MARCUS CAVAROLI
AT the age of 32 most players have passed their peak and are beginning to contemplate retirement, but Sean Brennan is producing the best football of his life according to teammate Paul Skinner (pictured right).
The Drogheda native’s stunning winner on Friday night was his sixth goal of the season, four of which have been long-range free kicks, but Skinner has been mightily impressed with his all-round game and believes he doesn’t get the credit he deserves for his ability.
‘I played with Sean four years ago [at Athlone Town] and I would have known Sean,’ Skinner commented after emerging from a buzzing away dressing-room.
‘He’s a quality player, but this year is probably the best I’ve seen him. He just looks so comfortable on the ball, his set pieces are on the money more often than not, and in my eyes he’s probably the star man in the league.
‘He’s the special one that every team needs, we’re lucky enough to have him, and you just saw it today with that free kick.
‘It’s not the first time he’s done it, and the biggest compliment I can give him is that when he’s stepping up 30 yards out to take a free kick, you’re half expecting him to score and you can’t say that about many players in the league.’
Brennan’s ability isn’t limited to set pieces, though, and it’s his other attributes that Skinner feels often go unnoticed.
‘When you have that ability [set pieces], it’s special, but it’s not only that. He works hard for the team. He’s a team player and I don’t think many people see that. Obviously his family is full of gifted footballers, but I think Sean is the underrated one out of all of the brothers.
‘He really is a special talent.’ Skinner was in no doubt about the significance of the victory in Galway.
‘It’s a huge result and I think you saw that from all the reactions afterwards.
‘Galway are a full-time team and they’ve done okay this season and a lot of people outside the dressing-room probably don’t see us being on a similar park to Galway, maybe because of their status and their huge wage bill, and that’s probably fair enough.
‘But one thing this team has is fight, determination, guts. We don’t set expectations - we’re not saying we’re going to win the asks league for - is all that themanags we manager work 110% andnd I’m sure that’s all the fans ask for.
‘The feeling - is magic,, to come up here and win 1-0. I heard a feww comments from people,e, saying we’ve’ve only playedd the big teams at home in the first roundnd and there were questionsi ththere, bbutt I think tonight certainly we’ve answered that.’
UCD’s defeat at Cabinteely notwithstanding, Skinner still feels they’re the team to beat in terms of the league title. ‘I don’t think Galway are the strongest we’ve played against, and that’s no disrespect to them,’ he said. ‘UCD are top for a reason at the minute, but there are a lot of very strong teams. Shelbourne are a really, really good side and there’s a lot of experience there. Longford play great football as well and Finn Harps show a lot of grit and detedetermination and they beat us up there.
‘I ddon’t know if there’s mamany teams thathat can mamatch us for hahard work anand determination.’ natdetermination.’ LeadingLe by a sinsingle goal, DrogheDrogheda defended eddefended as if ttheir lives depended on it in the closingli stages,t bbut Skinner didn’t feel the Boynesiders were on the rack and indeed he was only seriously tested once in the entire 90 minutes.
‘I think we were still okay - we weren’t the ones being stretched,’ he said.
‘Kevin [Farragher] and Ciaran [Kelly] were phenomenal, Collie [Deasy] and Conor [Kane] were dealing with crosses.
‘They were chasing the game, 1-0 down, and it was a massive game where they had to beat us and they were obviously going to throw the kitchen sink at us.
‘They did that, but we defended brilliantly and that’s three clean sheets in a row.’
After the Leinster Senior Cup quarter-final against Cabinteely tonight (Tuesday), attention will turn to Friday’s visit of Cabinteely and Drogheda have had enough warnings about the threat posed by the Stradbrook outfit.
‘Cabinteely beat UCD, they beat us, they beat Shels and they deserve all of the respect, like every other team,’ Skinner insisted.
‘Obviously we have Bluebell on Tuesday, but we’ll certainly approach Cabinteely aiming for another three points and a clean sheet.
‘We’ve a good bit of momentum and hopefully we can carry it on.’