Patrick Ryan

St Patrick’s Athletic star outlines key League of Ireland preference over A-League

Ryan Edmondson was the match-winner against Bohemians on Friday and he previously spent two years with Central Coast Mariners in Australia.

Ryan Edmondson reckons he is far more suited to League of Ireland football than in the Australian top-flight because of the intensity of the action here and the “old-school” stadiums.

The former Leeds United forward spent two years with A-League side Central Coast Mariners before switching to St Patrick’s Athletic last winter.

It didn’t take him long to make an impact here and last Friday night he brought his tally for the season to six with a brace in the Saints’ 3-1 win against Bohemians.

Edmondson is thriving at Richmond Park and he puts that down, in some ways, to his new club’s cramped old ground.

Lot more relaxed

“For the past two and a half years I was over in Australia and it was a lot more relaxed. You didn’t really get these kinds of environments,” he said.

“There were big stadiums with low attendances, so as nice as the stadiums were, you didn’t really get that atmosphere and that edge to the games.

“Coming back over here, you’ve got these old-school stadiums, proper classic football stadiums where the fans are on top of your feet, there’s no other feeling like it.

“So to be able to score a couple [against Bohemians] and get them the three points is fantastic.”

A crowd of 5,435 - Pat’s biggest of the season so far - packed into the Inchicore stadium last Friday to watch their side bounce back from the concession of a goal after just eight seconds.

The game was played in glorious sunshine, but not in the type of heat that forced Edmondson to adapt his style while Down Under.

Missed that intensity

He said: “When it’s 35 degrees in the middle of summer, you don't really want to press the keeper as much. It’s very, very different.

“But I missed that intensity. I think it suits me really well. I’m one of those players that will just run until I can’t run anymore.

“I think [the League of Ireland] really suits me and it’s something that the fans thrive off as well. It seems to be working so far.”

He is developing quite the reputation as a big-game scorer - he now has four derby goals after his two against Shelbourne earlier this season.

But Edmondson isn’t one to bask in his achievements. Even walking off the pitch last Friday, when he was replaced in the 89th minute by Darragh Nugent, he was thinking of the ones he didn’t score.

High expectations

“If I’m being critical I probably could have had more,” he said. “But I’ll take the two and keep adding to the tally.

“I set myself very high expectations and I always will do. Can it hinder me sometimes? Probably, yes. But I’ll always aim for the stars in everything I do.

“I’m not doing too badly - six goals and one assist for the season so far, so I’ve had a very, very good start to the year.

“Hopefully I can keep going with that and keep getting the points on the board for the boys.”

He added that he would be “fuming with myself” anytime he came off the pitch without a goal, and insisted there were no season-long goal targets, but that he had a “game-by-game” approach to the season.

It’s the same, he said, for Pat’s and their challenge this season for honours.

Friday’s win, coupled with Shamrock Rovers’ defeat to Derry City, saw Stephen Kenny’s side leapfrog the Hoops into first place.

Game-by-game

“We don’t really look at [the table], if I’m being honest with you. We take it game-by-game,” he said.

“As you can see from the results, even tonight, any team in this league can beat anybody on their day.

“So we’re not going to say we want to be in the top-three. Don’t get me wrong, we do, we want to be playing European football. And I think at the end of the season that everybody’s goal.

“But we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves, we’re not going to get overexcited.

“We’re going to take it game-by-game and target the three points for each week, and that’s all we can do.”