Steve Williams tells Shelbourne stars to seize ‘once-in-a-lifetime' European chance

The Irish Sun

15 hours ago

Williams says the Conference League play-off with Linfield is an opportunity the modern squad must savour
STEVE WILLIAMS says that going close to the group stages with Shelbourne was not the proudest achievement of his career.
But it was the biggest, and he told the modern day Reds to savour every moment of their opportunity now.
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Former Shelbourne keeper Steve Williams has urged the Dublin-based side to give it a real go in Europe
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Shelbourne face Linfield in the Conference League play-off aiming to take the club into the group stages for the first
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Shelbourne face Linfield this week and next in the Conference League play-off aiming to take the club into the group stages for the first time in their history.
And the game brings back memories of 31 years ago when Shelbourne went close to being the first Irish club to do so in the Champions League.
Just 32 clubs reached the promised land in those days and the Reds had a glorious run seeing off KR Reykjavik and Hajduk Split before facing Deportivo La Coruna.
Goalkeeper Williams told SunSport: 'They'd been in the Champions League semi-finals the season before that.
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'I remember watching them against Porto and they could have beaten them. Porto won 1-0 on aggregate and went on to win the final.
'And then lo and behold, we're playing them a few months later for a chance to get into the Champions League group stage.'
The first leg at Lansdowne Road was a 22,000 sell-out (terracing was not allowed be used) and Shels then headed for La Coruna in Spain just 90 minutes from glory.
Williams continued: 'Half-time in the Raizor, we went to the bathroom and were looking at each other going 'holy s***, we're only 45 minutes from the group stages!'
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'We'd missed a sitter in the first half, Jay Byrne put a free header wide that you'd always back him to score as well.
'But the last 35 minutes in the second half, Deportivo went up a gear. They showed us that the gap between us was too big.
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'Nowadays, you'd go straight in the Europa group stage if you were in that tie. But we then had Lille in a play-off for that group stage.
'Unfortunately, Lille were really good. I think they were actually better than Deportivo, they were more organised. We drew (2-2) at home and lost (2-0) over there.
'Those games were big. Your whole football life is based on playing the best players in Europe, and sometimes the world.
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'And we did that for a spell. We didn't do it all of our careers but we weren't outperformed and we put a dot on the map for Irish soccer at the time.
'I think that's why a lot of us stayed in Ireland then when we could have moved to the UK, the chance to do something in Europe was special.'
Welshman Williams, who settled in Dundalk when he first moved to Ireland in 1997 and has remained in the town to this day, also acknowledged the financial incentives are there too.
He said: 'I think it was just over a €100,000 to win the tie. The Euro had just come in a few years earlier. It wouldn't have paid off your mortgage, but it would have paid a good chunk.'
And what happened two years later is why Williams believes Shelbourne's players should relish these moments, as he saw how quickly things could change.
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The goalkeeper won the league - his fifth - with Shelbourne in 2006 that he counts as his proudest achievement. But that was because of the turmoil off the pitch.
MONEY MATTERS
Williams added: 'We probably only got paid four months that year. I was working in a bar to put fuel in my car to get to Dublin for training, which no one knows.
'I was a full-time footballer…No money coming in, two young children, a mortgage…it was demoralising two years after nearly having your mortgage paid off!
'Myself and David Crawley, who also lived in Dundalk, missed some training sessions because we couldn't afford the petrol.
'But we still won the league. Of all my medals, that is the one that still takes pride of place because of what it took to win it.
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'It was, I suppose, an end of a chapter too as it was Shelbourne's last league before last year.'
And while the League of Ireland has largely moved away from the boom and bust cycle then, Williams insisted that players must take the chance now, because it may never come again.
He added: 'The year after we played Glentoran in the first round and won it well, but nothing ever matched the Deportivo year for us anyway.
'It helped me at Dundalk (as goalkeeping coach) as you could see what was needed. We were fit but didn't have the same technical level as Deportivo.
'Now the players are fitter - there is no gap in fitness to the top teams - and technically better as well so it become more a chess game where one thing can change a game.
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'When Dundalk reached the group stages, I felt that was it. At first we slogged for a few years, lost to BATE and a few others.
'But by the time we played BATE Borisov again (in 2016) we knew how to stay strong defensively, ride out the tough moments and win games.
'Shels….they'll fancy it against Linfield as I do think there is a difference in fitness. But it won't be a big difference.'