Dundee's Dillion enjoying old haunts

Credit:

Sean Dillon moved from Shelbourne to Dundee United back in 2007. In the past four years has been a regular at right back for the Scottish side making over 100 appearances, one of which was in the Scottish Cup final in 2010 where they beat Ross County 3-0. Sean is clearly enjoying his time in Scotland but admitted it was nice being home for a while. “I’m enjoying it, I’m quite happy there but it’s always good to be back. Nice to see the family and that, obviously staying so close to home is a bonus”

Dundee United have been over to Ireland for pre-season a few times in recent years and Dillon believes his side certainly benefit from the trip and the couple of matches, they defeated Drogheda United 2-1 on Sunday in their first game. “It’s great. You get two teams who are fit and last 90 minutes” He couldn’t help but let out a laugh realising how tired he was. “We had to work to the end. There’s no point coming here for two easy games. We’re over here to work and get the fitness up.”

He was quite impressed with the home side, Bohemians in what was definitely a game of two halves. United dominated the first but their fitness levels showed in the second half and Bohs took hold to equalise through Gary Burke. “I thought they were excellent tonight. We were stronger in the first half but we got tired. We didn’t expect an easy game and we didn’t get it. I was impressed but I certainly wasn’t expecting them to be poor.”

Like their hosts, the away side also had an interest in their Europa League draw where they were paired with the Polish side ?l?sk Wroc?aw, who finished second in their league. Sean Dillon was looking forward to the game especially after getting a taste of European football last year when they lost to AEK Athen 2-1 on aggregate. “It was a tough one last year, they were favourites and the team we’re playing this year will probably be favourites again. They’ll be a strong team but we’ll go in with confidence and this was a good exercise for us ahead of that.”

Dillon had a very successful career in Ireland, winning two FAI Cups during his time with Longford Town and collecting a league winner’s medal in 2006 with Shelbourne before he made the switch to the Tangerines. He still holds an interest in Irish football, admitting he tries “to keep an eye one everything. Obviously there are different people at different clubs now.” As he lists off a multitude of people including Owen Heary, Pat Fenlon and Ollie Cahill who he worked with at Shels but are now plying their trade with Bohemians.

“I haven’t been at a Shels game since I left but I’ve been back to Longford. I definitely try and keep an eye on who’s doing well and hoping for fellas to get moves here and there”

Sean will head back to Scotland with Dundee United in the coming days for more preparation before the trip to Poland on the 14th July and the early start to the SPL season which begins at the end of July.