CHARLIE FROM THE STANDS: Small margins make all the difference

In any sport, at any level, maintaining success is one of the most difficult challenges that you will face. Take athletics as an example – having to find those tiny margins to stay ahead. Your split seconds. Your millimeters.

Most recently in the League of Ireland, Shamrock Rovers’ exploits and their surge towards four consecutive league titles has been built on being able to hit form at crucial times. So often, they have been written off after poor starts, dropping points against so-called lesser sides and losing key men to injury. But for some reason, it has always seemed to click for them at focal parts of the season.

In the words of Rafa Benitez, ‘the facts are the facts’, and the historical success of Shamrock Rovers – 21 League titles, 25 FAI Cups, 2 League Cups and 2 Setanta Cups – is something you have to applaud. As a club, they are steeped in silverware, but with that comes a level of arrogance and entitlement – ‘we are Shamrock Rovers’. Even back in the early 2000’s when the club were ground-sharing with anyone that would take them, the Tallaght side were, I’m sure, disliked by the majority.

With the title of four-in-a-row Champions beside them, the target on their back is well and truly set. Derry City are finally looking like a title-worthy side under the stewardship of Ruaidhri Higgins, St Pat’s are beginning the first chapter of the next Stephen Kenny success story and Damien Duff has his Shelbourne side kicking and screaming their way to the summit of the Premier Division so far. This is new for Rovers. They won’t be used to this.

In my opinion, there seems to be some mental fatigue setting in. Look at their brief run of fixtures in Europe last season as an example. Every single performance was abysmal, but perhaps overlooked because of their title triumph. But with the quality in their squad, there was no reason for them to have put in such a poor showing. Their form in the league this year has arguably been their most inconsistent of Stephen Bradley’s tenure. And why?

Shamrock Rovers and Stephen Bradley admitted that after the European disaster last year, the players got together and discussed the drop in levels and how they needed one last push to achieve the fourth successive title, which was hanging heavily from their own fans and within the club. And despite ultimately achieving that goal, for me, it looked like it was the last dance for this squad. Alan Mannus, Ronan Finn and Sean Gannon all departed for pastures new – proven winners that knew where to find those tiny margins. The mental and physical fatigue from not only last year's final push for the league but the four years previously, has the players and management team looking mentally and physically tired.

Their margins might only be small, but that's all it takes for standards to slip and for other teams to capitalize.

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When looking at the fixture after the break, I earmarked this week’s tie between Sligo Rovers and Derry City as one which could prove significant in the title race.

Derry City’s record at the Showgrounds makes for interesting reading. Truthfully, I read the stats a few times because I didn’t believe them at first, second or third look, but Derry have won just 10 of their last 40 meetings with their North-West rivals in Sligo, winning only twice in the last 12 encounters between both sides - not the kind of record I would have thought considering the two clubs’ ambitions over the last few years.

This time, it feels a little more optimistic. Derry City are in good form, with four wins on the bounce and look like a team that mean business. This match on Thursday will tell you everything we need to know about this Derry side.

Having been at all the games in the Showgrounds over the last three years, it has been a recurring theme that Derry have failed to do enough. Now, I know too well how difficult a place the Showgrounds can be (Shamrock Rovers found out just that last week) but Derry are in a completely different position than Rovers. Finally, they look to have some steel in the team and Ruaidhri seems to be mixing up the playing style, and mixing it up is exactly what is required on Thursday night. For me, Derry have had great success this year by going more direct and getting people higher up the pitch and in the box, particularly against the so-called weaker teams.

It was evident at home to Galway recently, in all three Waterford games and against Drogheda in both home games. Think full-backs high, wingers running in behind and your number 10 collecting second balls then playing forward in the transition, all the while playing close to Pat Hoban. Most other sides will play 10 yards deeper and move the ball side to side, which is needed in certain games, but that's the flexibility that Ruaidhri Higgins and his management team are not getting credit for this year, because the League of Ireland is challenging and you need to win ugly sometimes. And it seems to be the only way to win in the Showgrounds these days, which takes mental strength, discipline and physical resolve.

The importance of this match cannot be understated, considering the next match after the European and FAI Cup matches is Shelbourne vs Derry City (August 2nd). Ruaidhri will want to be going into that game with Shelbourne within striking distance.

Shelbourne scoring twice early in a game sends another message that says ‘we are going nowhere’. In two weeks, they have brought in two experienced League of Ireland players which has strengthened their squad and they don't look to be finished just yet. With the addition of Wood, along with Ali Coote and SamBone, Damien Duff has reinforced the spin of this Shelbourne team. Is Damien Duff now starting to change boring Shels into a stylish, free-flowing goal-scoring team?

Meanwhile, St Pat’s have started to flex their muscles in the transfer market. Having already secured former West Ham goalkeeper Joseph Anang and left back Al-min Kazeem from Colchester (good player who was on loan at Galway), they have been linked with James Abankwah who is currently with Udinese, former Bohs and Rovers star Danny Mandriou and the industrial Greg Slogett, who is a free agent after his short stint in Cheltenham. Now, there is a massive difference between being linked with and signing them, but if this is an example of the quality of players that Stephen Kenny and St Pat’s are going after, it will be a very interesting finish to the season.

Derry City visit Inchicore on the second last game of the season, while Shelbourne host St Pat’s on 13 September. I believe St Pat’s will have a big say in who wins the league this year. And if I know Stephen Kenny, he will see the FAI Cup as top priority, with a view to qualifying for Europe which in turn will help him attract the sort of players St Pat’s have been linked with.