Fun is only just starting for Dundalk ace Shields
CHRIS SHIELDS wasn’t the most self-confident young lad growing up in west Dublin.
‘I never thought I’d even leave Clondalkin. I’d thought I’d be playing for Booth Road by now,’ the 27year-old jokes of his local junior club.
Self-deprecating humour comes naturally to the Dundalk midfielder, who yesterday was named the SSE Airtricity/Soccer Writers’ player of the month for September. After losing out twice to teammate Michael Duffy this season, Shields, the standout player in his position in the Premier Division, couldn’t help himself with another quip.
‘I thought it was turning into the Michael Duffy award for a while. I thought it was going to be a little statue of Mickey I was getting.’
And people think it’s his brother, Sean, who is the funny one. ‘He worked for Republic of Telly for a number of years and he co-wrote a film called The Hole in the Ground which is doing well and going to a few festivals. So there’s a bit of talent in the family.’
Shields’ has shone through this season and it is testament to his strength of character more than anything that he has become a mainstay of Stephen Kenny’s side.
He had been severely hampered by osteitis pubis for the best part of two seasons until he managed to get fully-fit during pre-season.
‘It’s in your pelvis and groins,’ he explains. ‘You feel it when you pass the ball and try to open up. It’s when you warm up that you feel it. In matches you’d be fine, but the day after you would barely be able to walk.
‘I was starting to worry last year because I had it for that long I was starting to think, “Is this ever going to go away? Is this me now?”’
Not one to make excuses, he insists the injury had nothing to do with his poor passing when Martin O’Neill came to see Dundalk play and made a point of critiquing it in good humour afterwards.
‘I honestly just think that night was one of those nights that I couldn’t pick my nose let alone a decent pass.’
Along with John Mountney, he is the only player at the club who precedes Kenny’s arrival at Dundalk. Tonight, Shields will lift the League of Ireland trophy for the fourth time in five years and next month he has a fourth successive Irish Daily Mail FAI Cup final with Cork City to look forward to.
But it will be the arrival of his first child, due on the Thursday after the Lansdowne Road showpiece, which will cap a year to remember.
‘That’s what I want in the next contract, a crèche up in Oriel.’
The fun is just getting started.