Playing against Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght Stadium has extra value for Shelbourne ace Mipo Odubeko
MIPO ODUBEKO used to be a ball boy at Shamrock Rovers and dreamed of being on the pitch.
Tonight he will be, AGAINST the Hoops.
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As champions Shelbourne visit, Tallaght lad Odubeko plays his first League of Ireland game in his home town this evening against the club that he used to watch.
And while the ace striker has played in Tallaght for the Ireland Under-21s and scored in his only game there against Bosnia-Herzegovina, he admitted the venue will always be special.
He said: 'If you got there early enough and you begged them hard enough, they'd let you be a ball boy at the games.
'Me and my mates would go two or three hours before kick-off and we'd get to be ball boys.
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'I grew up loving football and they're my earliest experiences in football.
'I would have been about ten years old. I remember Gary Twigg, Stephen Rice and Billy Dennehy.
'But of course I'm a striker, so my favourite player was Gary Twigg.'
Scottish striker Twigg spent four seasons in Tallaght scoring 81 league goals and remains one of the all-time great Hoops goalscorers.
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But Odubeko has found his own finishing come in for questioning since he returned to Dublin to join Shels after spells with Manchester City, Manchester United, West Ham, Maritimo and Fleetwood Town.
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But he then claimed Odubeko is 'probably one of the worst finishers I have seen in Irish football'.
Shels boss Damien Duff hit back,
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The 22-year-old has scored three league goals and once in the President's Cup since his return.
Those goals have included one back-flick, a toe-poke that Duff likened to a
And Odubeko insisted Collins' comment was water off a duck's back.
He said: 'A few people showed me what he said but I didn't really pay any attention to it.
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'Stuff like that just motivates me to get better and improve my finishing.
"I'm not really paying much attention to it.'
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