Coughlan aims to open account

GARBHAN Coughlan has not made it on to the scoresheet this year — but perhaps that means he is due.

The 25yearold Irish striker proved a lethal attacking weapon upon arriving at Southern United last season.

He notched eight goals in 13 games to finish in a tie for fifth on the national football premiership’s top scorers list.

It was an impressive return, although injury left him falling just short of his target for the season.

‘‘Obviously last year I had a couple of bad injuries — I broke my arm and got knocked out,’’ Coughlan said.

‘‘So that kind of killed the

games that I was going to be playing.

‘‘But I suppose [if I had played] 18 games I was looking to try to get 10 goals if I ended up top.

‘‘I scored eight last year and arguably could have scored more, so 10 is target [this season] at the moment.’’

He will be hoping to score the first of those 10 tomorrow, as Southern plays Waitakere United at the Trusts Arena at 4.35pm tomorrow.

While he admitted he would have liked to have scored already, he had been struggling with a groin injury in the preseason.

That had now gone and he was hoping to get a good run of games in.

He has been threatening up front all the same, and was dangerous in the abandoned home match against Auckland City.

Since then Southern has claimed a good 10 win over Hamilton Wanderers, although lost to a quality Team Wellington side 31 last weekend.

Coughlan felt Wellington had been the best team Southern had played, topping both Auckland City and Canterbury United.

He was enjoying his time in Dunedin, having arrived a year after the initial wave of Irishmen to join the club.

Indeed he had enjoyed it so much one of his mates from Limerick FC, Tony Whitehead, had joined him.

‘‘He kind of was on to me saying ‘what’s it like?’ and was looking for another club back home and trying to get away from where he was,’’ Coughlan said.

‘‘I said ‘it’s a great lifestyle, a great place over here, the people are great, if you can get an opportunity to come over, come over’.

‘‘Then [coach] Paul [O’Reilly] asked me about Tony.

‘‘I hadn’t even spoken to him about him and I said, ‘yeah he’s looking for something new, get on to him’.’’

One may even imagine there could be some banter flying around the dressing room this week ahead of a certain rugby game, given the side’s Irish influence.

However, it was not something that was hugely followed within the team, although Coughlan was a keen rugby fan.

‘‘The biggest game of the weekend, yeah,’’ he laughed.

‘‘There’s not too many rugby supporters, it’s all football in the dressing room.

‘‘I’m a bit of a follower of Irish rugby, I’ve really got my fingers crossed for a win for Ireland, but whatever happens, happens.’’

Meanwhile the Southern United national youth team will play Waitakere United at McLennan Park today.

The national women’s league team has a bye.