Hoops fan Fenlon not giving up on title

Given his high profile in League of Ireland football, the journey has probably taken longer than most people would have expected but, beginning with tonight’s game at home to Derry City, new Shamrock Rovers manager Pat Fenlon will finally step into the dugout of the team he supported as a boy.

And nine months on from leaving Hibs in the SPL, the 45-year-old Dubliner accepts there was probably only one SSE Airtricity League club which could have tempted back into the domestic fray.

“I was offered, without going too much into it, a few jobs in the last few months,” he says. “It wasn’t tickling my fancy to be honest. This is probably the club I wanted to manage. I don’t want to be disrespectful to any other club in the league because it’s a good league with good people. But I did want an opportunity to manage this football club and thankfully that has come.”