O'Neill hails Rovers professional display

Just as a new season offers football fans an end to the famine of the winter lay-off, so too must it be a blessed relief for the managers and players to be able to finally leave the theory and planning of pre- season behind them and get back to the proper business of Friday night football matches.

For some the first weekend of league action delivers a clinical blow to hope and optimism while, for others, the opening skirmish will have reinforced the belief that good times lie ahead. Shamrock Rovers’ manager Michael O’Neill would have been quietly pleased with his lot as he came down to meet the press after his side’s opening night 3-1 victory over a much fancied Dundalk side at Tallaght on Friday night.

His first task was to acknowledge the fact that his team had ridden their luck a little in the opening stages of the game. He accepted that the visitors might well have taken the lead earlier than they eventually did, also recognising that the sending off of Dundalk ‘keeper Peter Cherrie in the 23rd minute had a bearing on the outcome.

But O’Neill was pleased that his side had worked their way into the game and had done a professional job on the night, playing some “excellent football” along the way. One of the high points of the Hoops’ performance was the linking play of centre forward Gary O’Neill, recently signed after the sudden collapse of Sporting Fingal.

O’Neill described his contribution as “Excellent”. “It’s why we brought him here”, he added, “In terms of link up play he’s the best in this league by some distance. You look the partnership with him and Twiggy and they were excellent.

But Rovers had to survive a scrappy first half before they found their feet, only performing in the manner of champions in the second half, during which some of their play was frankly superb.

“It was like the kind of team we want to build here; the passing and the movement and the running off the ball and the linking with the front players. But we would like to see it earlier in the game than what we saw tonight. Sometimes it takes a bit of time but we were delighted with a lot of the performances in the second half. At the same time we’re not forgetting about how we started the game and we reiterated that to the players that they’ll have to start better than that in the future.

One of O’Neill’s challenges over the coming season will be providing opportunities to a squad that is packed with quality from top to bottom. It is a sign of Rovers’ strength in depth that a player of the calibre of Stephen Rice was a substitute on Friday night. Moments after coming on in the second half Rice underlined the midfield options available to O’Neill with a defence splitting pass of sublime quality that, but for a goal line clearance by Simon Madden, would have provided Gary Twigg with an opening night hat-trick.

“Yeah, Ricer, he’s an important player for us.”, said O’Neill. “We have four centre midfield players with Ronan (Finn), Stephen (O’Donnell), Chris Turner and Ricer. I’ve a lot of choices in there and there will be horses for courses. Some games will be more suited to Stephen and others won’t. Tonight I just felt that Ronan and Chris were better suited to the game but we’ll look at each one as it comes along.”

Next up for Shamrock Rovers is a trip to the Showgrounds to face Sligo Rovers, a team which many people feel offer the best hope for a challenger to the Hoops’ campaign for a second successive title. And whatever line up O’Neill settles on for this game, Sligo boss Paul Cook will know that he and his players will have their work cut out for them.