Richie Towell: Stephen Bradley's criticism of Josh Honohan's display against Galway United would have been better kept in-house

RTÉ News​

2 days ago

Richie Towell believes Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley should have kept his post-match critique of Josh Honohan's performance against Galway United in-house rather than commenting publicly.
The 0-0 draw at Tallaght Stadium was the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division league leaders' final fixture before the mid-season break, ending what had been a five-game winning run, with Honohan now linking up with the Republic of Ireland senior squad after earning his maiden international call-up.
Honohan was hauled off after an hour with his manager Bradley later criticising the defender's performance levels in the game as well as that of the team at large.
"He was awful. That's the worst I've seen Josh. That's the worst I've ever seen him," Bradley told the newspapers afterwards.
"He was extremely poor. It's not nice (to be taken off) but he's been brilliant for us. He's obviously got his call-up, deserved it. He's doing great, well done, but tonight he was a million miles off what he has been in every aspect. It's not good enough.
"It's not good enough for us, it's not good enough for Ireland, I'm sure. It's not good enough for anyone. He's been playing at an incredibly high level, but you can't come off as much as… and it wasn't just him, it was the whole team in the first half, but Josh was really poor. I'm quick enough to give him credit and you have to call it straight, it wasn't good enough."
Bradley has generally been generous in his praise of his players and the criticism after the Galway game could be interpreted as a means for the Hoops manager to remind his squad to keep standards up.
However, former Rovers midfielder Towell, who played alongside Honohan, told this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast that while a manager has every right to let his players know when he's not happy with them, criticism of players being made publicly beyond the confines of the dressing room and training ground isn't always necessary - especially with a player of Honohan's commitment levels.
"Normally, I'm sure all the lads found out even before it got to a newspaper or a journalist or anything like that because I'm sure when Stephen came in, straight after the game or maybe even at half-time - he probably earmarked it at half-time - (to the players, telling them) 'get your finger out here, you're not doing good enough'. But I don't really like the public side of it, coming out and doing it, for me," the former Dundalk and Rovers' title winner said.
"Listen, I understand doing that if you have a type of player who is a Big Time Charlie, who doesn't come into training on time, doesn't work hard and is kind of going through the motions. But Josh is anything but that.
"He's always one of the first ones into training, anything he gets asked to do in the gym he does it. On the pitch, he works tirelessly hard and his performances have been really good.
"For a young lad like Josh after getting his first international call-up, I'm sure this last ten days have been a bit of a whirlwind, his emotions are probably all over the place.
"So for him to have a little bit of a dip in performance, that can be natural as well. So for Stephen to come out, and he hammered him to be fair, I don't really like that.
"You can do that in-house, tell (Honohan) what you think but for me, you have a player who gives you absolutely everything, who works really hard and who's not this Big Time Charlie who thinks he's bigger and better than the team. I don't think you need to do that with a player like him.
"So it's a little bit disappointing to see that because Josh has been incredible for him and he will be going forward as well."
Also speaking on the podcast, former Shelbourne league winner Alan Cawley gave his take on Bradley's decision to air his criticism publicly.
"I often think when managers do that, it's not just sending the message to Josh, it's almost sending the message to all the other players in the squad as well, that you're not allowing anybody to get too big for their boots and I think that was probably the reason behind it also," he said.
"Even though he did that, I'm sure Stephen Bradley is over the moon with certainly the recent run of form that they've had in terms of picking up the amount of wins they have and also sitting pretty at the halfway stage."