Rejuvenated Bermingham enjoying a new lease of life with the Saints
By Hayden Moore
IAN BERMINGHAM is enjoying “a new lease of life” with St Patrick’s Athletic since the appointment of Stephen O’Donnell as head coach with the captain rearing to go again ahead of Friday night’s clash with Shelbourne in Tolka Park.
The Saints, coming off the back of a hard-fought 2-0 victory on the road against Sligo Rovers last week, had their bout with Derry City on Monday night postponed because of a waterlogged pitch.
St Patrick’s Athletic captain Ian Bermingham is enjoying life playing under new head coach Stephen O’Donnell (Photo by Paddy Barrett)
The postponement cleared the way for St Pat’s to tailor their preparations for a Dublin derby with Shelbourne, the first meeting of the two sides in the league since August 2013.
“It’s our first Dublin derby of the season and we’re rearing to go for Friday night,” said Ian Bermingham, who is entering into his 11th season with the club.
He added: “It’s been really good since Stephen has come in, we have a good pre-season behind us with him and I’m at the stage of my career when I thought I knew it all, but I’ve learned a few things since he’s come in and it’s given me a new lease of life, I’m loving it.
“I’m 30 now and I know it’s important for some of the older lads to be passing their knowledge down to a few of the younger lads if we want to have a team that can go for a few years.”
Bermingham joined the club in 2010 from local rivals Shamrock Rovers and was named captain in 2017.
“I suppose over the years I’ve been good to the club and they have been good to be in return,” he told The Echo.
“I’ve a good relationship with the club, from the owner down to the groundsmen and I feel really at home here.
“There have been moments when times were tough or things weren’t going our way and I would have been thinking about leaving but I have enjoyed 90 percent of my time here.
“I just love football; I get to get up every morning and go play football for a job and I can’t see myself playing anywhere else at this stage, I do just feel at home here.
“Hopefully now we can start putting some wins together and make a push over the next few years.”
Looking ahead to Friday night’s trip to Tolka, Bermingham said “The buzz and the atmosphere around these games are great and Shels haven’t been up in a while so we’re looking forward to it. Going to Tolka Park is no easy feat either, we’re expecting to have our work cut out for us.”
After suffering an opening day defeat to Waterford in Richmond Park, the Inchicore club went on the road where they carded a 2-0 victory against a Sligo side managed by their previous manager, Liam Buckley.
“It’s so important to get that win early on to get up and running,” Bermingham said of the win.
“The quicker you get those first three points on the table the better because it takes that bit of pressure off.
“You’ve got to put a run together in this league because when you do it just takes you right up the table and we’d be looking at a lot of teams thinking that we can beat them to work towards that.”
The win, which saw Ronan Hale score from outside the box and Chris Forrester hit the net after some stylish footwork inside the box, came off the back of a 1-0 defeat to Waterford.
Despite Kevin O’Connor’s goal ultimately making the difference, Pat’s could take some positives after dominating possession and hitting the target eight times.
“I think we were going in confident of getting a win and both sides were a bit tentative in the first half, as you’d expect with the first game of the season,” said Bermingham.
“We were gutted to be honest not to leave with a win because they didn’t really threaten us apart from when they scored.”
St Patrick’s Athletic take on Shelbourne in Tolka Park tomorrow at 7.45pm.
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