PADDY BARRETT is a firm believer that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
And the Shelbourne ace is delighted to see his side embrace what many see as the ‘ugly’ side of the game.
Shels returned to their roots on Monday when they ground out a 1-0 win over Barrett’s old club St Pat’s to claim their first away win since March.
Given they are 12 points behind leaders Shamrock Rovers, it may already be too late for them to have a successful title defence.
But Barrett was chuffed to see the Reds get back to their traditional values and called on his team-mates to back it up against Derry City tonight.
The 31-year-old defender said: “We dominated the football in the first half.
“We were very tidy on the ball and kept it nicely. We had to show a different side in the second half and I think it’s a side that we are built on.
“It’s a side that I personally love, where we’re putting our bodies on the line.
“That side of football is not a pretty side but it’s a beautiful side. We won the league on that nasty side last year.
“Not the nasty side but as in the ugly side of football where people are diving around, blocking balls, defending and one-on-one defending. I thought it was excellent.
“We haven’t had that side to us, that dirty side, in recent weeks and months. I keep saying the dirty side but it’s a beautiful side. I love it.
“I feel like we lost that. We went away from that side and just to show that side again . . . I think that was the most pleasing thing. We have that doggedness about us and have each other’s backs.”
Barrett’s return to action — he came on at half-time in the last game before the break and started the first after the resumption — may have helped in that regard.
The centre-half was out since the March international break.
And while Shels had divulged few details about the extent of his injury, he revealed he was back ahead of schedule.
Barrett said: “It was in an 11-v-11 in training. I was just passing the ball and I felt something.
“At the time I knew it was bad but obviously after scans and seeing specialists then they kind of gave me the bad news.
“I tore my quad, I tore my rectus femoris. I was out for 16 weeks.
“I had to see specialists and it just wasn’t healing for me.
“But, in the end, with the physio and the fitness coach, I got back in maybe ten-and-a-half or 11 weeks.
“It is a credit to them and a credit to myself.”
But Barrett admitted that he initially struggled to accept the consultant’s prognosis.
He added: “I’m just stubborn and was telling him he’s wrong.
“Look, results and scans, results and X-rays and all this. They’re the ones with the knowledge.
“I’m telling them I’m itching and trying to get back on the pitch way earlier than I should have.
“It was frustrating. I’m arguing with them and they’re arguing with me.
“But in the end we made a mutual agreement. I came back at the right time.”
Barrett is now determined to show Monday’s game was not a one-off at Tolka Park this evening.
He said: “When we pick up a good result, we haven’t backed it up.
“We probably haven’t given the fans that full performance at home for a while now.
“Hopefully we can back it up and put a run together.”
But he is not fretting about retaining a league title, which he said meant more to him than the two he won with Dundalk earlier in his career.
He said: “Shamrock Rovers are in flying form and 12 points ahead of us.
“But I don’t think we can look too deep into it as we’ll beat ourselves up if we do.”
