“Aspirations will have to be high this year.”
Shamrock Rovers captain Ronan Finn isn’t shirking the responsibility.
The Tallaght Stadium outfit get their league campaign underway in a hotly-anticipated derby with Bohs on Friday night and Finn, who has played in many big games throughout his career, hopes that his side’s quality will shine through in the less hectic periods of the game.
“I’ve played in quite a few big games,” Finn said.
“It’s going to be high tempo [on Friday against Bohs] so we have to make sure there are no silly mistakes in the first 20-25 minutes.
“It’s just going to be a bit hectic, the game will eventually settle down and hopefully our quality will shine through.”
A strong pre-season campaign has set Rovers up nicely for the campaign ahead.
“We have worked well in pre-season, got some good results,” Finn said.
“We don’t want the game to be scrappy for the whole 90 minutes but we understand it’s going to be a high paced game. It will settle down and hopefully we will come out on top.
“You would love to get an early goal to silence the crowd. If that doesn’t happen, you make sure you stay in the game, then as the game settles down you keep your composure and eventually the ball will settle and we will get to play our football.
“We will have to press them – you’ll have the intensity from them and us, it’s a Dublin derby and nobody wants to get beaten and we have to make sure that we come out the right side of it.”
The midfielder is happy to see the club take a more youthful approach since Stephen Bradley took charge in November of 2016 and he hopes that this could be the start of a constant flow of young players coming into the Rovers first team.
“Trevor Clarke and Aaron Bolger, these names are just trying to set the pace but there is a lot more than that,” the skipper said.
“Hopefully over the next period of years there will be a constant flow of young talent coming through the club and into the first team and that’s why we have put so much emphasis on the acadamy, we see it as a pathway into the first team.
“This season, who knows. It’s quite hard to say there is an abundance of talent and any lad can step up. The manager has shown that he’s not afraid to throw youth in and then it’s up to the player when he’s got the confidence from the coaching staff to take his chance.”
Finn has been there himself.
“It’s better to show your experience in big games. I was a young lad at UCD, it’s slightly different experiences for these young lads now going straight into big games like Dublin derbies and European football.
“UCD is an unbelievable place to develop football but the games at 18, 19 or 20 wouldn’t be as big compared to the ones the young lads are playing in now. We have to be there to make sure of no nerves before the game.
“You go to enjoy it, you play your best football, and you’ve just got to make sure that anything you do for a young kid, you try and give him that extra bit of confidence and make them believe in themselves.”
This article was written by Sam McKeever.
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