North excited ahead of Euro clash
Credit: Extratime Team (ETPhotos)
St. Patrick's Athletic is a club with plenty of famous European nights in its history and striker Danny North is hoping that he can be part of another this Thursday.
The Saints are hoping to overturn a 1-0 away loss to IBV Vestmannaeyjar in Richmond Park and North says that he’s excited at the prospect of his home European debut.
“I’ve seen clips on Youtube and I’ve heard all the talk around the club of how good the European nights are here. I can’t wait for it” he says. “Hopefully we get a good result. We’ve got a great chance too, the crowd will be behind us.”
North has hit a rich vein of form in recent weeks in domestic football, but says he’s still not sure of how different the IBV defence is to those he’s used to. “It’s hard to say because I’ve only ever played one game in Europe and even then I had one or two chances.”
Tactically though, the Pats striker sees something he recognises in IBV. “They play similarly, in their formation, to Sligo” he says. “They have three in the middle and they always move around and look for the ball. They’re a good team going forward, when they got a spell on the ball it was tough for us to get it back.”
Still, as dangerous as the Icelandic side are on the attack, North is still confident. “It was a penalty that beat us, which was silly really” he recalls. “They’re nothing to be scared of. We are confident, they’re coming over to us so they’ll have been travelling.”
The atmosphere at Richmond Park will only add to their efforts, North adds hopefully: “It’s our home ground so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be confident. With the way we played in Iceland, we played well enough to win the game.”
North counts Pats as unlucky that they didn’t come away with something from the first leg. “We had enough chances but we didn’t take them. They had a couple of chances too, Gary [Rogers] pulled off a couple of great saves.”
Pats lost to local rivals Shamrock Rovers on Sunday, but North isn’t too worried that the loss will hamper the team’s preparation. “Luckily there’s a game so close, we can get out and try to make amends for losing two on the trot” North says. “We’re desperate to not make it three. We’ll all be ready. We’ll train tonight in preparation for Thursday and Thursday we’ll have a right good bash.”
On his domestic form, North is hopeful that he can continue what so far has been a strong season for the Englishman. “I came over last year and did alright, I scored a few” said North. “It didn’t really happen for me with goals at the start of this season, then at Derry it took a penalty to get me going. I haven’t really looked back from there.”
It’s all a game of confidence, he says. “With strikers a lot comes down to confidence - we live off goals. That’s what I’m doing at the minute. Hopefully I can carry it on.”
The Saints are hoping to overturn a 1-0 away loss to IBV Vestmannaeyjar in Richmond Park and North says that he’s excited at the prospect of his home European debut.
“I’ve seen clips on Youtube and I’ve heard all the talk around the club of how good the European nights are here. I can’t wait for it” he says. “Hopefully we get a good result. We’ve got a great chance too, the crowd will be behind us.”
North has hit a rich vein of form in recent weeks in domestic football, but says he’s still not sure of how different the IBV defence is to those he’s used to. “It’s hard to say because I’ve only ever played one game in Europe and even then I had one or two chances.”
Tactically though, the Pats striker sees something he recognises in IBV. “They play similarly, in their formation, to Sligo” he says. “They have three in the middle and they always move around and look for the ball. They’re a good team going forward, when they got a spell on the ball it was tough for us to get it back.”
Still, as dangerous as the Icelandic side are on the attack, North is still confident. “It was a penalty that beat us, which was silly really” he recalls. “They’re nothing to be scared of. We are confident, they’re coming over to us so they’ll have been travelling.”
The atmosphere at Richmond Park will only add to their efforts, North adds hopefully: “It’s our home ground so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be confident. With the way we played in Iceland, we played well enough to win the game.”
North counts Pats as unlucky that they didn’t come away with something from the first leg. “We had enough chances but we didn’t take them. They had a couple of chances too, Gary [Rogers] pulled off a couple of great saves.”
Pats lost to local rivals Shamrock Rovers on Sunday, but North isn’t too worried that the loss will hamper the team’s preparation. “Luckily there’s a game so close, we can get out and try to make amends for losing two on the trot” North says. “We’re desperate to not make it three. We’ll all be ready. We’ll train tonight in preparation for Thursday and Thursday we’ll have a right good bash.”
On his domestic form, North is hopeful that he can continue what so far has been a strong season for the Englishman. “I came over last year and did alright, I scored a few” said North. “It didn’t really happen for me with goals at the start of this season, then at Derry it took a penalty to get me going. I haven’t really looked back from there.”
It’s all a game of confidence, he says. “With strikers a lot comes down to confidence - we live off goals. That’s what I’m doing at the minute. Hopefully I can carry it on.”
About Niall Farrell
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