Third ‘Golden Boot’ for Wicklow’s deadly Davy
TO win the Golden Boot is probably on every striker’s bucket list. To win it twice is the stuff of dreams. To win it thrice? That’s the stuff of Davy O’Sullivan.
A baker makes bread. A butcher produces meat. The Wicklow Town man scores goals – it’s as simple as that. After many happy and goal-laden years with Longford Town, O’Sullivan was released by the Midlands club at the end of 2017 and signed for Shelbourne.
He had a point to prove and he did it in the best possible way as he netted 15 times – including a hat-trick against Longford – to pip Dylan McGlade and Georgie Kelly to the top goalscorer award by a single goal.
Despite the fact that O’Sullivan has already been there, done that and got the award (twice); the elation will never wean for the 30-year-old.
“I don’t think that feeling when the ball hits the net will ever get old. As a striker, all you want to do is score goals, and it’s great when you are. I set myself a target at the start of the year and the pride at winning top scorer was as high as previous years. I would have liked to get a few more goals but to finish top scorer was the main aim so I’m happy with that!”
O’Sullivan may not have finished top of the class had it not been for a summer switch to Dundalk for ex-UCD ace Georgie Kelly but like all good strikers; O’Sullivan made the most of his opportunity.
“Delighted to see anyone get a move that can help further and progress their career. Georgie is a smashing player and would have ran away with the golden boot had he stayed in the division. Hopefully it’s only the start of things for him.
“I had a very good start to the season, that’s where I scored the bulk of my goals. The second half of the season I’ve done okay but I tired a bit and didn’t score as many as I had hoped - maybe that’s the old age kicking in! All in all, it’s been a decent season, I’ve settled in well at Shels and it’s not over yet.”
It is certainly far from over. Having finished third in the First Division, Shels now have the opportunity to earn promotion to the Premier Division but it is a mammoth task. They begin with a two-legged play-off against Drogheda (Friday October 5th & Monday October 8th). Should they emerge from that, Finn Harps lie in wait five days later (Friday October12th) and they then have seven days to recover before facing Harps in the second leg.
If O’Sullivan and co. survive that battle, their reward is a two-legged play-off against the Premier Division’s ninth-placed side (most likely to be Limerick) on Monday October 29th & Friday November 2nd.
“Play-offs will be very intense, we’ve played Drogheda three times in the league already and every game has been tight with two draws and a loss so we know we will be up against it. There’s very little between any of the top teams and it will make for a good spectacle and it’s great for the league, I’m really looking forward to them.
“It’s going to be very tough. We’ll need to be at our best to get past Drogheda. If we do, it will be an even tougher task against Finn Harps as they are flying at the moment. Then it’s an even bigger task to get past a Premier Division team. I don’t see any reason why we can’t get through all ties, we will need to be at our best though and also have a bit of luck along the way.”
The ex-Wayside Celtic and Arklow Town ace will hope to provide the ammunition to fire Shels back to the top flight and should he do so, he’ll then sweat to see if he’ll be asked to stick around for the 2019 season.
“My current deal runs out at the end of the season so I’ll sit down and reconsider my position once the seasons up. For now though I’m just concentrating on the LSC Cup final and play-offs.
“Happy to go another year if the body allows me!”
“Signing for and settling into a new team is always hard, so first of all I had to prove myself to my new manager and teammates. There may have been a few others I proved wrong along the way but I never get too caught up in any of that. I’ve always been one to let my football and goals do the talking which I think they have this year.”