Luke Byrne: 'We have definitely improved as a squad'

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Shelbourne captain Luke Byrne insists that the Reds have a stronger squad to what they had last year under Damien Duff.

While Shels have parted ways with Brendan Clarke, Aaron O’Driscoll and Stephan Negru during the off-season, they have added suitably to their ranks.

Tyreke Wilson, Conor Kearns and Andrew Quinn have all joined the Reds – with former loan star Matty Smith joining on a permanent from Derry City.

“We have definitely improved as a squad,” Byrne told extratime.com. “The squad and depth has improved and the younger players are a year older.

“We have brought in a few players who have experience, like Paddy Barrett and Tyreke Wilson.

“We have Evan Caffrey who has almost 50 games under his belt already so they all make us better in their own way. You have to be happy with how the squad is looking.”

Following their return to the top-flight last season, Shels comfortably ensured their survival and reached the FAI Cup final.

But their defeat in the Aviva Stadium decider has made their captain even more eager to return to action.

“It made me want to come back quicker to be honest,” he explained. “We finished on a low, and the thing with football is that you are only as good as your last game.

“That’s what it feels like and we wanted to get back in and get back playing games because we saw how the last one went for us.”



And while previous Shelbourne teams might be pleased with another year of consolidation in the Premier Division after an encouraging year – Byrne is not of the sort.

The former Shamrock Rovers defender stressed that he and his teammates are out to do better than last year.

“After coming up the most important thing was to establish ourselves in the Premier Division and we did that quite early,” he said.

“We improved a lot as the season went on and had the cup run. It was a positive first year back. But we won’t be satisfied with repeating it this year.

“We want to be better, get more points in the league and do better in the cup. Why would you play football to accept what you did last year?

“There are very few teams who can start a season saying they would be happy with what they achieved last year. We’ll be looking to improve.”



Shels open their 2023 campaign with a home clash against Drogheda United on Friday night – and they are raring to go.

Byrne adds: “Our first win came against Drogheda last season, but they did beat us as well. I think we beat them three points and they beat us once.

“We played them in pre-season so we know what they’re like and they know what we’re like.

“It’s our first game of the season and it is at home so we will be looking to beat anybody we come up against.”

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