Sporting ready for backlash

Maritimo will come to Dalymount Park to face Sporting Fingal tomorrow evening (7.45) and set their stall out to attack, says Fingal striker Glen Crowe.

“They’re a good side, I don’t see them sitting back. I don’t see them changing the way they play so we’re preparing for that.”

Fingal lost 3-2 in the away leg thanks to a goal in the dying seconds of the match, something which Crowe admits was disappointing for Fingal, who led 1-0 for most of the match: “we’re disappointed that we didn’t get at least a draw out of the game.”

“I think we gave a good account of ourselves though, especially in the first half. In the second half we could have probably kept the ball a bit better but they’re a good side. They shift the ball around the pitch well so we have to be disciplined. There are areas that we could tighten up on but overall it was a good result.”

Crowe, the leading Irish goal scorer in European competition, acknowledges that the experience in the Fingal side (Ollie Cahill, Alan Kirby, Eamon Zayed and Shaun Maher are among those with previous European experience) is vital to their chances.

“I definitely think so. Obviously Colin Hawkins will be a big loss but we’ve got Shaun Maher there. When you get the ball you have to work not to give it back to them, and having experience in European football is a big thing if you’re going to do well.”

Many have remarked that Sporting’s fluent style of play gives them a fighting chance of progression in Europe, and Crowe says that Liam Buckley has not made any huge changes to Fingal’s attacking philosophy.

“When we have the ball, definitely he [Buckley] wants us to play the same,” says Crowe, “passing the ball, moving it and knowing your position, because it’s not a 4-4-2 we play, it’s a 4-3-3. So it’s about understanding your position and playing to our strengths. But when we don’t have the ball, Maritimo hurt you a lot more than teams in our league would so it’s about trying to keep the ball when you have it and keeping your discipline when you don’t have it.”

Tactically, Crowe says Maritimo (who placed fifth in the Portuguese Liga Sagres last year) are a wholly different proposition to any Irish club. “European football is completely different to the style of football we have it the league [of Ireland]. It’s a lot more patient and relaxed. You keep the ball, you don’t try to force things.”

“Whereas this league is a hundred miles an hour all the time, it [European football] is a lot more calculated which probably suits us because we pass the ball around well. But Maritimo are a step above any team in this league basically.”

His former side Bohemians crashed out of the Champion’s League last night with a 4-0 defeat to TNS, and Crowe says that the loss was not one he saw coming:

“Yeah, it’s one that wasn’t expected, I don’t think anyone expected it. Obviously TNS are a good team. From the reports I read from the home leg they were probably unlucky to only win one nil so I didn’t see it coming at all.”

Returning to the topic of tomorrow’s crunch match against the Portuguese, Crowe says Fingal are quietly confident: “Lorcan’s goal late in the game [the first leg] definitely gave us that belief. Second half, when they came out 1-0 down, they had to up the ante. They changed their formation and they went a lot more attack-minded. That caused us a few more problems. But it’s on our patch back here, so I think we have to be confident.”