Duff thinks Shelbourne are back

As League of Ireland football fans will know, Damien Duff's Shelbourne side had a remarkable start to their 2024 Premier Division campaign, and quickly established themselves in top spot in the table with quite an impressive points advantage.

45-year-old former 100 capped Republic of Ireland international Duff, reacted to their very bright start by stating that he was not going to get carried away as there was plenty of football still to be played, and undoubtedly there would be some more twists and turns before the end of the year.

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Recent wobbles and results against Galway and Bohemians clearly looked to have knocked their earlier confidence, and with their dip in form, and their first two defeats of the campaign, their advantage at the top of the table has been dramatically reduced.

So much so in fact that three points now separates the top four teams - and both Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians have a game in hand on them.

Having recently taken a point from the scoreless draw with Shamrock Rovers, Duff was far happier with their overall performance across the 90 minutes, and he praised his first team squad for rediscovering their edge, albeit without taking the victory.

He added that the players had had a 'sobering' three weeks, and having been brought back down to earth, it is obvious that they had allowed themselves to get carried away and some complacency had crept in - but it had also been a very important lesson for them to learn.

However, 23-year-old attacking fan favourite Shane Farrell, came in for specific criticism for his own performance, with the managing insisting that he must knuckle down if he wants to play any kind of meaningful part in their push for the title.

As fans will know, Farrell was in Duff's line of fire owing to the fact that he quickly picked up two yellow cards in the game, and in the space of 12 second half minutes following his introduction as a substitute, which meant they had to play the final 14 minutes of the match down ay ten men.

"Regarding Shane, I’m always honest privately and in public. He knows he has let everyone down."

Duff went further by telling him to improve his professionalism and dedication to the game as the time for joking about his lifestyle and his diet is long over if the player wants to reach his true potential.

"How you live your life off the pitch, how you train usually gets shown up on a match night and it did tonight. I’ve looked back at them, they are two awful tackles. You don’t live right, you don’t train right, you’re a yard off and you’re late in a tackle. It’s not rocket science to me."

Duff more than acknowledged his status as a fan favourite, but held firm to the fact that despite some 'flashes' of his potential being shown this season, Farrell had not been consistent enough with those moments to justify greater game time than he has been given so far, basically put 'he hasn't deserved to play'.

Duff, in his usual fashion joked that he is 45 years old and 'can't walk' but even he was still capable of showing 'flashes' on a football pitch, so flashes in the modern game just do not cut the mustard anymore, standards have to be better.

Fans will be hoping Duff's standards do bring better out of everyone, just like they did in the earlier weeks of the campaign.