Prolific Twigg owes 'everything' to O'Neill

SOCCER:HAVING HELPED Shamrock Rovers to complete its first league title-winning campaign in 16 years with his 50th competitive goal for the club on Friday night, Gary Twigg admits that he thought his hopes of winning major honours in the game had passed prior to Michael O'Neill recruiting him for the Dubliners.

The Scot, whose career started at Derby where he was a highly-regarded youngster, has endured a number of setbacks over the last few years and admits to having more than once considered giving the game up.

In the end, though, the 26-year-old, who limped out of Friday’s game after scoring but who insists he will be fit for the FAI Cup final on Sunday week, credits the former Northern Ireland international with reviving his career, first at Brechin and now at Rovers where his goals have been a key ingredient in O’Neill’s highly successful mix.

“To be honest, I never thought that this would come in my career,” he says in the wake of Friday’s success, which might yet form the first half of what would be a remarkable double for a club that only established itself in its new Tallaght home in early 2009. “I’d had a lot of problems with injuries and just fell out of love with football. But the gaffer is a miracle worker and has managed to get me back playing at a level where hopefully people enjoy coming to watch me. I owe everything to him, to be honest,” he says.

“I was tempted (to walk away from the game) before the manager took me to Brechin. I had thought about quitting and the gaffer kind of told me ‘just come and play and enjoy football again’. I did that at Brechin and then he brought me here – and I’ve not stopped enjoying it since.”

His two years in Dublin have, he says, been the best of his career, “by far” and despite being linked with a number of clubs in England and Scotland over the last couple of months, Twigg has consistently maintained that it is intention to see out the rest of his contract with the Tallaght-based club unless Rovers decide to sell him.

It is hard to imagine that there won’t be a certain amount of interest in Twigg who has now finished as the league’s top scorer in each of his two seasons here and managed it this time around despite having missed the opening weeks of the campaign through injury. And O’Neill insisted last week that he believes there is a great deal more to come from the striker who, he claimed, is one of the most technically gifted footballers in the country.

“I’m not sure when there was a striker in the league with his sort of strike-rate,” says the manager. “But I still think he’s capable of taking his game to another level to be honest.”

Meanwhile, the scale of the fall-out from the financial difficulties at Bohemians may become clearer over the next week or so as Pat Fenlon and his players seek to clarify the club’s plans for next year.

Fenlon’s backroom staff were told last week that their contracts were not to be renewed and it is expected that players whose deals have run out will not be offered new ones either. The situation will be discussed, however, at a board meeting tomorrow night.