Heres hoping again ….. Spurs V Shamrock Rovers

I never enjoyed writing a note to a teacher more than I did yesterday morning….. as I explained my son would be missing two days of school as he was going to see Shamrock Rovers play Spurs in a Europa League clash at White Hart Lane 🙂
(there were tears from his sister at the fact he was getting off school and she wasn’t, nothing about missing the match though!)
Its been a crazy few weeks with passports to be got, tickets, flights, hotels, transport to be organized too. On the football front fixture pile ups , Sligo hitting form, the game with Rubin Kazan and of course tonights game with Spurs (live on tv3 and a host of other broadcasters at 8.05). With lots more fixtures coming up in quick succession too.
The club have sold 2,300 tickets to fans, so there will be huge numbers traveling over. There will also be a few thousand London Irish cheering Rovers on.
As for the actual game, its hard to see Rovers coming away with anything despite Spurs naming a squad missing a good few of their star names. Pavlyuchenko and Lennon, amongst others will be lining out for Spurs. Rovers have a few injury problems, especially at centre back and given the amount of games these part time players have played, a few will be fatigued.
In a good few of the European games we have conceded soft early goals. If conceding an early goal can be avoided, the team will grow in confidence. We also will be playing a defensive 4-5-1 with ex Spurs man Rohan Ricketts on one of the wings. So far he’s done well, his passing and ability on the ball is superb, however he isn’t fully fit and wouldn’t be known for tracking back.
Needless to say, I would love to get something from the game…. but given the gulf in resources between Rovers and Spurs and Rovers various travails over the years since Milltown… it is because we are here in the first place that we’ll be celebrating tonight.

Should anyone be interested, a limited number of tickets for the home games vs PAOK and Spurs go on sale Monday at 10am from the Club Shop in Tallaght.