or lost by Barcelona’s back four. Going forward Barca are great and it should make for a really good attacking game. I think United will do it because they have too much strength going forward. I’d say a 2-1 win for United….hopefully I just jinxed them!

All the best

Conan