Byrne has big goals with the Boynesiders
year in the Premier. For some reason he’s back with a First Division club - and that’s great for us, it’s brilliant.
‘Young Luke [McNally] from St Pat’s looks a good addition at the back. Although we’ve lost Ciaran Kelly and Collie Deasy, we’ve brought in really good replacements, so we look strong.
‘I suppose on paper Shels have the strongest squad, the biggest squad. Bray have some sort of investment down there and have brought in some unbelievable signings down there already. Longford will be up there, I suppose, so it’s going to be a scrap every week for us.
‘The depth of our squad is probably not as big as the rest of those clubs I’ve mentioned, but we’ll plug away and if we’re up there come the end of the year it’ll be a great year.
‘Play-offs again is the goal I suppose, but in terms of the title it’s hard to say until you see some of the teams. You can’t really judge in pre-season, but after six or seven weeks we’ll probably be able to judge where we’re at.’
Naturally Drogheda will be anxious to get off to a winning start, especially with home advantage, but while they’ll be favourites to see off Cobh Ramblers it’s a challenge the Boynesiders won’t be taking for granted.
‘Our slight advantage is that it’s the first game of the season and they have a bit of a trek on their hands, but it’s a banana skin,’ Brennan insisted.
‘They’re always difficult - it doesn’t matter whether you play them home or away. Hendo [Stephen Henderson] always has his teams really well set up and they’ll be really well prepared.
‘But I’m sure there’ll be a good crowd in United Park and I know everybody in our squad is raring to go.’
A win on Friday would certainly help draw a line under what turned out to be the final game of 2018, when tears welled up in Brennan’s eyes after the play-off defeat by Finn Harps in Ballybofey ended Drogheda’s chances of promotion.
‘It nearly felt like we were relegated, even though it was only a play-off to go up,’ Brennan recalled. ‘It was a horrible feeling, it wasn’t nice. We try to win every game and we were there to win, it was a long season and a slog and probably the emotion got the better of me on the night because of the season ending the way it did.
‘It was tough to take, but we’ll go again this year and see how it goes.’ IT felt like Christmas had come a week early when Drogheda United announced the return of underage international Thomas Byrne to his home-town club exactly two months ago.
Twelve months previously the Drogs had been relegated, the Tenure man had moved to St Patrick’s Athletic in search of Premier football and after a moderately successful season another contract offer looked to be on the cards.
However, new Pats manager Harry Kenny had different ideas to his predecessor Liam Buckley and Byrne wasn’t in his plans. More surprisingly, nor did he seem to be on anyone else’s radar, and that’s when Drogheda United boss Tim Clancy saw his opportunity.
‘It’s brilliant to be back,’ Byrne responded when asked about his unexpected return to United Park.
‘The last two seasons I’ve been in and out of teams, so I’ve come back to Drogheda in the First Division to try and cement my place in the team and pretty much play 90 minutes every week.
‘Obviously it’s not going to be handed to me, but that’s the intention.
‘There were a few clubs talking to me but no cemented offer on the table, so as soon as Tim came in and offered me what he offered me, I ripped his hand off straightaway and took the opportunity.’
What did Byrne think when other clubs spoke to him but didn’t put a deal on the table?
‘It doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I know what I can do and if people notice it, they notice it. I’ll just keep doing what I do.’
The return to a part-time set-up will take some acclimatisation, but there’s a hint of a more level-headed Byrne when he talks about how he will approach that situation.
‘I was full-time last year and there’s a bit of a difference alright - there’s a lot more spare time and I struggled with that before. Last year I didn’t do any sort of gym and wasn’t interested at all, but maybe this year I’ll feel I need to go and do a bit more.
‘I’ve been trying to do more myself to even it up. If there’s people up there doing five days a week and I’m only doing two, they’re going to be doing better than me and improving more and we can’t be having that, can we!’
When the conversation turned back to Clancy, 20-year-old Byrne was unequivocal in his opinions of the Trim native.
‘I feel like Tim is the perfect manager for me, to be honest. He puts the arm round the shoulder when it’s needed and I get a b******ing when it’s needed as well. It’s so far so good and I love playing underneath him.
‘I knew a good couple of the lads already, so it was great to come back in the dressing-room. I felt the welcome straightaway and all the lads are top of the range.
‘Sean [Brennan] is like a father figure. I get slagged about that. He looks after me a lot so he does, and if anyone asks how do you know each other, he says I’m his dad!
‘All the Brennans are like that. I was with Ryan at St Pat’s last year in a car pool with him and he was the exact same and Killian was there as well, and they’ve all looked after me.’
In terms of Drogheda United’s ambitions for the season, Byrne picked his words carefully, feeling it’s too early to make any predictions or set team goals.
‘We’re looking very fit and that’s all I’d say at the minute. We need to see what we’ll be like against other opposition, but every training session we’re giving everything we have and the same in pre-season games and I’m just hoping that rolls into the season.
‘We’re just going to concentrate game by game. We’re not looking too far ahead of us. We don’t care what anyone else thinks about us.’
On personal ambitions Byrne was more forthcoming, and again there was a maturity evident as he described how he hoped to make more of a positive impact this season.
‘My personal goals are to be playing every week and put on a few good performances. The head’s in a good place and as long as I work hard hopefully everything will fall into place.
‘But I’m going to try and add more goals to my game. I only got a couple at Pats last year when I played up front, but this year it looks like I’ll be playing in an advanced midfielder role.
‘I’m going to try and be more influential on the game as well. I can go through games and do good things and do this and do that, but at the end of the day it’s not impacting on the result, so my goal is to try and impact the result.
‘The goal for Thomas Byrne in the future is hopefully go across the water, but I’m just going to take it step by step. Whether I go across this year, next year or in three years’ time, I’m going to be patient about it and I’m just going to get the head down.’