It's time for experience to shine
Credit:
After another week of Airtricity League action the top five sides are still in contention for league honours. At the present moment Derry City sit on the summit of the table with the chasing pack following closely behind. With Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians both having a game in hand over Derry, Sligo and ourselves it promises to be one of the most exciting and closely contested title races the league has ever seen.
No doubt there will be a lot of twists and turns before the seasons end with not only league honours to play for but european qualification also. After Shamrock Rovers success this season in the Europa League, I’m convinced that there is now a real belief amongst the league that our other top clubs can also qualify to the group stages of a European competition.
The league table at this moment in time provides some evidence for this theory. In my opinion this is the time where the more experienced players in each squad will come to the fore. Players like Barry Molloy, Joseph Ndo, Dan Murray, Dave Mulcahy and Owen Heary all are fantastic players in there own right and their influence in the remaining games of the season will be crucial to the eventual winners. All of the aforementioned players have been around the league a long time and will have experiences of being involved in title run ins. If there was any one example of how important experienced players are at a club ,then I don’t think you would need to look further than Ryan Giggs.
A 27th Champions League goal last night against Benfica, at the age of 37 years and 289 days, brought another record for the oldest scorer to grace the competition, overtaking Raúl with a goal in 16 successive seasons at the highest level of European competition. His first and second had arrived 17 years ago to the day, in a 4-2 victory over Gothenburg. His experience has no doubt played a massive part in Manchester United’s title triumphs over the years and I’ve no doubt that the eventual winners of the 2011 Airtricity League will have one of those type of players as their driving force.
In other news it was interesting to see that Shelbourne have been re-instated into the FAI Cup. In my opinion I think it’s the right decision and with both Shelbourne and Limerick battling it out for promotion from the First Division it promises to be a mouth-watering Quarter Final. Some of my former Sporting Fingal team mates are playing for each side, and they will no doubt have the memory of winning the FAI Cup in 2009 to spur them on. Likewise for myself when we travel to Turner’s Cross to play against Cork City this coming Friday.
With the game being broadcast live on RTE2 we will be hoping for another impressive TV cameo from Danny North to see us progress into the semi finals. On Monday night we hosted Shamrock Rovers which was live on Setanta Sports and Danny rescued us a point with an exceptional finish in difficult, windy conditions to make it 1-1 after a wonderful cross field ball from Ian Bermingham. Danny has been a revelation in front of goal for us this season and we will be hoping his form, and goals, will help propel us into the next round.
With us already involved in the Leinster Senior Cup Final after beating Killester 4-0 in a semi final replay, everybody at the club is hungry to reach another final. We are well aware of how tough its going to be against a Cork City side who are going strong in the First Division and have already beaten us in the EA Sports Quarter Final earlier on in the season. Nonetheless we will be going into this game with confidence and hopefully we will give the travelling Saints fans something to cheer about on the way home.
Although there is still so much to play for and so much pressure involved, its not quite squeeky bum time yet , but soon enough somebody's going to crack... lets just hope its not us .. because i have no toilet roll left !
No doubt there will be a lot of twists and turns before the seasons end with not only league honours to play for but european qualification also. After Shamrock Rovers success this season in the Europa League, I’m convinced that there is now a real belief amongst the league that our other top clubs can also qualify to the group stages of a European competition.
The league table at this moment in time provides some evidence for this theory. In my opinion this is the time where the more experienced players in each squad will come to the fore. Players like Barry Molloy, Joseph Ndo, Dan Murray, Dave Mulcahy and Owen Heary all are fantastic players in there own right and their influence in the remaining games of the season will be crucial to the eventual winners. All of the aforementioned players have been around the league a long time and will have experiences of being involved in title run ins. If there was any one example of how important experienced players are at a club ,then I don’t think you would need to look further than Ryan Giggs.
A 27th Champions League goal last night against Benfica, at the age of 37 years and 289 days, brought another record for the oldest scorer to grace the competition, overtaking Raúl with a goal in 16 successive seasons at the highest level of European competition. His first and second had arrived 17 years ago to the day, in a 4-2 victory over Gothenburg. His experience has no doubt played a massive part in Manchester United’s title triumphs over the years and I’ve no doubt that the eventual winners of the 2011 Airtricity League will have one of those type of players as their driving force.
In other news it was interesting to see that Shelbourne have been re-instated into the FAI Cup. In my opinion I think it’s the right decision and with both Shelbourne and Limerick battling it out for promotion from the First Division it promises to be a mouth-watering Quarter Final. Some of my former Sporting Fingal team mates are playing for each side, and they will no doubt have the memory of winning the FAI Cup in 2009 to spur them on. Likewise for myself when we travel to Turner’s Cross to play against Cork City this coming Friday.
With us already involved in the Leinster Senior Cup Final after beating Killester 4-0 in a semi final replay, everybody at the club is hungry to reach another final. We are well aware of how tough its going to be against a Cork City side who are going strong in the First Division and have already beaten us in the EA Sports Quarter Final earlier on in the season. Nonetheless we will be going into this game with confidence and hopefully we will give the travelling Saints fans something to cheer about on the way home.
Although there is still so much to play for and so much pressure involved, its not quite squeeky bum time yet , but soon enough somebody's going to crack... lets just hope its not us .. because i have no toilet roll left !
