MAN OF HABIT
Family ritual key for Bohs captain Pender
‘I’D RATHER BE IN WORK BEFORE A BIG GAME.’
USUALLY when Bohemians have a home match, Derek Pender will arrive at his mam’s flat on Talbot Street after work for a chat and a cup of tea before heading up the road to Phibsborough. The 33-year-old works in treasury services for AIB on Dublin’s south side and makes good use of the city’s bike scheme to cross the Liffey and avoid rushhour congestion.
Once he has caught up with his mother, Pender’s focus switches. ‘That’s my routine,’ the Bohemians captain explains.
‘I’ve been doing it for years.’ Seven years to be exact, but today he will be thrown out of kilter somewhat by the fact that the Irish Daily Mail FAI Cup semi-final with Cork City is taking place on a Sunday evening.
Pender explains that it was hard enough coping with the change of schedule ahead of the quarter-final win away to Derry City when manager Keith Long convinced the club’s board to allow the squad stay in a hotel.
‘I found it weird just sitting around. I don’t like it. I would rather be in work before a game, I’m used to it. It helps me to relax and not think about it. My head was wrecked all day up in Derry waiting for the game.’
This morning he won’t have a minute’s peace. While wife Jennifer savours a lie on, Pender will take daughters Dani and Alex out for a walk in the park and some breakfast.
‘They’ll keep me busy, at least, and it will be nice not to have the game going through my head first thing,’ he reasons.
Pender will then leave Jennifer and the kids at home – where they will watch on RTÉ along with his mother. ‘I don’t let them come to matches. Jennifer has never come to see me and because of the hype in her job (she works in Temple Street Hospital), people are all talking about this game. She wanted to go but I won’t let her. It has always been like that. She knows how I am so she understands.’
A semi-final with the Cup hold ers offers nothing but a guarantee of feeling of utter joy or complete devastation at the final whistle. A 15-year veteran of the League of Ireland with not so much as a stray piece of celebratory confetti to show for his efforts, Pender is not afraid to lay out just how much this game means to him.
‘People try to write this off as just another game,’ he says. ‘But you just can’t do that with what’s riding on the game for this group of players and the club.
‘For as long as I’ve been here, this is first semi-final we’ve had in the FAI Cup. The imagination of it all has caught on with everybody. It would be a great achievement if we could get to final and hopefully we can because our form has been really good, we’ve been really consistent over the last few months.’
Nine wins in all competitions – including a 4-2 win over Cork at Dalymount just a fortnight ago – is testament to that. ‘Everything the club has been working so hard on, both on and off the pitch, seems to be coming to fruition now. It is such a good time to be at the club, the atmosphere is the best I’ve known it, but we know how football works. It could go straight away.’
The current clouds of discontent over Cork are proof of that. Back-to-back FAI Cup winners, last season’s triumph made it a double to go with the Premier Division title, they are in a state of chaos with Dundalk on the cusp of officially regaining their crown and three league defeats on the bounce.
‘People say Cork are hurting, that they’re not playing well, but their players will want to show what they’re about. They’re the champions for a reason, they won the cup. It will need to be an 11 out of 10 performance from every one of us,’ the Dubliner believes.
‘I’ve been so long in this league and only played in two semifinals so I know the chance doesn’t come around.
‘We’ve got to grab the opportunity and I just hope this year is our year and we can look back on it as a really special day.’