iSTAT Talk to Eoghan O’Shea

iSTAT were delighted to catch up with full back Eoghan O’shea before the start of the mid season break and get him to answer a few questions on his first season with Athlone.

Tell us a bit of your footballing background.

I played my schoolboy football with Peake Villa in Thurles County Tipp,and St Joesphs boys in Dublin.I have winners medals for both South Tipp schoolboy league and cup and ddsl u16premier league.I have a Munster youth cup winners medal and an FAI youth cup runners up meadl for Villa.I spent 4 years at St Pats where i got 2 eircom u21 league runners up medals and 1 u21 cup.I played with Monaghan United for a brief spell after St. Pats and then played with the now defunct Kilkenny City.I spent the last 2 years at Tullamore town in the A Championship

How have you found the step up to the league of Ireland, is it what you expected?

Its been pretty much the same since I last played,tough and physical,but Cork and Derry have added some good football to it

You have been a regular in the first team at the start of the season, are you happy with your performances so far?

To a degree I have,I feel I’m starting to settle into the left full position now and I feel as a back 4 we are doing well too

I’ve always thought that full backs are 2 of the most important positions on the pitch.  You have to defend, attack, and are often the start of attacks when the keeper releases quickly. It adds up to a lot of responsibility. What parts of your game do feel are your strongest and where do you hope to improve.

At the moment I’m getting used to the fullback position.I’ve spent my entire career to date as a centre half.Its definately a lot harder playing fullback but i’m starting to enjoy it.I’m happy with my defending but i’d like to improve my forward runs and distribution

The team have got off to a fairly good start, how do you see the rest of the season going and have you set yourself any goals for the season.

As a back 5 i think we are doing fairly ok,i’d like us to start scoring a few more,a cup run would be nice and as for the league well its always about improving and i don’t think the play offs are out of question with this group of players

Have we seen the best of Eoghan O’Shea yet, and if not what can the fans expect?

No i don’t feel so,I like to feel i always can improve and I’d like to make the No.3 jersey my own.Over the year I want to keep defending well but improve the attacking side of my game

Trivia questions

In the dressing room who spends the most time in front of the mirror.

Aussie,defo

In one word describe the manager.

Professional

If you could sign any player in the world to play alongside you at Athlone who would it be?

Messi

Describe Chris Bennion in one word.

Angry

You best memory in your time playing football.

Schoolboy football because of the success

Your favourite stadium you have played in.

Inchicore

Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for us Eoghan and all the best for the rest of the season.