Life on Leeside - The Greg O'Halloran Column
Credit: Extratime Team (ETPhotos)
Extratime.ie is delighted to announce that Greg O'Halloran has been added to our team. The Cork City defender will write a fortnightly column on goings-on within the league, starting today...
If you've any questions for Greg be sure to email us at extratimelive@gmail.com or leave a comment at the bottom of the page.
A lot of people probably questioned me signing for Cork at the start of the season as when I left Cobh I was going to jack it all in because of the way the league was going. I was on to Paul Doolin and he said to me to go training for a week to see how I get on and I was delighted to be back at Turner’s Cross. Some people said I left the club on bad terms but I didn’t. I left because I wanted to move to Dublin, not because I hated Cork City or anything. At the time it was a good career move and I learnt a lot at Shelbourne. I went to Derry then but looking back, I should have stayed in Dublin really. The last two years my career may have gone backwards a bit, I just wasn’t playing well but I think I’m much better now.
To be fair, the club has changed a lot since I was last here in 2005. If you look at the setup now, Paul has made Bishopstown a good place to train. Last time I was there, it was a dump and a bit of a shambles. It wasn’t a proper training ground but it is now. It’s hard playing for Cork City due to the big crowds. They expect you to win the league every year. I may be criticised for this but having played in Dublin, you can see why those teams win the league. There isn’t much travelling involved and most of the away games are close by. All of this comes into the equation, especially since you now have to play each team twice away from home. The team to beat now is Bohs’ and we should be up there challenging with them.
Paul has played me at centre-back mostly and it’s a new position for me. I’ve never played there before so I’m still learning. Obviously, one or two mistakes will be made but I’m happy enough with playing there at the moment. I’ve got Dan next to me who is a fine player and we’ve had a lot of clean-sheet’s so far this year. The last two games we mightn’t have been as tight at the back but tonight we can hopefully get back to keeping a clean slate.
Also, this is the first time I’ve studied games in detail and it’s thanks to Paul. We do a lot of analysis on videos and that. It’s really good because even last Tuesday night I looked at the DVD straight away after my mistake to see what went wrong. It gives you an idea too of what you should have done. We’ve been defensively strong most of the season and the key to that has been experience. We’ve all been in the league for nearly ten years and we’re all aged 27 or 28.
We had been on a good run the last ten games before losing twice the last week against Bohs and Drogheda. It’s a long league and there are still 21 games left. We’re not going to lose the league after those two results but it is disappointing. We’ve still won nine games from twelve and at the start people were probably writing us off. We’ve got good players here but up in Drogheda the pitch was awful. It’s not really an excuse but teams like Bohs, Shamrock Rovers and ourselves want to beat teams playing football and it’s hard to do on a bad pitch.
I made an individual mistake on Tuesday night but I’ve to rectify that against Shamrock Rovers tonight. At the moment they’re doing well and Gary Twigg seems to be on fire. Michael O’Neill is after bringing structure to the club and they’re very hard to beat. Although Twigg has been flying, they’ve got a couple of experienced players at the back, like Darragh Maguire and Aidan Price. As a defender, I’ve to focus on Twigg and he is obviously the main man we’ve to shut out. They do have other dangerous players too, like Dessie Bake and ex-Cork player Ollie Cahill and it’s going to be a very difficult game. We’ve to get three points after the last two games so it really is massive for us.
Looking at the league in general, the creation of two mini-leagues was always going to happen in a ten team league. There has always been a gap from the top three or four teams to the rest. It’s still a tough league though, and a lot of supporters don’t realise how hard it is to playing the weaker teams. That’s their cup final when the likes of Cork and Bohs come to play them. It is then up to us to score goals.
Hopefully we can get back to winning ways tonight.
Until next time,
Greg.
A lot of people probably questioned me signing for Cork at the start of the season as when I left Cobh I was going to jack it all in because of the way the league was going. I was on to Paul Doolin and he said to me to go training for a week to see how I get on and I was delighted to be back at Turner’s Cross. Some people said I left the club on bad terms but I didn’t. I left because I wanted to move to Dublin, not because I hated Cork City or anything. At the time it was a good career move and I learnt a lot at Shelbourne. I went to Derry then but looking back, I should have stayed in Dublin really. The last two years my career may have gone backwards a bit, I just wasn’t playing well but I think I’m much better now.
To be fair, the club has changed a lot since I was last here in 2005. If you look at the setup now, Paul has made Bishopstown a good place to train. Last time I was there, it was a dump and a bit of a shambles. It wasn’t a proper training ground but it is now. It’s hard playing for Cork City due to the big crowds. They expect you to win the league every year. I may be criticised for this but having played in Dublin, you can see why those teams win the league. There isn’t much travelling involved and most of the away games are close by. All of this comes into the equation, especially since you now have to play each team twice away from home. The team to beat now is Bohs’ and we should be up there challenging with them.
Paul has played me at centre-back mostly and it’s a new position for me. I’ve never played there before so I’m still learning. Obviously, one or two mistakes will be made but I’m happy enough with playing there at the moment. I’ve got Dan next to me who is a fine player and we’ve had a lot of clean-sheet’s so far this year. The last two games we mightn’t have been as tight at the back but tonight we can hopefully get back to keeping a clean slate.
Also, this is the first time I’ve studied games in detail and it’s thanks to Paul. We do a lot of analysis on videos and that. It’s really good because even last Tuesday night I looked at the DVD straight away after my mistake to see what went wrong. It gives you an idea too of what you should have done. We’ve been defensively strong most of the season and the key to that has been experience. We’ve all been in the league for nearly ten years and we’re all aged 27 or 28.
We had been on a good run the last ten games before losing twice the last week against Bohs and Drogheda. It’s a long league and there are still 21 games left. We’re not going to lose the league after those two results but it is disappointing. We’ve still won nine games from twelve and at the start people were probably writing us off. We’ve got good players here but up in Drogheda the pitch was awful. It’s not really an excuse but teams like Bohs, Shamrock Rovers and ourselves want to beat teams playing football and it’s hard to do on a bad pitch.
I made an individual mistake on Tuesday night but I’ve to rectify that against Shamrock Rovers tonight. At the moment they’re doing well and Gary Twigg seems to be on fire. Michael O’Neill is after bringing structure to the club and they’re very hard to beat. Although Twigg has been flying, they’ve got a couple of experienced players at the back, like Darragh Maguire and Aidan Price. As a defender, I’ve to focus on Twigg and he is obviously the main man we’ve to shut out. They do have other dangerous players too, like Dessie Bake and ex-Cork player Ollie Cahill and it’s going to be a very difficult game. We’ve to get three points after the last two games so it really is massive for us.
Looking at the league in general, the creation of two mini-leagues was always going to happen in a ten team league. There has always been a gap from the top three or four teams to the rest. It’s still a tough league though, and a lot of supporters don’t realise how hard it is to playing the weaker teams. That’s their cup final when the likes of Cork and Bohs come to play them. It is then up to us to score goals.
Hopefully we can get back to winning ways tonight.
Until next time,
Greg.
