Life on Leeside- The Greg O'Halloran column
Credit: Extratime Team (ETPhotos)
I think we’re back on track now after the 3-0 win against Sligo. The last few results before that weren’t too good, but the incident with Paul was just unacceptable. There’s no place for what happened outside the bar but hopefully we’re back on track, before Derry next week. I’ll be missing with suspension and there are another couple of lads out so it’ll give others a chance to stake a claim in the team. With the off-field events, I just want to get it to the back of my mind and play football now.
We haven’t been told anything about what’s going on currently and have only read from the papers and from text messages. All we know is that Monday week is the deadline and hopefully everything will come good. It’s a massive club down here and you don’t want to see another club slip out of the league.
Thanks to the lads who sent in questions at the bottom of the page and as always they’re welcome. To answer one of them, the best player I’ve played with is hard but there has always been one in particular. There have been so many, like Patsy Freyne, who was a genius, Ollie Cahill too but the best was John O’Flynn. How he is only playing League 2 now is beyond me. He should be at a much higher level. You just have to look at the goals he’s scored at Barnet and realise that that wasn’t even a full season, it was only about six months. You can’t doubt his ability and he should still be snapped up by a bigger club at a higher level. It’s just unfortunate that the injuries he had kind of slowed him down.
On a personal note, I’ve been dropped the last couple of weeks from the team and I don’t think I’ve played too well recently. It was Paul’s call and to be honest I agree with him, I’ve not been good enough since the mistake up in Drogheda. The break has done me well, and we kept a clean-sheet when I came back in against Sligo. Unfortunately I’m suspended for Derry so I’ll lose my place in the team. That’ll mean if whoever comes in impresses, I’ll be probably back on the bench again. It’s fair enough though because we’ve a small squad and everybody deserves their chance.
We’re full time professionals and what’s going on off-the-field is a worry. To be honest, I was hoping that this will be my last club in the League of Ireland and if the club goes bust then I’m not going to be bothered with playing anymore as you’d get sick of it. A lot of the players here have become disillusioned with what has happened and it’s a worry. We’re full-time professionals and some people don’t realise that we’ve pressures and bills to pay.
Tom Coughlan hasn’t spoken to us and it’s a bit disappointing. We’ve the game against Ipswich to help matters tomorrow but then we might get to speak to him next week at some stage. He should come into us but maybe he’s too busy with more important things. He’s probably under severe pressure to get money in but what can you do? That’s the game we’re in.
However, there has been a lot of rubbish been published about the players reaction to this in some of the tabloids. There was no truth in the team going on strike. There’s a lot of rubbish spread about the club and what’s happening. We’re going to strike, we’re going to do this and that but there was never any doubt about us and striking. As far as we’re concerned we’re up to date on our wages. I’m not owed any money from Tom Coughlan until the next pay-day. All of this negativity around the club is bringing the club down. I know we owe €400,000 but we need people to raise the profile of the club. We need everybody to gel together and make it happen.
I’ll hopefully speak to you all in two weeks time with the club still in existence,
Greg.
We haven’t been told anything about what’s going on currently and have only read from the papers and from text messages. All we know is that Monday week is the deadline and hopefully everything will come good. It’s a massive club down here and you don’t want to see another club slip out of the league.
Thanks to the lads who sent in questions at the bottom of the page and as always they’re welcome. To answer one of them, the best player I’ve played with is hard but there has always been one in particular. There have been so many, like Patsy Freyne, who was a genius, Ollie Cahill too but the best was John O’Flynn. How he is only playing League 2 now is beyond me. He should be at a much higher level. You just have to look at the goals he’s scored at Barnet and realise that that wasn’t even a full season, it was only about six months. You can’t doubt his ability and he should still be snapped up by a bigger club at a higher level. It’s just unfortunate that the injuries he had kind of slowed him down.
On a personal note, I’ve been dropped the last couple of weeks from the team and I don’t think I’ve played too well recently. It was Paul’s call and to be honest I agree with him, I’ve not been good enough since the mistake up in Drogheda. The break has done me well, and we kept a clean-sheet when I came back in against Sligo. Unfortunately I’m suspended for Derry so I’ll lose my place in the team. That’ll mean if whoever comes in impresses, I’ll be probably back on the bench again. It’s fair enough though because we’ve a small squad and everybody deserves their chance.
We’re full time professionals and what’s going on off-the-field is a worry. To be honest, I was hoping that this will be my last club in the League of Ireland and if the club goes bust then I’m not going to be bothered with playing anymore as you’d get sick of it. A lot of the players here have become disillusioned with what has happened and it’s a worry. We’re full-time professionals and some people don’t realise that we’ve pressures and bills to pay.
Tom Coughlan hasn’t spoken to us and it’s a bit disappointing. We’ve the game against Ipswich to help matters tomorrow but then we might get to speak to him next week at some stage. He should come into us but maybe he’s too busy with more important things. He’s probably under severe pressure to get money in but what can you do? That’s the game we’re in.
However, there has been a lot of rubbish been published about the players reaction to this in some of the tabloids. There was no truth in the team going on strike. There’s a lot of rubbish spread about the club and what’s happening. We’re going to strike, we’re going to do this and that but there was never any doubt about us and striking. As far as we’re concerned we’re up to date on our wages. I’m not owed any money from Tom Coughlan until the next pay-day. All of this negativity around the club is bringing the club down. I know we owe €400,000 but we need people to raise the profile of the club. We need everybody to gel together and make it happen.
I’ll hopefully speak to you all in two weeks time with the club still in existence,
Greg.
