JOEY O’BRIEN knows there will be Duff days ahead – but no more late night calls with Damien Duff.
O’Brien, 39, was this week appointed as Shelbourne boss to replace Duff having stepped up as interim manager for the previous two games.
And he got his reign at Shelbourne off to a winning start on Friday as the Reds beat Cork City 3-1.
But he insisted that even going into a 2-0 lead in the opening six minutes never had him thinking management would be easy, having learnt first-hand under Duff.
He said: “I’ve been around long enough to know it’s definitely not this easy.”
But when offered the chance to step up from assistant manager to manager in the last week, he decided that the time was right to be his own man.
He explained: “After the manager left, it was such a quick turnaround to get into the Waterford and Galway games.
“After that, the week of that it was put to me if I was interested in it and if I wanted to take it. I had a couple of days thinking about it. I didn’t want to rush into it really.
“I just weighed it all up and just thought, I have had a great learning here under the manager, what he’s built over the last number of years for me as a coach to improve, what I’ve learned of him, it’s just been brilliant.
“That’s ultimately where I was at. It is a fantastic squad of players. They are a massive part of it as well and that’s the squad that has been built over the last few years.
“I probably looked into it when my career ended as a player and I wanted to get involved in coaching and then leading into the management.
“But I don’t think you can never make it out exactly how you want it to.
“The opportunity to work with the gaffer was obviously a huge part in me stopping playing football and I don’t regret it for a second.
“What I learned, and the moments we had over the last three and a half years have been unbelievable.
“It happened. He made his call and then it was up to me to make my call and I did. It was an easy decision in the end, I suppose.”
It does mean a change from going from being assistant to now being his own boss, though he said that he and Duff remain close friends.
But the phone calls – Duff often claimed O’Brien was the first person he called in the morning and the last person at night – will now be happening less often.
O’Brien added: “My relationship with the manager is concrete. I have a personal relationship (with him) and we’ll have that forever.
“The phone calls and late phone calls probably won’t be (happening)!”
O’Brien does not have a UEFA Pro Licence yet but confirmed that he is enrolled on the FAI’s course which begins later this year.
But his main focus in the coming weeks is building on Friday night’s win over Cork City where the Reds ran out comfortable 3-1 winners.
He added: “From a performance point of view I thought we were brilliant, I thought we should have won by more.
“The first-half started really well, we got the early goal, which helped, and then we got the second.
“We probably should have been three-up in the first-half, we didn’t get them, we’re disappointed with the goal we gave away, a set-play.
“I don’t really think they had a chance from open play, really. So that was disappointing, to come in at 2-1.
“I think it’s probably the story of our season, the amount of chances we’ve created and the amount of chances we’ve missed.”
