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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Michael Scully

Tim Clancy urges St Pat's to create more chances for consummate pro Eoin Doyle

St Pat's boss Tim Clancy is less concerned that marquee signing Eoin Doyle has bagged just two League goals to date than with his side's struggle to create chances.

The Saints have already beaten tomorrow night's opponents Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght twice this term - the most recent win five weeks ago sparked a run of three wins on the spin - and previously the President's Cup final.

But Clancy's charges have not won since then and have scored two goals in three games as they prepare to face the Hoops again.

Currently in third place, they have the worst goalscoring record of the top four.

The spotlight will be on ex-Bolton striker Doyle, who turned down the reigning champions - one of his former clubs - for a reunion with former playing colleague Clancy.

"We’re disappointed we haven’t created enough chances," Clancy said.

"We are finishing strong but maybe put more pressure on teams to maybe make mistakes and capitalise on possession in the final third.

"I think the two (chances) against Dundalk were probably the two chances all season that you’d say Eoin should score, that we created good enough chances for him to score.

"He’s done a hell of a lot of other work - players down the attacking end of the pitch are benefiting off the work that Eoin is doing.

"We’ll try to create more chances - the one thing Eoin knows is how to score goals.

"The one thing he has added to the group is professionalism - it's probably a bit of a shock to the lads

"I never probably played with a professional the way Eoin is. He’s always the first here, he’s doing prehab, he’s doing extra training, he works like an absolute beast in the gym.

"That rubs off on some of the younger lads who see where we have to be at."

Clancy and Doyle played together at Hibernian early in their cross-channel careers.

“Yeah, I probably should have stuck with him more," laughed Clancy.

"Himself, myself and Gary Deegan used to be the last ones leaving the training ground every day, more so me not to go home to my wife and kids!

"No, Eoin was like that, he had that work ethic back then.

"Now 10 or 11 years down the line, obviously when you have a young squad and they look at the work ethic of Eoin at the other end of his career, it’s really a positive for us in the group."

The Saints will be boosted by the return of Chris Forrester and Jack Scott after illness and a hamstring strain respectively, but Adam Murphy's hamstring injury rules him out.

Clancy is relishing another shot at the Hoops.

“Yeah, listen you can’t fear it, you’ve got a lot of areas where Shamrock Rovers can hurt you but it’s one we’re more excited about than fearful of," he said.

"But we know if we don’t perform to the best of our capabilities and they are anyway at it, you can come out on the wrong end of a result.

"We know if we don’t go to Tallaght and play to the best of our ability, we won’t get anything out of the game."

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