SOCCER NEWS:The in-form Republic of Ireland striker has only one thing on his mind – playing top-level football with his club, Reading, writes EMMET MALONE
SHANE LONG took a moment to realise it was meant as a joke when he was asked yesterday what had gone wrong the previous night in Reading’s game against Preston. His side had won again but, somewhat unusually these days, the Republic of Ireland striker hadn’t scored and after rattling off the stock stuff about the team’s result being what is important, he admitted to having walked off the pitch feeling angry with himself.
From someone who seems so likeable, it was a small reminder of just how driven a player he has become at Reading this season. The 20 goals he has scored, however, remain the real evidence of the edge his game has acquired of late around the opposition’s penalty area.
Long was in Dublin on a flying visit to promote the An Post-sponsored FAI Summer Schools which the association is hoping to grow again this year to 23,000 children participating at more than 300 venues across the country.
Both of Long’s former clubs in Tipperary will be hosting camps but Long is firmly fixed on the plight of his current one as a run of nine games without defeat – to which he has contributed eight goals – has taken Reading into the play-off places and kept alive their hopes of going up automatically.
“We’re seven points off second position now so anything is possible,” he says. “We’re on a good run at the moment and a lot of the teams above us have to play each other. We’ve Forest away on Saturday and that’s tough but if we overcome them it’s a nice run in until the end of the season.”
Having taken 15 points from their last five games they are certainly the form team and their particularly dramatic improvement in recent weeks is bound to be causing Norwich, currently second, as well as the three clubs in between, some discomfort at this stage, with Long and his team-mates showing their determination to follow the achievements of other clubs who come with a late charge in recent years.
“Yeah, in the last few seasons Burnley and Blackpool made late surges and got into the Premiership. That’s what we’re trying to emulate,” said Long.
That, of course, is the priority but topping the goalscoring chart is clearly high on Long’s wish list too. Danny Graham of Watford is currently three ahead but the Irishman feels that there is still plenty of time to overtake his rival.
Finishing first would have the effect of making him even more marketable to top flight clubs, although there has already been a fair amount of interest in the 24-year-old who insists his preference is to be playing Premier League football with Reading next season.
For Long to be playing at that level after the summer regardless of where he is would please Giovanni Trapattoni who seems to have become increasingly enthusiastic about him after taking time to consider quite a few other options.
Long, in turn, feels he would be repaying a favour to the Italian who, he feels, has made him a better player over the last few years.
“I think every player learns so much from him. I know me personally, I do anyway. He tells you things that, after he tells you, are so simple but something you don’t think about and it adds to your game a lot.
“It’s just his experience, being in the game for so long. He’s added to every player’s game and the longer he’s over Irish football the better for it.
“Him and Marco (Tardelli), the two of them kind of look after me a bit and train me up a bit. When I come into the Irish squad, I learn something new every time. I suppose how can’t you learn from a World Cup winner and a manager with his record? Yeah, they’ve definitely added to my game a lot and are part of the reason why I’m scoring.”
Also present at yesterday’s launch was Megan Campbell, the Irish under-17 international whose wonderful long-range free against Germany in last summer’s Uefa Championship finals ended the holders’ hopes of securing a third successive title.
The goal is something of a hit on YouTube with more than 15,000 hits, although Campbell, who is planning to take up a scholarship at Connecticut Central State University later this year, admits her contribution to that success didn’t stop with scoring the goal. “Yeah, about a thousand of the viewings are down to me,” she laughs.
