‘Lilywhites can finish off Larnaca’
CHRIS Shields made the 300th start of his professional career when he featured against Bohemians on Sunday.
It was also a landmark match for Brian Gartland who made his 175th start for Dundalk and 180th club appearance in total. HAVING played in Cyprus now for the past eight months, former Dundalk striker Vinny Faherty is better placed than most to weigh up the qualities of his former employers and Thursday’s opponents AEK Larnaca.
And the 31-year-old fancies Stephen Kenny’s side to overcome scorching conditions at the AEK Arena to advance to the third qualifying round next week.
Faherty was a member of Kenny’s first squad at Oriel Park back in 2013 and remains in close contact with many members of the current panel. These days, though, he is plying his trade with Cypriot second division side PAEEK. He moved there at the start of 2018 as his girlfriend Karen had taken up a UN post on the Mediterranean island.
While he plays a level below Larnaca, he featured twice against them early in the year when the eventual Cypriot Cup winners went on to win 11-1 over two legs. While that included a 7-0 hammering at Thursday night’s venue, Faherty said it wasn’t a fair reflection of what Dundalk face this week.
Laughing about the result, he said: “To be fair we knew we weren’t going far in the cup so we played a lot of the young lads, but they’d be far superior.
“I don’t know whether it’s spoken or unspoken about over here, but there’s kind of an agreement that the bigger teams are the money makers, so you just step out of their way when they’re coming through. The federation incentivises APOEL to win the league because they’re the most likely to get into the Champions League, so it’s much, much different than at home over here.”
That said, Faherty has seen quite a bit of AEK Larnaca.
“I’ve watched them quite a bit,” he said. “I’m only living about 10 minutes away from the stadium, so I’ve gone to a few of their games. They’re very, very good technically, but what Dundalk would have on them is legs and physicality.
“I think the first leg was kind of how I expected it to go. I thought that Larnaca would be slightly better in possession but that Dundalk would have the legs on them and that’s kind of how it played out. Larnaca have a lot of players who played La Liga, Champions League and other high levels, but they’re a bit older now.
“I thought it was a good result for Dundalk. At 0-0 going over there, I’d fancy Dundalk to score, but it’s just a matter of whether they can GIVEN he has been at Dundalk for seven seasons now and is, according to his manager, playing the best football of his career, many Lilywhites supporters have begun to refer to Chris Shields as a club legend.
That’s probably something which will only be fully determined when he hangs up his boots or departs Oriel Park, but for now the midfielder could be about to emulate another local footballing legend in Steve Staunton. keep them out.”
It’s fair to say that Dundalk have come a long way since Faherty was at the club, but despite expressing his admiration for Stephen Kenny numerous times over the years, not even the striker could have envisaged the journey his former boss has taken them on.
“I was very impressed with Stephen from the outset, but there’s no way I would have thought getting to the Europa League group stages would happen with any League of Ireland club, definitely not Dundalk, but towards the end of the year I started to see that it was actually going somewhere.
“It was an unbelievable dressing room. People talk about the strength and conditioning at the club, but the lads were doing that themselves, it wasn’t that the club were forcing them into the gym. The boys were doing things on their days off. It was just an amazing dressing room with the likes of Andy Boyle, Richie Towell, Stevie O’Donnell. They just all took it on board from Stephen and kicked it on.
“I wasn’t surprised when they won the league, but then they kicked it on another step and another step again. Larnaca haven’t achieved what Dundalk have in the last few years. I think they were in the Europa League maybe four or five years ago, but it was with totally different players. Dundalk have a lot of the same players who played in the Europa, so as a group they have achieved more than Larnaca.
“I’d be confident for Dundalk. Larnaca can’t really afford to concede now so Dundalk are in a very good position.”
I’m only living about 10 minutes away from the stadium, so I’ve gone to a few of their games. They’re very, very good technically, but what Dundalk would have on them is legs.
As one of two ginger-haired players in Stephen Kenny’s squad, Shields faces a more difficult task than most to adjusting to the scorching hot temperatures and high humidity expected at the AEK Arena on Thursday.
As a result, he knows the importance of maintaining possession against AEK Larnaca but looking ahead to the game he joked that he wouldn’t mind taking a leaf out of the former Ireland captain’s book from USA 94 by lining out with a cap on.
“I’ve a letter into UEFA to see if they’ll let me play in that white cap of mine,” he laughed.
“It’ll be hot, but this is where you’ve got to show your character of having played in Europe a few times.
“No one is a massively experienced European player in the League of Ireland, but you have to be able to manage the game at times and that’s what we’ll have to try and do.
“They move the ball well.