Stephen Kenny: Winning the title the priority in Tallaght

Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny insists that he has nothing to prove to anyone at Shamrock Rovers, the club that sacked him after less than a season at Tallaght where his current club can lift their second straight title with a win this Friday night.

Kenny, who is originally from Tallaght himself, describes his dismissal at Rovers three years ago as “a very low point in my career and my life,” but maintains that there is no lingering bitterness on his part about the manner of his departure.

“Everyone seems to be of the opinion that it’s my ambition to go to Tallaght, win it and stick two fingers up at everybody. But to be honest with you, that’s not how I feel. I think the fact that we took this team from bottom and won the league in the way we did (last year) answered any questions that needed to be answered.

“I don’t have that real bitterness about me,” he continues. “There is no doubt that was a very low point in my career and my life, the aftermath of that but (ultimately) I had the conviction and absolute belief in myself to take on the next challenge and be successful.”

Kenny, whose team is currently in contention for the double following Friday’s cup semi-final defeat of Longford Town, makes no secret of how big a move he regarded taking over at Rovers from Derry City at the time and, becoming visibly emotional, talks about the impact it all had on his family, from his children, who were due to move back to Dublin, to his then seriously ill father.

“At the time it hurt my family very much. Sometimes there is nothing you can do. I will say that my own Dad, at that time, he adopted me... he came through cancer and heavy emphysema and things like that and he was quite house bound. He was living in Tallaght, they’re both from Tallaght, my mother and father (Michael and Marie), and they were quite hurt by the whole scenario, the way it went.”

His father passed away in January of this year but, he says, he is pleased that he had lived to see him bounce back from the difficulties endured at Rovers to win the title with Dundalk.

“At the end of the day he watched the game against Cork (in which the title was clinched) with my brother, because he was house bound. He was’t an emotional man really but my brother told me he cried after the game and he died a few weeks later but I was glad that he witnessed that. I was delighted that he lived for that, it was important for me.

“So the bitterness... I don’t have that now. It’s about winning the league and winning it in style, in the manner the players have played, brilliantly, all season, and them displaying the talent they have. I’d be delighted for them (if we win it on Friday) because they have been a joy to watch, a joy to coach and I have enjoyed it.”