Shamrock Rovers goalkeeping team confirmed for 2022

Shamrock Rovers have confirmed their goalkeeping team for the 2022 campaign on a day of contract re-signing announcements at the club.

Both Alan Mannus and Leon Pohls will continue at Tallaght Stadium for another season as the Hoops look to make it three League of Ireland titles in a row.

Alan Mannus, who will turn 40 next year, will be the number one again with his deputy Leon Pohls also remaining at the club.

Mannus has played a huge hand in helping the Hoops secure major trophies across his two spells at the club. Signed in 2009 from Linfield by then manager Michael O’Neill, the Northern Ireland netminder helped the Hoops win two league titles before leaving for St. Johnstone mid-way through the 2011 season.

he re-joined the Hoops in 2018 and was instrumental in winning the club's first FAI Cup in 32 years when he was the hero in the 2019 FAI Cup Final penalty shoot-out and in 2020 he conceded just seven goals (the fewest number ever in a League of Ireland campaign) as Rovers kept 13 clean sheets in the shortened 18 game season with the Hoops winning their first title since 2011.

He added another league winners medal in the recently completed 2021 season.

He has kept 84 clean sheets in the league during his two spells with the club. Only Alan O’Neill (87) and Barry Murphy (97) have kept more in the league. Murphy played 215 league matches for Rovers conceding 196 goals, while Mannus has played 168 matches so far in the league conceding 114 goals.

Mannus’ run of 98 consecutive league appearances for the Hoops came to an end last month when, after Rovers secured the league title, Stephen Bradley gave Leon Pohls his league debut for the Hoops first team when they travelled to Waterford.

That match was the first time Mannus hadn’t played a league game for the Hoops since Gavin Bazunu’s last appearance for Rovers in July 2018 and it was 25-year-old Pohls' first Premier Division appearance with the German having joined Rovers in 2019. 

“Leon has had to be patient all year,” said Bradley speaking to extratime.com in the RSC after his team’s 3-1 win. “It was a reward for all his hard work. He has been brilliant for Alan (Mannus) in terms of being there and pushing him every day. It was good to get him on the pitch.”

Pohls, who played ten matches in the First Division with the Shamrock Rovers II team in 2020, also started in Rovers’ penultimate game of the season – the 3-1 defeat in Dalymount Park with Mannus back in the team for the final game of the successful league winning campaign.

The Hoops have also confirmed that Neil Farrugia, Barry Cotter, Ronan Finn, Gary O'Neil, Rory Gaffney and Darragh Nugent have all also re-signed for the 2022 season.

Drogs sign Dean Williams https://t.co/ASSwpVfarypic.twitter.com/c0UQn0PCpu

— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) December 18, 2021