Suspended on return

This week saw the return of the League of Ireland after a two week break. From a players point of view, the ten days off is a great way to break up a long hard season and it is good to give the body a rest and spend some time with family. Luckily for football fans the World Cup has kept us busy during the time off.

Throughout the break, I managed to watch most of the World Cup and have enjoyed seeing some of the best players in world like Messi, although I can exclude all the England players! For me, the tournament was only ever going to get going from the last sixteen onwards after all the dead wood has been dispatched, and now that is the case, there have been some great matches in the second round.

My tip this year was England, and they have been a massive disappointment. Their performance against Germany was not just the worst English performance for some time, but was also one of the worst performances of this and any other World Cup I can remember. With the manager being paid such a large salary of £6 million, the very least they should get is the semi finals.

After getting a lot of stick in the dressing room about that prediction, I have changed teams and now think Spain will be victorious in South Africa. They face tough opposition versus Portugal tonight but I think they will be too strong for Ronaldo and co. I can’t wait.

Back to domestic matters, it was a nice feeling to be sitting at the summit of the table for the mid-season break but, if that is not the case after the last game in November, it will mean nothing. Since we have returned to training the coaching staff have been putting us through a mini pre-season and after an hour and a half of hard running, feeling like throwing up, you think to yourself was the break worth it. Yeah, definitely.

Our approach to the second half of the season will be no different to the first. Not many predicted our good league campaign and we are determined to keep proving the pundits wrong. It has turned out to be one of the tightest leagues ever and after Bohs had a good win against Dundalk at the weekend they look to be in a good position for a another title charge.

Our first game back couldn't have been tougher facing Sligo away. They had been free scoring before the break and took us apart in the League Cup a few weeks previous. Going into the game we were conscience of that and played a slightly different formation of 4-3-3. It seemed to work because we limited them to very few chances throughout the game and were unlucky once or twice not to sneak a winner.

It finished 1-1, and afterwards we were happy enough to leave the Showgrounds with a point especially when the other result meant we would stay top. I don’t think many teams will go to Sligo and win between now and the end of the season.

This week sees us taking on Galway at home but unfortunately both myself and centre-half Shane Guthrie will have to sit this one out after receiving four yellow cards. It is frustrating to miss another game and in my opinion four yellows is far too low a number to miss a game with the way refs dish cards out today. Anyway, I will just have to get on with it and hope the lads can keep us at the top of the table.