A natural born leader without question
THE easiest way to judge the popularity of a captain is to watch the interaction between him and his fellow players.
When we rocked up to have a chat with Ashford’s Danny Byrne ahead of Sunday’s Wicklow Cup final, his colleagues were bursting at the seams to add a little bit of pressure to their leader’s media duties. They love Danny Byrne in Ashford Rovers by the looks of things.
We were on the sideline in Gorey at a practice match a little way up from the dug out. Several of the Ashford subs jog up alongside to offer their thoughts.
‘Smiley’ (Andrew Reilly) lets a few shouts from his perch in the dug out up towards Danny. Danny tells me ‘Smiley’ is the grandad of the team (there are doubts as to whether this was meant as a compliment).
He instructs the other players to remove themselves rapidly from the vicinity so he can chat to this reporter in peace.
Originally, he thought we were going to have a video interview. Danny doesn’t like video interviews. He had a horrible experience recently. He doesn’t want to go through that again.
An interesting fact about the talented Danny Byrne, as revealed by the man himself once his team mates had departed, is that he never played with an actual team until he was drafted into the youths team by none other than Clifton Conyard. His skills were honed on the street outside his house with his friends. He says he was too shy to join a club. But he loved soccer.
“Live for soccer. I was always on the road kicking a ball but I was always too shy to join a club, the first team I join was when I was 18, youths, played with Clifton.
“I just messed on the road with the lads and then Clifton got me to play for his team, the youths, and I ended up being player of the year that year. Played centre mid. I love playing striker, sometimes I like playing off a striker but I love scoring goals,” he added.
And now he’s the captain who will lead his beloved Ashford Rovers out for the final of the Wicklow Cup. That’s progress in anyone’s book.
“It means a lot (to be captain). I’ve been at the club a long time, it means a lot to be captain, and of such a good team as well, there’s plenty of leaders out there on the pitch so for me to be chosen as captain is great for me,” he said.
Facing Danny and Ashford are Newtown and they will go to war at the Carlisle. Danny knows plenty about both.
“Always a close game between the two teams. It will be a very tight game. We know what they’re about and they know us. They’re strong all over the pitch.
“I played there once with the county team. It’s a great pitch. Super pitch. I do be up watching Bray Wanderers, I’d love to rattle the back of the net,” he added.
Keeping Clifton Conyard on board for this season meant Danny committing for another year. Given the respect that Conyard is held in in Ashford, letting him step aside was never going to be an option.
“I brought him back (from the brink of retirement). I said to him one more year and I’ll give one more year and we’ll win the Wicklow Cup again. To win it last year was unbelievable and to retain it would cap it all off.
“The work he (Clifton) has done over the years Is fantastic. The chap has a full-time job and a young family and he’s down here (Gorey) on a cold December night organising practice matches. The time and effort he puts in is unbelievable. Years ago Ashford were always a team that people would like to be drawn against but now nobody wants to be drawn against Ashford.
“That’s the team he’s built, the set-up, we’re a good team at the minute,” he said.