3 days ago
Ex-Celtic ace identifies what Scottish champs and Shamrock Rovers have in common
Adam Matthews and Stephen McPhail played in the same Cardiff City team 17 times during the 2009/10 and 2010/11 seasons, blissfully unaware they would be reunited at Shamrock Rovers over a decade later.
In the meantime, Matthews went on to play for Celtic, winning four SPL titles in-a-row and a Scottish Cup while also enjoying big Champions League nights against the likes of Barcelona, with Messi, Neymar, Xavi, Iniesta and Sergio Busquets in their ranks.
Matthews later made his Premier League debut with Sunderland, had a spell with Charlton before moving to Cyprus in the summer of 2022 to join Omonia, who were managed at the time by his former Celtic boss Neil Lennon.
While his Rovers team-mate Jack Byrne had a frustrating injury-hit spell in Cyprus with rivals APOEL, Matthews played regularly and made over 70 appearances in all competitions, including Europe.
But when he left Omonia last summer, the harsh reality of professional football hit home as the phone wasn't ringing with offers - or at least not the right ones. Wales international Matthews ended up training with Carmarthen Town, just to stay fit.
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'Obviously it does happen in football,' said the 33-year-old defender yesterday, ahead of tonight's clash with Galway United at Tallaght Stadium.
'It's happened to me before, not for that amount of time, but the older you get, the more you expect it to happen. It was tough, but I just needed to keep myself fit and wait for the opportunity, and thankfully Stephen (McPhail) gave me a ring and this was the opportunity.
'I was training with a team in Wales, a semi-professional team, so I'm thankful to them for giving me the opportunity to keep fit. I did my own stuff as well, but it's not the same as training with a professional team, but you've got to do the best you can and, in the circumstances, I came in pretty fit.'
Shamrock Rovers boss Stephen Bradley revealed that he moved for Matthews after getting the lowdown directly from ex-Celtic boss Lennon.
Bradley said yesterday: 'I just had a good conversation with Neil Lennon as he had him at Celtic and in Cyprus, and he couldn't speak highly enough of him. We did our homework with Stephen McPhail, but when you hear that from someone like Neil it was a no brainer. And when I spoke to Adam's previous managers, all of them said that he's so versatile and can play anywhere quite comfortably.'
Matthews made his Rovers debut in the league defeat to Bohemians in front of 33,000 at Aviva Stadium on the opening weekend of the season, but it was bittersweet as he picked up a nasty injury as well as losing the game. He was caught by Rovers goalkeeper Ed McGinty's studs, and ripped open his knee, knocking him back for a number of weeks and making it a stop-start introduction to life in Irish football.
But Matthews, whose fiancé has moved over to Ireland with him and commutes to London for work twice a month, is settling into the side in recent weeks with Rovers pressing home their early advantage to pull six points clear at the top.
Matthews said yesterday: 'I was out of football for quite a long time, so I was just looking forward to getting back in and this seemed like a good opportunity. It's a very competitive league and the training is really good. We've a good manager who is good tactically, so it's very similar to a lot of the clubs that I've had.'
But Matthews has already been struck by one thing at Shamrock Rovers that reminds him of his time at Celtic - an expectation to win every game.
At Celtic, a draw or defeat is treated like a catastrophe. And while Rovers were dethroned as champions last year, the Welshman senses a similar vibe with the Hoops.
'It's very similar, 100%,' he said. 'Celtic's a massive, massive team, but you get the same feeling with the fans. You are expected to win every game. Obviously, you can't. Even Celtic don't do that, but it's very similar. We go into every game thinking we can win, and Celtic were the same.'
Tonight, Rovers will be looking to at least maintain their six-point lead at the top, if not enhance it after coming from behind to win in Derry last week. And Hoops boss Bradley knows that keeping the Premier Division's top scorer Moses Dyer - nine goals - will be paramount.
Bradley said of the New Zealand international: 'He's been excellent. He has scored some good goals but his all-round game has been good. He's scored all types of goals as well, left foot, right foot, ahead, in behind, around the front.
'John Caulfield and Ollie Horgan pick up players that turn out to be really, really good players - and he's another one.'
Bradley is hoping that he has unearthed a quality striker, too, in John McGovern, who completed his move to Rovers from Dungannon Swifts this week for an undisclosed fee.
The 22-year-old won't be eligible to play until July 1 but Bradley said: 'He has real pace, real power, is both footed, can score all types of goals, can play all different positions. He's one we've watched for a long time in some detail and he's one that we really like. His age profile is brilliant and we think he's going to be really important for us.'
