Mido Odubeko has scored three League goals for Shels since his close season move to the Reds- and wants to add to Shamrock Rovers' Dublin derby misery after they conceded late against St Pat's and Bohs in the past week to take one point from a possible six.
"Of course a goal would be extra special," he said. "I spent 12 years of my life in Tallaght, I used to go down to Tallaght Stadium to be a ball boy at the games.
“I would have been about 10 years old. If you got there early enough and you begged them hard enough, they'd let you be a ball boy at the games. "Me and my mates would go down, two or three hours before kick-off, and we'd get to ball boy.
"I grew up loving football and they're sort of my earliest experiences in football, stuff like that. I enjoyed that. I remember Gary Twigg, Stephen Rice, Billy Dennehy. But of course I’m a striker, so my favourite player was Gary Twigg.
“I wouldn’t have been there for any of the league wins, I would have just got down for a couple of games a season."
Odubeko actually scored for the Ireland under-21s against Bosnia in Tallaght three years ago. "It's funny how life is," he said. "So it's a stadium I really enjoy playing at. I'm looking forward to it.
"Three points would be massive and a goal would be a cherry on the cake. The most important thing is the three points for the team."
Odubeko also responded to criticism by Virgin Media pundit Roddy Collins, who said that he was one of the worst finishers he had seen in the League after scoring the winner against Bohs recently.
"A few people showed me what he said but I didn’t really pay any attention to it," said the marksman. "Stuff like that just motivates me to get better, to improve my finishing.
“It helps in a way because sometimes you feel like you have something to prove, so it gives you that extra edge I feel like it’s been a bit of a slow start for me but there’s many factors that go into that, but I think the best is yet to come.”
Damien Duff, who strongly refuted Collins' criticism, claimed after the Bohs game that there was anger in Odubeko's performance because he wanted to start every game.
"I think he’s a great coach, and not only is he a great coach, he’s a very good human as well," said the player. "I feel like he’s the first manager that’s put his arm around me. His demands for me are very high because I think he knows what I’m capable of.
"He’s shown me a lot of love, even before I came here and since I’ve been here. So yeah, I’m really enjoying working under him.”
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