‘It's about creating new memories' – Shels captain Mark Coyle embraces Joey O'Brien era ahead of Linfield Champions League tie
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Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Shelbourne boss Joey O'Brien targets victory in Croatia despite admitting ‘monster task' awaits
Europa League 3rd qualifying round, 1st leg: Rijeka (Croatia) v Shelbourne, Stadion Rujevica, Rijeka, 7.45pm – Live on Solid Sport (streaming) From Belfast to Baku and now the picturesque Croatian port town of Rijeka, these past six weeks have been a whirlwind experience for Shelbourne and Joey O'Brien . At least the new manager has got a firm handle on his media duties. 'This is going to be a monster game,' said O'Brien before the League of Ireland champions face a side that, on paper, is 10 times more valuable than his evolving squad. 'A monster task,' he repeated before the Shelbourne players trained on Tuesday night in 27-degree heat. '[Rijeka] were unlucky not to beat Ludogorets [last week], having two men sent off. I thought they were the better team. They were unlucky. They are a serious side, but we'll set up to win the game, like we always do.' READ MORE Ludogorets, Bulgaria's European specialists, needed extra-time last Wednesday to eliminate a rusty Rijeka from the Champions League. That defeat happened three days before Radomir Djalovic's men opened their defence of the Croatian title against Slaven Belupo, winning 2-0. Shels also beat Sligo Rovers 2-0 at the Showgrounds on Saturday as new signings Seán Moore and Milan Mbeng made their debuts. The high drama that put Ludogorets into a Champions League showdown against Hungary's Ferencvaros, managed by Robbie Keane, came at a cost to Rijeka as they drop into the Europa League without suspended pair Toni Fruk and Gabriel Rukavina. [ Shelbourne and Linfield could meet again in Conference League playoff with €4m at stake Opens in new window ] O'Brien might recall his recently hamstrung goalkeeper Conor Kearns instead of new Dutch signing Wessel Speel. 'Goalkeepers don't really need to run that quick, so he is not too bad,' he said. Shels were close to full strength against Sligo, as they remain three points off a European spot for next season with 10 matches to play. Turns out, O'Brien knows what he is doing, having revived the club's on-pitch displays since Damien Duff resigned on June 22nd. Conor Kearns could be back in goal for Shelbourne against Rijeka. Photograph: James Lawlor/Inpho Besides the concession of two gut-punch, late goals to Azerbaijan's Qarabag in a 3-0 Champions League loss at Tolka Park on July 23rd, followed by a respectable 1-0 defeat in Baku, Shels are unbeaten under O'Brien in the other seven games. If they somehow find a way past Rijeka, with the second leg at Tolka next Tuesday, the winner from Greek side PAOK and Wolfsberger of Austria await in the Europa League playoff. The winners of the playoff reach the group stage. The likelier scenario is a return to Windsor Park against Linfield as David Healy's NIFL Premiership champions are expected to set up a Uefa Conference League playoff against Shels by beating Vikingur from the Faroe Islands. The winner of the playoff is guaranteed €4 million in Uefa prize money. O'Brien would not be drawn on the potential for the club's ownership to recoup three years of investment, after accumulating seven-figure losses since the Duff project was launched in 2022. Talking about the task at hand, he said: 'I said it to the lads, 'I hate Plan Bs'. We are not thinking about Plan B. This is what it is about for us: tomorrow's game. You start thinking about Plan B, you take your eye off the ball and you play safe. 'No. This is the game we want to attack. This is the tie we want to win.' A notably professional performance against Qarabag last week, despite the second-leg being effectively a dead rubber, indicates that O'Brien's instructions are being executed on the pitch. That was the crux of Duff's frustrations in the days leading up to his resignation. The former manager had started to question the commitment of some in the Shelbourne dressingroom. The players, to a man, appear more switched on since. The test of European football against superior opposition appears to have turned Shelbourne's season around. Mipo Odubeko could add more than his eight goals in 20 appearances as the season enters the home straight. The arrival of current Ireland under-21s, Moore from West Ham and Jack Henry-Francis from Arsenal, potentially brings the quality needed to thrive in the Conference League group stages. In the meantime, Kerr McInroy and Evan Caffrey must continue their inspirational seasons in red. 'Irish teams, our record in Europe away from home against stronger teams and stronger countries over the years is not very good,' O'Brien added. 'It is going to be a monster task. But it is a task we want and we are going to embrace. We are going to put our best foot forward and try and get a result.'
RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
'We hate Plan Bs' - Joey O'Brien urges Shelbourne to put best foot forward and play to win
Joey O'Brien has urged his Shelbourne side to put their best foot forward against Rijeka in tomorrow night's Europa League clash, and emphasised that there is no talk of a Plan B in the dressing room. Shelbourne would go into the play-off round of the Europa League – one tie from the league phase – should they beat Rijeka over two legs, however, there is also a viable way into the Conference League equivalent should O'Brien's side get beaten. A re-match with Linfield, a team Shelbourne have already beaten this summer, could be on the cards in such a scenario, however, the manager believes that it would be counterproductive to even assess that situation ahead of a vital game with the Croatian champions. O'Brien was cautiously optimistic about his side's chances of progression against a "really strong" side, while adding that it would be a "monster task" to go through. The Shelbourne manager believes that his side come into the tie as underdogs, however, the intention remains to set up to win the game, taking into account the soaring temperatures and the unknowns when coming up against a new side. "I think they are favourites," said O'Brien, speaking at the pre-match press conference. "It's going to be a really difficult game, but it's a game that we can't wait for. "We have a game-plan to try to set up to win the game, that's the way we always play. That's the aim of the game, every time we go out and play, we look to win. "If you have a game-plan just sitting in trying to survive for 90 minutes, I don't think it works like that." O'Brien sees possession as a key factor in European competition and he believes that his side will show their capabilities if they can keep control of the football for sustained periods of play. However, the manager has urged caution ahead of the game and has told his players that they really need to show total concentration in the early stages to get a real understanding of the opposition and how to implement the aforementioned game-plan. "In European football, you need to get into possession, and I think we showed that against Qarabag in the previous round that when we get on the ball and show quality, we're a good team. That's one of my big messages to our players tomorrow, is to put your best foot forward," said O'Brien. "It's that feeling out of each other," he added. "The lads have seen e n ough video of them now at this stage. Seeing who the individual players are going to come up against and certain patterns they work as a team. "But again, you never really know until you're out on the pitch and you see the movements and you see how quick they are and stuff like that. "So we obviously need to be on guard of that because we've learned before that you cannot give away moments in the start of the game really because otherwise you're going to turn into a long night. "It's about, making sure we're on guard in that first half." And O'Brien believes that his side have being building momentum through a string of good performances in both the league and in European competition, and while he still rues that first leg performance against Qarabag, where they lost 3-0 at Tolka Park, he feels that his team bounced back impressively in the second leg. "I think we've been playing good stuff over the last little while," said O'Brien, when asked about confidence levels within the squad ahead of the game. "In the Qarabag game, it was a really tough opposition, and we're disappointed how we started the game in the first half. We let them settle into it a little bit. But I thought second half we were really good again and had the momentum of the game. "Then over in Qarabag, the lads again done really well, and we were able to make changes, which shows the strength of the squad that we have. We done really well in that game, I felt. The game-plan was decent enough, we had a couple of chances and should have scored, so who knows how that leg could have went?" And as for Plan B, O'Brien was not entertaining talk about what possibilities could come via the Conference League. "I spoke to the lads about it. We hate Plan B's and we're not thinking about Plan B. If you think about Plan B, you take your eye off the ball. "As a player, if you start letting yourself think like that, 'maybe this might happen or we get these again', that's not the way you play football. "You want to go out and challenge yourself and attack what's in front of you and I think you're at your best when you don't have that safety net or you think, it's OK to lose, it's not too bad. "It's going to be a monster game. Irish teams, our record in Europe away from home against stronger teams and stronger countries over the years isn't very good. "So it's going to be a monster task but it's the task that we want and we're going to embrace and we're going to try and put our best foot forward and get a result."
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
'I hate Plan Bs': O'Brien's eyes fixed firmly on Rijeka
Europa League third round; Rijeka v Shelbourne, Stadion HNK Rijeka - Weds, 7.45pm Irish time. Plan Bs are for strategists that don't include Joey O'Brien. Shelbourne's manager sees Rijeka, instead of potentially Linfield, as the team to beat for the Reds to secure a maiden European league phase participation. The Croatian double-winners his team faces in the coastal city of Rijeka have form in that regard, reaching the Europa group stages four times between 2014 and 2021. Ludogorets tumbled them back into that eyeline with an extra-time 3-1 Champions League victory last week. Defeat came with a deeper cost of losing two influential attackers, Gabriel Rukavina and Toni Fruk, to red cards and suspension for this first leg. They'll still fancy accounting for the Irish visitors over a tie which concludes next Tuesday at Tolka Park. Managed by former Montenegrin international Radomir Đalović and captained by Bosnia Herzegovina goalkeeper Martin Zlomislić, their squad is a cross-section of nationalities spawned from the former Yugoslavia. The cascading nature of the champions path presents Shels with another shot at the Conference League group if their mission fails. It would probably entail a derby match against Linfield, or more succinctly a rematch after the League of Ireland prevailed in the first All-Island clash last month. Former Ireland international O'Brien is aware of the permutations from Monday's draw, without letting the minds of his players wander towards future possibilities. While Shels players have highlighted the kudos and financial rewards from having six extra games in the next phase, their singular focus on getting there is through the Europa. 'I spoke to the players and I said I hate Plan Bs,' he asserted. 'If you think about Plan B, blah, blah, blah, you take your eye off the ball. You play safe and you play as if it's not too big a deal. 'This is it for us. This is the game we want to attack and this is the tie we want to win.' Shels may have Conor Kearns returning in goal. He limped off in the second, away leg against Linfield to be replaced by Lorcan Healy and then new capture Wessel Speel but could be fit to resume. Qarabag, another team with European pedigree, inflicted a 4-0 defeat on Shels in the second round and O'Brien was loath to offer an opinion on how this test compares. 'It's hard to say because, looking at them from the Ludogorets game, they were the better team and should have won that tie. 'We're prepared for a tough game but there's only so much we can talk about the opposition. It's about players knowing that while we'll have to suffer for times without the ball, biting down the gumshield at times to get through them, we've to make the most of our spells in possession. 'We were guilty last week against Qarabag of too many cheap turnovers, especially in the first half. If you keep giving away possession against this calibre of team, they'll pin you in, the momentum is with them for chances and it's a long night.'
