Stephen McPhail spoke to shamrockrovers.ie ahead of Friday night’s derby clash at Richmond Park. The away allocation of tickets is SOLD OUT. The match will be shown live on Virgin Media Two, with coverage beginning at 7.30pm, kick-off is at 7.45pm

There can be only one place to start. Our club captain, Pico Lopes, has helped Cape Verde reach their first ever World Cup with a 3-0 win over Eswatini on Monday and all being well, will become the first ever current LOI player to appear in a World Cup. Just how big is this achievement for both Cape Verde and Pico?

“It’s massive. It couldn’t happen to a nicer man as well. Pico has been here such a long time, he’s a brilliant person first and foremost and I think you can feel everyone in Ireland is delighted for him. He’s got his rewards for all the hard work and dedication he gives to his profession. So we’re absolutely over the moon for Pico and a big congratulations to him.”

Pico’s involvement in the international window last weekend meant he missed the Shelbourne game last Friday as we lost 1-0. With four key players absent, despite a tough first half, did we deserve a point against Shels which would’ve clinched the title last week?

“On the overall scheme of things, especially in the second half, we deserved to score. But that’s football, it happens, but the pleasing thing was the lads came out in the second half and looked like ourselves again. It was a bit disjointed in the first half, but that’s probably normal when you missing a few players. But they were fine and I thought we threw everything at Shels in the second half. On another day, we could win the game or certainly draw. So we can’t get too disappointed and we move on to the next game tomorrow night.”

So we still look for that title-clinching point tomorrow night away at St Patrick’s Athletic. How has the training been this week following that disappointing result last Friday against Shelbourne?

“The lads have been brilliant. This group has been through it all and the beauty of them is the experience within the group, how to get titles over the line, so just need to lean on that. The group has trained really well this week, the lads away on international break came back ok and everything is positive and we’re looking forward to the game.”

Our last game at Inchicore was a thrilling 2-2 draw where Pats scored an added time equaliser and we’ve beaten them twice in Tallaght. But they’re still looking to qualify European football, so Pats have plenty to play for apart from trying to deny us winning the title tomorrow.

“Absolutely, with St Pats sitting in that league position at the moment, they need results. They’ve obviously got quality players and in their manager, Stephen Kenny, he’s got huge experience. So they’ll be trying to make sure we don’t party at their place again as we did in 2023. So we need to make sure our performance is right, look after our side of things and hopefully the result goes our way.”

Both teams have young, talented and eye-catching centre forwards in our own Michael Noonan and Pats’ Mason Melia. With Mason bound for Tottenham when he’s 18 and also our own Victor Ozhianvuna doing likewise to Arsenal, does these young mens’ ability at such a young age speak volumes about the great work our academies are continuing to do?

“I think it’s great to see. As you say with Michael, Mason and Victor coming in this year, showing real promise, and it’s easy to forget how young they are, it’s a huge well done to all the academies. There’s also talented young players in Cork doing really well and at Dundalk who’ve won the First Division and beyond. I think the recent academy funding (announced in last week’s Budget) is huge, it gives us a huge platform and is a big plus for the country in general. Hopefully we will see more to come.”

Is Pico back for the Pats game tomorrow? How are Danny Grant, Josh Honohan and Lee Grace and is anyone else unavailable?

“Pico and Lee Grace are back, which is good. Danny Grant is maybe still a little bit away and we will check on Josh Honohan  this morning at training. Everyone else is fine.”