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RTÉ News
20-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Stephen Bradley: Graham Burke belongs up there with Hoops greats
Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley said that Graham Burke deserves to be spoken of alongside the club's greatest ever players after the attacker surpassed Gary Twigg in the all-time scoring charts. Burke struck a brace of goals either side of half-time in the Hoops' resounding 4-0 win over fellow title contenders St Patrick's Athletic, a result which carries them five points clear at the top of the table. The Dubliner's double took his tally to 88 goals for Shamrock Rovers altogether, lifting him one clear of Scottish striker Twigg, whose goals propelled the Hoops to the league title in 2010 and 2011. It makes Burke the club's top goalscorer in the Tallaght Stadium era, though the late Paddy Ambrose remains out in front in the all-time standings with 109 goals. "If you go back to the very start, we got Graham back from England," Bradley recalled, speaking to RTÉ Sport's Tony O'Donoghue. "We had to sell Graham at a point that we didn't want to sell him. But in order for us to move the project on, we had to sell him. Thankfully, we got him back and he's gone and broken Gary Twigg's record. "When you put that into context, the type of players that they are, Twiggy was a brilliant player but he was a box player. Graham's an all-round player and he's ahead of Twiggy in terms of goals. "It's an incredible achievement and I fully believe that Graham deserves to be in the conversation with the Pat Byrnes of this world. "And maybe when he retires in a few years, he'll be in that conversation." After a relatively even start, in which the visitors looked dangerous in attack, Rovers had taken the lead through 16-year-old Michael Noonan, albeit helped by Joseph Anang charging out of his goal-line with little prospect of cutting out the long ball and leaving the goal vacant. "Sometimes you forget that he's 16 years of age," said Bradley. "His movement tonight has caused three experienced centre-backs real problems. "His movement was brilliant, his finish was brilliant. The improvement that he's shown between the start of the season and now is incredible. "There's still so much for him to learn and get better at but he's got that mentality that he wants to do it. Yeah, a player with an incredibly high ceiling." His opposite number Stephen Kenny accepted that his side were beaten by a much better team on the night, though did bemoan the decision not to award Mason Melia a penalty in injury-time in the first half. With injuries to midfielders Chris Forrester and Kian Leavy, Kenny tweaked the Pat's shape tonight but stressed that was irrelevant in light of their defensive lapses. "Shamrock Rovers were a better team tonight. We can't deny that, we were deservedly beaten. "It was the absence of the midfield players, Romal Palmer, Keane Levy and Chris Forrester, and we just felt we needed to make sure we had that level of athleticism that we needed and carry an attacking threat and get Aidan Keena and Mason Melia in the same team. "But it doesn't matter what system you play with the chances we conceded. A breakaway from our own set play, the first goal. "We had the first chance, Sean Hoare had a header over. And then Mason Melia (with a chance) to equalise and Ed McGinty saves on a one-on-one with his shoulder. "And then we definitely had an absolute cast-iron penalty when Mason was taken down. "But ultimately, Shamrock Rovers were better than us tonight and they won convincingly. We played our own part in that and some of our defending was poor tonight." The penalty claim occurred in injury-time in the first half when Melia, lively throughout, cut inside Roberto Lopes just inside the penalty box and appeared to have been brought down by the defender's left leg but referee Damien MacGraith waved away the appeals. "It was a blatant penalty, and it would have sent us in 2-1 at the interval, of course, with a different perspective. "But that's in isolation. We were second-best tonight, and I'm not trying to suggest otherwise." The result sees Pat's drop seven points behind leaders Rovers, and marks their fourth successive defeat on the road. "We came in here at the end of last season and won 3-0, and won very convincingly, and now the tables have turned. We've been well beaten tonight, but we cannot dwell on that now, there's such a quick turnover to Waterford on Friday. "The other couple of games we lost away were in injury time. "It's the first time we've been well beaten. And we were well beaten. We have to rectify that now and bounce back in the right way on Friday."
The Irish Sun
25-04-2025
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
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. Advertisement 2 He and Sean Boyd give opposition defenders a lot to think about 2 Jack Byrne is returning to his best form after putting his injury struggles behind him 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. Advertisement Read More On Irish Football '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. Advertisement Most read in Football Exclusive 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. Former Bohemians boss and How Arsenal can outsmart PSG in Champions League semi-final But he then claimed Odubeko is 'probably one of the worst finishers I have seen in Irish football'. Shels boss Damien Duff hit back, Advertisement 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. Advertisement 'Stuff like that just motivates me to get better and improve my finishing. "I'm not really paying much attention to it.'
