I’M NO LITTLE LEO
THERE Is no hiding place once you have been dubbed the ‘Irish Messi’.
But Daire O’connor laughs off the new tag, insisting the pressure was already on after stepping up from UCD to Cork City.
Former Rebels boss Pat Dolan was blown away by the attacking wide man in the recent President’s Cup defeat to Dundalk.
And in the build-up to Friday’s opening night defeat to St Pat’s, he likened him to the Barcelona star in his newspaper column.
“Jesus, yeah,” O’connor laughed when quizzed about it. “I didn’t know how to respond when they were saying that.
“If I can put joy in the fans’ hearts I’ll be happy but that’s a bit blown up in the papers to make promotion for the league.
“I like pressure and any top players will tell you they like pressure but you have to rise to it.
“If I was called the Irish Messi last week, and then have a stinker today, everyone is looking at Pat Dolan rather than me saying, ‘What’s this all about?’.
“There were only 2,500 people in Turner’s Cross last week and there was a whole different crowd at Richmond Park coming to watch.
“If I don’t play even half as well then people are going to start asking questions. I suppose I set the bar last week in the second-half.
“And if I don’t continue that then it’s my own downfall. There’s no point doing it in the President’s Cup when the league started on Friday. I need to push on.” O’connor was a star for UCD over the last four years and clinched the First Division title last season.
The switch to the Rebels is a big step up but it’s one he intends making the most of after getting off to a flyer. O’connor said: “Coming from the First Division, I was probably unknown. I set a couple of goals with myself to break into the team. “I didn’t expect it so soon but John gave me the opportunity. It’s a cut-throat business and you have to take it otherwise that’s you gone for a while. It’s a bit of a contrast from playing in Belfield last year in front of 100 or 200 people.
“The minute I met John the whole dynamic was different. I was at UCD four years and it was all about player development, character building, education.
“They’re important values and that bit of training, or life training as they call it in UCD, stands to you. It makes you more open as a person. You’re better off going into the big bad world after college once you have that experience.
“UCD is very much about player development and a pathway to the top. They know it’s a conveyor belt and that players come in three or four-year cycles and move on.
“Georgie Kelly, Robbie Benson, the list goes on but listen, if I can have half the impact the boys had on the league, I’ll be happy.”
O’connor was deflated after the battling 1-0 defeat to St Pat’s on an opening night in which the Rebels could have scored a handful.
But he added: “We’ve two quick fire games, Waterford and then Sligo on Monday. If we come away with six points, those critics will fall away,” he said. HARRY KENNY has urged St Pat’s fans to be patient as Chris Forrester builds his match sharpness.
The versatile midfielder (above) got 68 minutes under his belt in Friday’s 1-0 opening night win over Cork City.
He was unable to affect the game in a free role behind match winner and lone striker Mikey Drennan.
But new Saints boss Kenny is not concerned and feels it’s only a matter of time before Forrester is back to his best on his return to the club.
Kenny was Liam Buckley’s assistant when St Pat’s won the league in 2013 so he knows all about Forrester from their previous time together. Kenny said: