O’Brien Seeks Response on the Road | OneFootball

Shelbourne FC hit the road on Friday night as they travel to Eamonn Deacy Park to take on Galway United in the SSE Airtricity League of Ireland Premier Division.

Kick off is at 7:45pm. The game is live on LOITV. The Reds received a timely boost this week as Paddy Barrett returns to the match day squad.

Speaking to ShelsTV after training, Joey O’Brien gave an injury update: “Pat is back in the squad, which is a big positive. On the longer-term side, Milan, Sean and Mipo are all progressing well. We’ll make a late call on Ali Coote in the morning after he felt his calf in Tallaght, Sean Boyd missed out through illness but is back involved.”

The Reds come into the game looking to respond after back-to-back defeats, falling to 3-2 losses against Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk in their last two outings.

Despite the results, there were positives in both performances, with Shels showing attacking threat but ultimately coming up just short due to individual errors.

O’Brien acknowledged the recent results but remained focused on the response: “I’ve always said to the lads, regardless of results, if you don’t play with a point to prove then you’re finished. You can’t run away from the challenge, you need something that motivates you every day.

The last two results haven’t been good enough, even if there were aspects of the performances we could take. The Dundalk game was probably our worst since I took over, individually we were nowhere near the levels we expect.

Going into Monday then we just gave away awful goals, freak goals you could say, we’re looking for a big response from a lot of players. The goals we conceded were really poor, avoidable, and that’s something we want to make sure is addressed. If we can get back to our performance levels and cut out the silly mistakes, we’ll be in a much better place.”

Galway United, meanwhile, will be buoyed by a dramatic 3-2 comeback win over Drogheda United last time out, a result that underlines their resilience and threat, particularly at home.

O’Brien knows what to expect from John Caulfield’s side: “There’s always a lot of grit and determination in their teams. You look at players like Twardek and Pierrot, they’ve hit the ground running, and Kris is a real handful scoring goals, knows the league. They always carry a threat.

Most of the time they’re solid at the back as well, so we know it’s going to be a tough game. But like every week, from our side it’s about going and playing, attacking the game and imposing ourselves on it. If we can reach our levels, like every game, we’re going out with the belief we can win it”

Nationwide protests have caused travel disruption in recent days, with the blockades due to continue, we’d encourage any supporter making the trip West to leave early and allow additional time for travel. O’Brien and his squad have also made arrangements to avoid the impact of road blocks: “Yeah, that factors in. We’re heading up early and have made a few tweaks to the schedule so we don’t get caught up on the journey to Galway. We’ll be in nice and early hopefully, into a hotel, and fully focused on the pre-match preparation.”

With a big away support due to travel, O’Brien has a message for Reds fans licking their wounds after a disappointing Easter weekend:

“We’ve got to keep going. We’ve had some great nights over the last few years, and this group has shown what it’s capable of time and time again. It’s the first time we’ve had back to back defeats in a long time, but that’s football.

We have to stick together, fans, players, staff, we’ll respond, and we’ll need the fans with us as always. Their support has been massive, and we’ll be doing everything we can to give them another big night.”