Chambers made for the big occasion

FOR a young man who has to go back to his schoolboy days to try to remember the last time he contested a cup final, James Chambers seems remarkably unfazed about the prospect of playing in front of what will be the biggest crowd of his career in the battle of the Rovers at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday.

But then it probably helps if you’re coming to the climax of a season with a league winner’s medal tucked in your pocket and the experience of a Champions League game away to European giants Juventus still fresh in the memory.

“Yes, it’s going to be a massive crowd on Sunday but we’ve played Juve in Modena with 20,000 screaming Italians there,” says the 23-year-old Shamrock Rovers midfielder. “I think it will come down to whichever side copes better with the occasion on Sunday. I wouldn’t be particularly nervous.

“I’ll just focus on my own game and hopefully things will go right for me on the day.

“People say we can enjoy this more because we already have the league but Sunday is just a one-off and it could come down to a kick of the ball. It’s in the Aviva, it’s a cup final and it is attracting that extra bit of attention. It’s the finale of the season and all that but we’ll be approaching it the same way we would any other game.”

Chambers and company might have stumbled over the finishing line in the league but he thinks Rovers can’t but be refreshed by getting that much-talked-about monkey off their backs.

“We had a poor couple of weeks and couldn’t win games but I think we’ve turned that corner,” he says. “We don’t feel drained. During the week when we’ve been training, there’s a great buzz. There’s a good tempo and I think everybody’s enjoyed it. But Sligo are on a great run of form and we know it’s going to be a tough game.

“They’re up there with the best sides in the league. They’re a very good side and every time we’ve played them it’s been nip and tuck.”

Chambers began his career as a schoolboy at Shelbourne, interrupting a long stay at the club with a loan move to Waterford. After leaving Tolka Park, he had a spell playing with non-league Solihull Moors in England before returning to make his mark in the Airtricity Premier Division last year as Drogheda United battled to avoid the drop. Signed by Michael O’Neill at the end of last season, he has emerged this year in Tallaght as a versatile mainstay of a team now on the brink of a memorable double.

“I’m a jack of all trades really,” says the Dubliner who has also picked up U21 and U23 caps for Ireland. “I like playing in the middle of the park but at a club like this, wherever you get a game you’re just going to play because there’s only 11 getting picked from 20 or so players. So if you get picked you’re going to do a job. It does have its pros and cons but I’ve enjoyed it wherever I’ve played this season.”

Chambers agrees with his boss when the manager protests that, because of the focus on their end of term wobble, Rovers have not always been given the credit they deserve this season.

“I feel that. I feel that we’ve played decent football. People have thrown bouquets at the likes of Sligo which is well deserved, or Fingal and teams like that but I think that we have played good football at times during the year and at the end of day we are champions and we’re there on merit.

“And we’re here in the final now and we’d like to win the double.”

And, of course, doubles don’t come around too often.

“Yeah, the senior boys like Dessie (Baker) have said that, so when you get the chance to get to a final you take it, you don’t let it pass you by.”

Meanwhile, in other domestic news, the FAI have issued a statement saying Airtricity League Director Fran Gavin’s widely quoted comments yesterday about the probable expansion of the Premier Division for the 2012 season were “personal opinion” and not — at least, as yet — official policy.

“The FAI board are considering next year’s format and no decision has yet been made,” said the FAI statement.