The last time St Patrick’s Athletic were champions of Ireland it was a case of a local team for local people.
But there’s a mix of accents and backgrounds around Emmet Road this season, a recipe that’s worked well for Stephen O’Donnell, whose side could go three points clear of Shamrock Rovers, even if only for 24 hours, if they can win at home to Longford Town tonight.
The side which beat Finn Harps last weekend had a Czech goalkeeper who arrived via Anfield, an English midfielder and two Scots as well as a Londoner, on loan from West Ham, called off the bench.
The foreign market, particularly players sent to Inchicore on loan by contacts of a manager (O’Donnell) who had a long stint in the UK as a player, can bring misses as well as hits, but the crop assembled in Dublin 8 this year is working out well for O’Donnell, particularly Scottish attacker Billy King, who is making waves this year after an injury-scarred spell there in 2020.
“What I find is that the League of Ireland is a small pool of players, we are all competing, the same teams are after the same very good players so there will be a shortage of players if everyone is after the same players,” says O’Donnell.
“And you have to try and think outside the box and see where you can improve, if there are other avenues you can use to get players into the team or the country.”
Premier League sides Liverpool (’keeper Vítězslav Jaros) and West Ham (striker Alfie Lewis) think enough of the Saints’ set-up to send players here on loan, Jaros already making a name for himself with three clean sheets in the last four games, hoping that a loan spell here can be a key staging post in careers to come.
Billy King was looking a bit lost, career-wise, when he arrived in Dublin at the start of last season, having gone from an impressive start, in Scotland’s top flight with Hearts in 2012 and then a spell in the first team at Rangers while on loan, to a slide down as far as Gillingham and Greenock Morton.
But two goals in seven games this term makes King (26) stand out as one of their most impressive recruits, O’Donnell confident that the player who regularly played in front of crowds of 50,000 at Ibrox could deliver, once he was fit.
“When you bring someone in, you haven’t seen them in the environment they are coming in to, whereas when you sign players from the league you have seen them against the opposition they are up against and your teams,” O’Donnell explains.
“But you don’t have that luxury in signing players from further afield. Billy came in last year, he was probably our best player in the first four games before the initial lockdown and when he came back he did his hamstring, that set him back and he was only getting back to fitness and sharpness at the end of the curtailed season.
“But we had seen enough in training and in the initial games before lockdown to know that if we get him fit he’ll be a big asset. I am delighted with his attitude more than anything else.”
For King, it was a link with a Dublin-born team-mate which sent him to Inchicore.
“I was at Greenock Morton, I had a bad couple of years with injuries and I just wasn’t enjoying my football,” King says.
“I played with Willo Flood at Dundee United. He just literally became an agent, and he got me the move to St Pat’s. I think I wanted something different, I’d played in Scotland my whole career, in the Championship and I’d a couple of spells in the top league as well.
“I wasn’t enjoying my football and I just wanted a change. Ever since I came across to Ireland and played for St Pat’s, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”
Due to Covid-19 he’s played in front of a crowd just four times since coming to Ireland but he’s used to a big stage, at Rangers: “The professionalism, the intensity, playing in front of 50,000 people every week in the Championship”.
After their best start to a season in a decade, wins against Longford (tonight) and Sligo Rovers (Monday) would set the Saints up for a mouth-watering Dublin derby at home to Shamrock Rovers on Saturday week, though O’Donnell is still looking for improvement.
“We have had seven games so far so it’s nowhere near a quarter of the season gone. We have to improve massively still going forward but you’d have to be satisfied with your start but seven games gone is nothing really.
“I’m sure if you looked at the Premier League table in England after seven games this season, it would be a lot different to what it is now. We’re just trying to get better every week,” he added.
