Duff's light relief for players in title run-in: 'We watched Only Fools and Horses for 20 minutes'

David Sneyd

LAST NIGHT SUMMED up the nature of what is turning into a haphazard Premier Division title run-in.

While Shelbourne, the league leaders, drew 0-0 at home to an impressive Sligo Rovers, the two teams chasing Damien Duff’s side lost by an aggregate score of 5-1.

Derry City, now four points adrift in second place, were beaten 2-1 by Drogheda United, a side that could yet win the FAI Cup but are sure to be in the promotion/relegation play-off.

Shamrock Rovers, all of a sudden back in the title mix, suffered a hefty 3-0 defeat at home to a rejuvenated St Patrick’s Athletic in their Dublin derby.

The Saints have now won four successive games – scoring 12 times – since they came close to reaching the Europa Conference League group stages at the end of August.

They are the kind of stats that Damien Duff was racking up in the first half of the campaign, when they won six of their opening seven fixtures and went unbeaten in nine before back-to-back defeats.

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Then, from 22 April to 31 May Shels lost just once (to Sligo, as it happens) in nine games and picked up 16 points. Three wins and a draw followed before Europe over the summer.

One win in eight since has allowed Derry stay in touch and also let Rovers come back into serious consideration.

After Shels went out of the FAI Cup at the quarter-final stage to Derry City a couple of weeks ago Duff decided it was time to do something a bit different. Usually it is assistant Joey O’Brien who does the video analysis presentation of the weekend’s game on a Monday morning before training.

“The lads dread them, I wouldn’t say they sleep Sunday nights,” Duff said of those post mortems after last night’s stalemate with Sligo.

So the manager opted for a change of pace. “We came in on the Monday and watched Only Fools and Horses for 20 minutes. I made a little compilation… I know what’s coming now, I will be on the head of Derek [Trotter], Joe will be Rodney but f**k it, it’s behind the scenes of what goes on at football clubs,” Duff said, although a 1-0 defeat away to Galway United did follow.

‘So f***ing that didn’t work,” Duff said with a smile.

“Even the load this week was more relaxed because I felt we looked flat and leggy. You can overthink everything but that’s my job to think, if I wasn’t overthinking I wouldn’t be doing me job. It’s just finding people’s form.

“I think a lot of lads stepped up [against Sligo] and showed a bit. If you have enough individual performances then all of a sudden you’ll get a team performance and so it’s up to myself, I take responsibility, like I said post-match Galway, there were a lot of lads out of form, well it’s on me, so it’s up to me to figure it out.”

Sean Boyd started up front last night with Harry Wood on the left and John O’Sullivan in midfield – three changes from the defeat to Galway. Boyd is likely to need to be utilised off the bench when St Pat’s visit Tolka Park on Monday.

Stephen Kenny’s men will be bouncing down Richmond Road after a fine win at Tallaght Stadium last night.

“It’s a dangerous game. I’ve obviously seen the result. They’re the one in-form team in the league, everyone keeps saying ‘Oh Shels are out of form’, f***ing who is in form? Pat’s are. It’s a dangerous game, they’ve got dangerous players, it’s a game that we want, we need, and I’m relishing,” Duff said.

“It’s hard to get points in this league. Listen, I don’t look at other…the only time I look at other teams in this league is when I’m prepping for them. So I’ll go home straight away now and probably watch two games of Pat’s before going to bed just to get a feel for them and what’s coming on Monday.”

The obvious theme to roll with in this title race now is whether Shels will do a Del Boy and fall through the bar by stumbling over the line to taste Premier Division glory for the first time since 2006.

“Eh, here, if you can call it falling. Like I’ve said, and I’ve no probably saying it again, if I say it publicly I believe it, we’ve been the best team over 31 games. That’s why we’ve been top of the league for 29 weeks out of the 31, I think.

“Whether it be falling over the line, sprinting over the line, all I want is to get over the line first.”