North points the way for Rovers

Given how close Ireland and England are to one another, and the cultural similarities between the two nations, it is not something that is reflected in the game over here. There is a real lack of English players in the League of Ireland and one of the somewhat rare Brits to play in our league is Shamrock Rovers striker Danny North.

The 27-year-old has been in Ireland for five years now, and Extratime.ie sat down with player recently to discuss his new club, his hopes for this season and beyond, and to look at Irish football as a whole.

Many pundits are tipping a repeat of last year’s title race between Dundalk and Cork City, with Pat Fenlon’s men being seen as outsiders to take the league, but North insists that the Tallaght side have what it takes to go all the way, and not just in the league.

“Our hopes are to win the league, as well as every other competition we are in,” said North. “We definitely have the squad to be able to compete on all fronts and we’ve started well, especially with the team being new and working under a new manager as well.”

Rovers began the campaign with a 1-0 victory over North’s first Irish club – St. Patrick’s Athletic – and North admitted he took a lot of pleasure from bagging the winner against his former club.

“It’s always nice to play against an old team and to do well, especially when the fans have been giving you a bit of stick. It was important for me to get off the mark so early, it was made sweeter that it was in a Dublin derby and it was such a big game.

"I had never scored on a debut before that so it was extra important for me on a personal level to open my account for the club.”

North has had some injury difficulties during his time here, and a couple of games into his Rovers career, he picked up an injury on the same knee that had caused problems in the past. Fans feared the worst, and so did North.

“The injury is so frustrating. You want to carry on the good momentum of scoring on your debut but it interrupts that. I just want to be able to contribute to the team all the time so it’s so frustrating being forced to watch from the stands.

“Fortunately it’s not as bad as I feared. I worried it was a recurrence of the problem I had with my ligament in that knee but thankfully it wasn’t that serious. I have met with my specialist and he’s more than happy with my knee though so there shouldn’t be any more problems.

"It is frustrating missing out this early but I have a two year contract here and plan on winning enough trophies while I’m here to make up for this brief absence.“

The striker is not the only new face in Tallaght, manager Pat Fenlon is still relatively new on the scene and North did not stop short of praising his new boss and his staff.

“He [Fenlon] was a massive factor in me deciding to come here. He showed a huge interest in bringing me to the club and that made a difference. He has a great reputation here and did a good job in Scotland too, so it is great to be working under him. “

Another new face it the club from at Dublin 24 is Irish international Keith Fahey, who returned to the league in recent years after some time in England as part of what seems to be a growing trend of established international players returning to the league. North is adamant that this can only mean good things for the league as a whole.

“It is great to play with these players. I had the honour of playing with Joey Ndo at Sligo and he was incredible – definitely one of the best players I’ve seen that close.

“Having Stephen McPhail and Keith Fahey back is great. Seeing them in training at times is unbelievable. Just watching them is incredible. I wouldn’t say I’m in awe of them, though, as they are my teammates and we are on the same level but playing in Champions League semi-finals (like Stephen McPhail) and for your country is incredible.

"Having players like these come back can only be good for the league.”

With these recent signings in mind, the question of whether or not a potential extended European campaign was a possibility for Rovers in the coming years was put to North.

“I think it is. It’s what we need to aim for. We have a really good squad here and we feel like we can push for that. When it comes to the latter rounds of qualification teams are more intelligent – they know how to better control and manage a game, when to go for the kill and when to just knock the ball around. This year, with Stephen and Fats (Keith Fahey), we have that intelligence.

“We want to go far. I think between ourselves, Dundalk and Cork we have a chance of seeing at least one team get through.”

North admitted that there isn’t much knowledge of the league in England, and recounted the story of how he ended up here.

“I had left Grimsby and went to Scunthorpe in the Championship for a bit on trial. Eventually, it just became too expensive travelling up and down so I moved to Alfreton in the Conference North. That was a massive shock to the system and a bit of a reality check. I realized I needed to pull the finger out if I wanted to play football.

“I had spoken to Pete Mahon at Pat’s and he was keen to bring me over for a trial. Graham Westley at Stevenage also offered me a trial on a month-long contract with a view to extending it. I told Graham that Pat’s were interested in me and he told me to tell them no and that he was signing me.

"The next day I got a call from Pete but I didn’t answer it because I didn’t know what to say. Shortly after, I got a text from Graham Westley and he basically told me they wouldn’t be signing me.” Thankfully, Pat’s were still interested in me and in the end, the move worked out.”

The new Rovers number nine continued to talk about the domestic game, and expressed some concerns about the competitiveness of the league as a whole and how actions need to be taken to address this.

“There needs to be some kind of structure. The wages aren’t big enough to implement a salary cap but something needs to be done. The FAI need to look into some system whereby the gap between the top four clubs and the rest doesn’t continue to stretch.

“The licensing system in place at the moment isn’t working. It’s a shambles what is going on at some clubs and you don’t want to see clubs struggling. I do fear that if it isn’t managed properly it could become a big problem.”

North is back playing with the Hoops following that injury lay off and was a second half substitute for Rovers in Limerick last weekend. On Tuesday night, he started and scored in the 3-1 win the Hoops had in Athlone in the Leinster Senior Cup.

He will be part of the match day squad on Friday when Rovers take on Drogheda United in Tallaght but may find it difficult to displace Mikey Drennan who has been in good goalscoring form in North’s absence.