Greg calls out ‘clown’ after outburst on TV
NEW ROSS man Greg Bolger has never been a shrinking violet, and that’s why he has made his name over the past decade as a defensive midfielder of the highest quality in the SSE Airtricity League of Ireland.
The talented 29-year-old started out with U.C.D. and featured with the now defunct Sporting Fingal, Dundalk, St. Patrick’s Athletic and Cork City before teaming up with Stephen Bradley’s Shamrock Rovers squad this season.
Along the way the Barrowsider has collected Premier Division and FAI Cup titles with Pat’s and Cork, as well as a First Division crown with the students.
And when a television pundit came in with a studs-up challenge on Bolger last week, he took to Twitter to show that he wasn’t having any of it.
The popular ‘Soccer Republic’ show was reviewing Rovers’ 2-1 derby defeat at home to arch-rivals Bohemians in Tallaght Stadium when Declan ‘Fabio’ O’Brien pulled no punches in his analysis.
‘Greg Bolger is an experienced guy,’ O’Brien said. ‘He has played hundreds of games in this league. He played in front of the back four the other night.
‘If I was him, I’d give my wages back after the performance he put in on Friday night.
‘It was a disgrace. He missed every tackle. When they needed him in the 90th minute he air-shotted, totally missed the ball, for the goal to make it 2-1.’
The tone and personal nature of O’Brien’s outburst took many viewers by surprise, and Bolger wasn’t prepared to let him away with it.
Contacting the pundit via Twitter, he said: ‘Hey Fabio mate no problem with getting or taking criticism and rightly so ...but would you keep it constructive hammering boys you’d swear you were a superstar when you played or something you clown.’
Bolger’s reply summed up everything we were thinking ourselves as we stared open-mouthed at the box, so fair play to the Wexford man for sticking up for himself.