ALAN MANNUS has had a better career than most League of Ireland footballers enjoy.
At 39, he has three Premier Division titles and an FAI Cup to his name.
Before joining Shamrock Rovers, he made over 200 appearances with Linfield and won five league titles and four Irish Cups with them.
He also spent seven years at St Johnstone in between two spells at Rovers, helping the club win their first-ever Scottish Cup during his time there.
Born in Canada, Mannus moved back home with his family at the age of seven and has represented Northern Ireland on nine occasions, featuring in their squad for Euro 2016.
He remains a key player after seven years in total on the books with the Hoops โ last week, he made a potentially crucial last-minute penalty save in the 2-0 first leg Champions League qualifying loss to Slovan Bratislava.
โHeโs vital to what we do,โ Stephen Bradley says of Mannus. โHeโs the best in the country and has been for a number of years. Heโs kept us in games at times throughout the years and we have won games because of Alan, picked up important points because of him, he has kept us in the tie [against Slovan], the save at the end keeps us in the tie.โ
On stopping Vladimir Weissโ last-gasp spot-kick last week, Mannus says: โYou pick a side and you go. I was obviously happy to make the penalty save, itโs been a while since I saved one.
โItโs 50-50 almost unless they go down the middle. But it was nice to save it, especially, hopefully, it gives us a chance to get into the next round.โ
In contrast with Bradley though, Mannus plays down the significance of the moment slightly.
โIt wasnโt about keeping us in the tie, it was just about saving the penalty. When he put the ball down, I know who that player is, Weiss. Iโve been aware of him from a long time ago when he played against Northern Ireland. I just remember that game because he was at Man City at the time and everyone was talking about him.
โWe werenโt really expecting him to play [last week], but we still watched clips of him and stuff like that. When he put the ball down I just thought to myself, Iโm going to save it and I did. But you say that a lot of the time and you donโt save it. Although I donโt believe in luck necessarily, sometimes you just guess and you go the right way. I was more pleased with the one-on-one before that and the follow-up to the penalty, that block save than the actual penalty save.โ
It was not the first time Mannus had made an important contribution to a vital European tie. In 2011, he made another penalty save as the Hoops beat Flora Tallinn 1-0 on aggregate during the second round of Champions League qualifying.
And does he spend time studying future opponentsโ penalty techniques, particularly ahead of big games such as the one this evening?
โIโd say most goalkeepers do that nowadays. But the players know that the goalkeepers watch, so itโs not as easy as watching what they do and expecting them to do the same thing because they know that you watch them. It becomes a mind game then, at the end of the day, it still comes back to picking a side and going and thatโs it.โ
One player Mannus unsurprisingly has great admiration for is Gianluigi Donnarumma.
The 22-year-old finished his season shedding tears of joy on Sunday, after inspiring Italy to a penalty shootout win over England in the Euro 2020 final, having begun the campaign leading AC Milan out in a 2-0 Europa League qualifying victory over Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght last September.
Mannus got Donnarummaโs jersey after the game, adding it to a personal collection that also includes shirts worn by Manuel Neuer, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Iker Casillas and Gianluigi Buffon.
โI thought he was brilliant against us, the saves he made against Aaron Greene.
โWe actually spoke about it afterwards, we talked a lot about when Aaron got in during the first half, he saved it down to his left. Aaron said afterwards that he made it so hard for him because he stayed back. If heโd come out towards him, it would have allowed him to pick somewhere past him. He stayed back and got a big strong left hand to it.
โIn general, heโs been one of the top goalkeepers in the world. I was messaging a friend last night as it went to penalties. He asked: โWhat do you think?โ and I said โTheyโll save two penalties each.โ Just because of Donnarumma for who he is and Pickford, for all the criticism some of the English people and media put on him, heโs got a mentality of wanting to prove to everyone he can play at the highest level. Heโs done really well for England.
โI still thought heโd save at least two of the five. I thought the save onto the post was brilliant. The two of them were excellent all tournament.
โI do watch [penalty shootouts] and try and think what side they are going but it still becomes a guess really at the end of the day. There is no way of knowing for sure. Sometimes you look at the run-up and think theyโre going one side and they can pull the other way. Now a lot of the players do the stutter and stop and try and see which way youโre going to go, which makes it harder. Some of them almost come to a complete stop before they hit it, which isnโt allowed I donโt think but it makes it more and more difficult for the goalkeeper then.
โ[On Sunday] Didnโt Rashford watch the goalkeeper the whole way and if they do that, they risk not hitting the ball cleanly because they are not looking at the ball and then they can miss as he did. Still, you either stay in the middle or you pick a side and go and if you pick the right way, you put pressure on yourself to save it.โ
Mannus is reluctant to explicitly state whether he has been practising for penalties ahead of tonightโs game, with the scrapping of away goals making that outcome more likely, but he insists Rovers will be โreadyโ should spot-kicks arise.
Regardless overturning a two-goal deficit will be a stiff task, but the experienced goalkeeper believes his side can take encouragement from the last time they played at home in Europe.
โ[Milan] beat us 2-0 and were always expected to beat us. But what pleased me more than anything after the game was that we tried to play, as opposed to being safe. From goal-kicks, we tried to play out from the back, we tried to play rather than everybody going up the pitch and weโd go long.
โThat was the pleasing thing for me. Thatโs what we need to try to do tomorrow, to be brave. If we can do it against AC Milan, we can do it against anybody. When we did it against AC, there were times when we got into the final third to create chances. It shows you that we can be good at it.โ
And ultimately, such special occasions make the taxing daily hour-and-40-minute drive to Dublin from his home up north worth it.
โFor me, it comes down to motivation,โ he adds. โAnd if I lose the motivation to want to do it, then thatโs when Iโll call it [a day]. Iโm still motivated to play and I still want to play for the club and I want to not just play, I want to contribute to the club having success. If I think that I canโt contribute to the team being successful, then maybe thatโll be the time to call it โ retire or else move on.
โItโs not the easiest thing, doing the travel. But at the same time, itโs how I look after my family and Iโll do whatever I have to to do that as well. So as much as I maybe donโt want to do that drive sometimes, itโs my job, thatโs how I look after my family, it still means a lot for me to play for the club and thatโs why I do it.โ
Tonightโs match kicks off at 8pm. Details on how to view a live stream of the game can be found here.
Originally published at 0600
Even when on the bench he didnโt get game time. The coach doesnโt like or trust him. Saturday once again showed just how wrong Oโconnor has been all season
OโConnor is just all wrong for Leinster.
He has a very big chance next season with Leinster during the World Cup, midfield wonโt be as competitive so he should get a good run of matches.
Mark if Darcy doesnโt make the World Cup squad, heโll play 12 with tโeo at 13. Then Madigan and sexton will be back so the midfield wonโt be as easy to get into as you may think
That pop pass from OโBrien
Battle between him and Madigan for the 12 jersey next season.
Itโs always to easy to see who coaches โjust like/donโt likeโ. When Gopperth played badly it was ignored whereas when Madigan played mediocre or even if Reid played well decisions went against them.
It creates such a poisonous culture as some players start to feel entitled to spots and others feel it doesnโt matter how well they play they wonโt get picked. Cody and Fergusson were masters at disregarding players identities and judging on match performance alone. MOC is such a stink manager.