Shamrock Rovers’ long, slow stumble towards League of Ireland title glory

DON’T PANIC Crikey! Just over a month ago, the inevitable coronation of Shamrock Rovers as Irish champions seemed such a fait accompli you could practically hear the faint, mournful wail of Derry City fans in the distance. Having dispatched the hipster threat of Bohemians and watched Derry slip up against Drogheda, the Tallaght titans needed a single, solitary point from their final five League of Ireland Premier Division outings to bag their fifth title in six years. Three defeats later, they are finding that point harder to come by than heatstroke on a wet and windy November night at their own stadium. Still, if Rovers can just draw their game in hand against Galway United at home this evening, they will finally be crowned champions. While their recent run of five consecutive defeats across the league and Tin Pot means bagging a point against a Galway team battling the drop is a far from foregone conclusion, Rovers can still afford to lose tonight and wrap up the league by taking a point from their final game of the season against Sligo. Should the unthinkable happen and the Hoops lose both their remaining matches, it almost certainly still won’t matter. With a three-point lead and a vastly superior goal difference of +11 over nearest rivals Derry City, the chances of them Devon Loching this title race are negligible. In the extremely unlikely event they were to ship a five- or six-goal hiding tonight, though, they would certainly be entering the puckered, unedifying realms of the Squeaky Bum. What was supposed to be a canter to the title for Rovers has come to resemble a sloth attempting to escape from quicksand but if their head coach, Stephen Bradley, is even remotely concerned by his side’s recent collapse in form he is hiding his anxiety well. While his players prepared for their 2-1 defeat against Derry at the Brandywell last Sunday, he and his assistant, Glenn Cronin, stayed behind to run the Dublin marathon. As the fathers of children who have been affected by cancer, the duo raised over €50,000 for Oscars Kids before boarding a helicopter that flew them to the game. “It’s very unlike us,” said Bradley of the unprecedented back-to-back league losses on his nine-year watch. “We want it to get done but obviously in the last couple of weeks it hasn’t happened. That’s life, that’s football, it’s just about getting back to what we do, winning games and everything else will be fine.” Despite their late wobble down the home straight, it has been a fine season for Rovers, who also have an FAI Cup final against Cork City ahoy and are still hopeful of making the knockout stages of Tin Pot. In centre-back Pico Lopes, they also boast the only Irishman on the planet likely to play in next year’s Geopolitics World Cup, where he is set to line up for Cape Verde. “We had to get him over the line because he wasn’t sure about leaving the bank,” said Bradley of the former part-timer turned international stalwart he persuaded to leave his “proper” job to come and play for Rovers. Now the club has another line to drag themselves over and hope to do so tonight, at the fourth time of asking. LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE Join Scott Murray from 7.45pm GMT for hot Milk Cup coverage of Liverpool 1-2 Crystal Palace, while Michael Butler will be clockwatching the rest of the evening’s action. QUOTE OF THE DAY “Do you remember Stoke City when they made the throws? It happened in that time. Now it’s just more and more teams doing that, but then maybe Stoke was the exception. I remember when I was at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, Arsène Wenger talked about going to play at Stoke” – with long throws taking over football, Pep Guardiola pulls on a club-shop cap to put some respect on Tony Pulis’ name. FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS Ifab should appoint Rory Delap to issue guidelines for long throw-ins. You need experts in the field; you wouldn’t invite José Mourinho for a seminar on attacking football, would you?” – Krishna Moorthy. It’s pointless trivia, but when Paul Biya became president of Cameroon, George Weah had only just turned 16 the month before. Since then, Weah has won the Ballon d’Or, retired from football, won multiple awards for his humanitarian work, and then served as president of Liberia for six years. Weah is now 59, and Paul Biya is still president of Cameroon” – Noble Francis. Jamie Cureton’s goal for Kings Park Rangers [yesterday’s Daily, full email edition] means that he has not only now scored in all of the top 10 tiers of English football, but also has a matching set of goals for Kings Park Rangers and Queens Park Rangers. Even more impressively, his goals for QPR came when there was a Queen on the throne, and his goal for Kings Park Rangers now there is a King as monarch. Definitely worth waiting for” – Andrew Long. Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … Andrew Long, who gets a copy of A History of Football in 100 Objects from the Guardian Bookshop, which has loads of other great football reads, too. Get shopping! Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.  RECOMMENDED LISTENING The latest edition of the Women’s Football Weekly podcast is out now, featuring special guest Mary Phillip. And catch up with Football Weekly’s latest episode on Celtic’s crisis and the Championship over here. A TOUGH PLACE TO GO In the Women’s Nations League, Spain and Germany have advanced to the final after seeing off Sweden and France respectively in their semi-finals. Alexia Putellas’ strike in Gothenburg secured a 1-0 away win (and 5-0 aggregate success) for the defending champions, while Klara Bühl’s fine finish helped Germany draw 2-2 in Caen to win 3-2 on aggregate. That sets up a heavyweight two-legged final, to be played in late November and early December. Elsewhere, the Republic of Ireland won a place in League A thanks to Abbie Larkin’s late goal in Belgium, which earned a 5-4 aggregate win. “Scoring winners like that is unbelievable,” Ireland captain Katie McCabe said afterwards. “I’ve got goosebumps even talking about it.” As for Northern Ireland, they headed to Reykjavik for Tuesday’s playoff second leg against Iceland – only for the game to be called off due to heavy snow. Trailing 2-0 from the first leg, Tanya Oxtoby’s side have had to hunker down for an extra 24 hours, with the game moved to a new venue adjacent to the Laugardalsvöllur stadium. “It’s been a challenging day,” the Northern Ireland manager said. “The conditions have been far from what I would consider a high-performance environment.” It will surely be worth it if her team can somehow fight back and earn promotion to the top tier today. RECOMMENDED PLAYING The Guardian has kicked off a new chapter in puzzles with the launch of its first daily football game, On the ball. It is now live in the app for both iOS and Android … so what are you waiting for? Get stuck in! NEWS, BITS AND BOBS The president of the Turkish FA has promised to take action after an investigation revealed that 152 match officials have bet directly on games. “I promise that we will clean up Turkish football and bring it to the level it deserves,” Ibrahim Haciosmanoglu told assembled hacks. Tiki-taka purists Ifab have discussed the possibility of putting players on the clock to cut down on the time taken on long throws and goal-kicks. Football’s lawmakers also discussed expanding the scope of VAR to cover potential second yellow cards. Sarina Wiegman admitted she is “not feeling positive” after Michelle Agyemang suffered a knee injury in England’s win over Australia. The England manager also felt that Alanna Kennedy’s early red card spoiled the game. “You want to play 11 v 11, that provides the most challenges,” Wiegman roared. Perhaps tired of polishing his runner-up medals, Bukayo Saka believes he can become a World Cup and Premier League winner in 2026. “Of course it is doable,” Saka trilled to Sky Sports. “It definitely won’t be easy, but yeah, it is possible.” Pep Guardiola has backed James Trafford to become England No 1 despite relegating the goalkeeper to deputy duties behind Gigi Donnarumma at Manchester City. Speaking before City’s League Cup tie at Swansea, where Trafford will start, Guardiola swooned: “For England, sooner or later, he will be the one.” Tonight’s Rumbelows Cup action could see Max Dowman unleashed for Arsenal, while Federico Chiesa wants Liverpool to turn a corner against Crystal Palace. “Winning brings winning,” purred the Italian winger. And in great news for the little guy, Real Madrid plan to “claim substantial damages” from Uefa for blocking the much-loved €uropean $uper £eague project. RECOMMENDED SUBSCRIBING Prefer pictures to words? Well, Big Website has a brand new weekly newsletter on the way, highlighting the very best sport photographs around. You can subscribe here. But please do still stick with your faithful Football Daily, too. STILL WANT MORE? Swansea midfielder Ethan Galbraith gets his chat on with Ben Fisher, talking Milk Cup reunions with Manchester City and wearing his Leyton Orient trackie on the Tube. League teams that have never played each other, early managerial exits and players hitting the woodwork four times in a game. You’ll find it all in The Knowledge. Love them or loathe them, are long throws changing football? Graham Ruthven hurls himself at the game’s hot new talking point. Sophie Downey looks at what England should focus on after one win and one defeat in their recent friendlies. Indian football fans were looking forward to welcoming Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to their country this year. Now neither are coming, laments John Duerden. Brendan Rodgers and Celtic were always heading for divorce but acrimony was avoidable, says Ewan Murray. And after his flame-out at Nottingham Forest, Ange Postecoglou should avoid being tempted by Celtic’s familiar embrace, argues John Duerden. MEMORY LANE In what looks more like a holiday snap, David Platt is pictured outside Bari’s cavernous Stadio San Nicola in 1991 after his move from Aston Villa. The England midfielder also played for Juventus and Sampdoria, making a total of 100 appearances in Italy before joining Arsenal in 1995. IT’S THE SAME ENDING!