Jack Byrne has revealed that he longer sweats over who is and isn’t watching him from the stands.
The Shamrock Rovers playmaker stole the show in Thursday’s Europa League win over SK Brann of Norway, scoring a late goal and assisting another.
Hoops boss Stephen Bradley likened aspects of his performance to Manchester United legend Paul Scholes.
And the former Manchester City youth has lit up the League of Ireland on occasions since coming home this season.
That form led to a Republic of Ireland call-up in March and he made the bench for the Euro 2020 qualifiers against Gibraltar and Georgia.
But Byrne did not make Mick McCarthy’s final cut for the June games against Denmark and Gibraltar.
After the Brann game, Bradley conceded that the better Byrne plays, the more interest he will attract elsewhere.
Yet Byrne insists that Ireland call-ups or moves away from Rovers are the last thing on his mind.
“You don’t want to listen to people outside saying ‘These are the games you need to do well in blah blah blah’. I don’t really take that into consideration,” he said.
“I’m not thinking about it. That was my problem before, thinking about my next move.
“I love the club and I’m grateful to the manager for giving me the opportunity because there weren’t too many good options when I was leaving Kilmarnock.
“Thursday was a great night and I just want to enjoy it. I don’t want to be thinking ‘who is watching in the stands’.”
Ballybough lad Byrne, 23, felt that coming home to Dublin after time in England, Holland and Scotland was best for him.
“Maybe it’s gone better, quicker than I thought,” he explained. “I didn’t play a lot of football before I came here. I knew I had to get here early to get a good pre-season.
“If I had come in January, I’d have been miles off it so I took a risk. I’m not saying it’s paid off, there’s still a lot of work to do.
“But I’m going in the right direction, I feel myself improving and I couldn’t be around a better staff and group of players, I’m really happy.”
Byrne is under contract until the end of next season and claims to have no interest moving elsewhere in the meantime.
He continued: “I haven’t even thought about what I’m going to do tomorrow. I’ve 13 or 14 months left, I’ll see how it goes.
“I’m under contract so I wouldn’t want to be talking about a move or anything like it. It’s disrespectful to the club and manager who has been unbelievable for me.
“Hopefully we keep going. We’ve got a game on Sunday and another European game on Thursday (against Apollon Limassol)
“I want to reset myself. Nothing is handed to you in this game, it’s a crazy game, you can be up one minute and down the next.
“I’m just trying to work hard and not leave too much to chance and just trying to enjoy my football. I know if I put the work in, hopefully I’ll have more nights like Thursday.
“It was my first time playing in Europe and you have to enjoy it when you win. We gave a good account of ourselves over the two legs.”
If you haven't already, be sure to like our Irish Mirror Sport and Irish Mirror GAA pages on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
