Rossiter - Our focus is on next game

Mark Rossiter has urged his side to forget about being top of the table and concentrate only on their next fixture against Drogheda United.

Victory over UCD at the Belfield Bowl put them into pole position for the first time this season but Rossiter believes that counts for very little just now.

“Being top of the league means nothing at this point in time,” he insisted.

“Pat’s have two games before we even play again and the likelihood is they will be back ahead of us.

“We are not going to focus on that though our focus is on Drogheda and getting three points at home from that one which is all we are thinking about.”

The win in Dublin came as a result of a fine performance borne from a strong defence which conceded little and a midfield and attack who were clinical when going forward and the Sligo native saw parallels with the game and the Students’ 3-2 win in Louth earlier this year.

He also praised his side’s fitness and desire in giving everything to push on and create opportunities as well as for the men who scored the quality and crucial goals for the Lilywhites while also admitting it is the work of the team as a whole who are responsible for their outstanding defensive displays which have witnessed them concede just twice in their past five league games.

“I think the game was fairly similar to the last time we played them in Oriel but this time we were a lot more compact and we kept control of the ball a lot better and didn’t give away possession too lightly and if we did we won it back fairly quickly,” ‘Rossi’ said.

“We knew if we worked them hard then we would create openings and Stevie [O’Donnell] did well with a bit of cleverness to draw the yellow card out of Mick Kelly for the second yellow and when they were down to 10 men we just kept passing them off the park, knowing we would get space for shots.

“Thankfully we then got the goal from Hoban who wasn’t having a great night but the boy can finish and then it was a super finish from Richie to seal it.

“We are working well but it is not just Peter [Cherrie] or the back four because we have Shieldsy in front of the back four and Stephen O’Donnell who covers every blade of grass and Richie Towell because as a team we are defending really well and when they are doing their bit further up the pitch it makes it much easier for us,” added the versatile full-back."

Given that Rossiter has been there before with Bohemians for close run-ins and ultimately ended the season as a league champion, he does hope that experience can help his teammates while also believing that of manager Stephen Kenny will be vital.

He continued: “It is not just me who has been and won this league because me and Stevie are fortunate that we have won two leagues each and if we can be any calming influence on some of the younger lads then that’s great and we also have the main man Stephen [Kenny] who has won the league at Bohs and is always talking to the players and his experience will be super for us to just keep the young lads grounded and say look we have seven games to go, let’s win as many as we can and see where it takes us.”