Jamie McGrath: 'It's very ruthless, sometimes you have to remember how good you are'

RESILIENT CHARACTER: Jamie McGrath during a Republic of Ireland training session. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Football is both global game and local village. 

It’s coming up on four years since Jamie McGrath left the League of Ireland behind but the ties that bind remain even now that he makes his living in Scotland and has his eyes fixed on Amsterdam.

The Republic of Ireland’s Euro 2024 qualifier away to Netherlands should have been the Irish game’s biggest fixture this month but it is both a damning indictment of the team and a sign of the domestic game’s rise that it isn’t.

That boast is reserved for last Sunday’s FAI Cup final at a throbbing Aviva Stadium and McGrath has been following the league’s progress closely from his Pittodrie base out by the shores of the North Sea.

It was only to be expected that he be asked if he knew Bohemians midfielder and fellow Meathman James Clarke. He doesn’t, as it turns out, but McGrath has been watching a decent wedge of League of Ireland lately.

He has been impressed by Clarke – and by Jonathan Afolabi - and Dylan Connolly, a former teammate at Dundalk and St Mirren, but now with Bohs, was able to cement that opinion with some insider’s words of praise.

Clarke never earned trials in the UK, Afolabi has had five clubs across the water, but both are still young enough to follow in the footsteps of McGrath and Celtic’s Liam Scales by catching the eye here at home and earning their passage over.

They are two of the seven players in the squad Stephen Kenny called up for this latest international window who played senior football in the domestic league before making that move and eventually appearing for their country at senior level.

McGrath was 25 when he moved across the Irish Sea to play, Scales was just two years younger and the Wicklow man has made an impressive breakthrough in Glasgow, and with Ireland, after his move from Shamrock Rovers.

“It’s great to see how Scalesie is playing this season. Obviously if things went a bit different we could have been teammates at Aberdeen, but I'm delighted to see him kicking on. He's been one of the best defenders in the league I'm pretty sure this season.” 

McGrath’s season hasn’t been half bad either.

His stunning free-kick against PAOK earlier this month helped the Dons to a 2-2 draw in their Europa Conference away tie. He has six goals in his 16 games to date since signing on with the one-time UEFA Cup winners.

It’s been an up-and-down season for them so far with a win at Ibrox, a 6-0 thumping at Celtic Park, a European run that echoes their mid-table domestic start and a place in the League Cup final next month against Rangers.

“I’ve a lot of family and friends coming over for it, so it's a big occasion,” said McGrath. “Celtic and Rangers tend to win their fair share in Scotland, so to upset that would be a really good achievement.” 

He is entitled to his excitement given the manner in which his career went south after a switch from St Mirren to Wigan Athletic. Unused and left out of squads, he paid a follow-on price with a 12-month exile from Kenny’s squad.

This was, he admitted, the “lowest point” but he didn’t take it lying down. He could have stayed on the fringes in the English Championship but decided to accept a loan move to Dundee United and the prospect of more regular game time before joining Aberdeen.

“That’s football, you can have your highs and lows. I obviously experienced some of that at Wigan, and it can be easy to start doubting yourself, but you have to remember what you’ve achieved so far. You have to have that underlying confidence in your own ability no matter how hard it gets. So yeah, you have to be resilient in the game.” 

He didn’t pick that resilience up off the ground.

Teenage years spent with Cherry Orchard and UCD gave way to his spell at Richmond Park and he was making his senior debut for Pats shortly before his 18th birthday. A boy, unable to drink or vote, but playing men’s football.

Scales was similar, earning a first start for UCD when still a 17-year old, and McGrath has no doubt but that this experience helped him in England and helped his Republic of Ireland teammate eventually break into the Celtic first-team.

“To be fair to Scalesie, it looked like he might not be getting his chance [at Celtic], but a few injuries and performances on the training ground and he got his chance and he hasn’t looked back - and long may it continue. It’s a ruthless game.

“At 17, 18 I was seeing it first-hand at Pat’s, but it’s a good learning curve. You're not getting sheltered away from that side of it. It is very ruthless and you have to be resilient and sometimes you just have to think back to how good you actually are.”