richard@slpmedia.co.ukAiden O’Brien is hoping to get in the goal groove for Millwall – and reckons his extra shooting drills with Lee Gregory paid off big time at the weekend.
The 25-year-old claimed only his second Championship goal of the season, and first since the opening day, with an excellent left-footed strike from the edge of the box against Hull City last Saturday.
The Republic of Ireland international has started 11 of their 21 league matches this season, with Shane Ferguson preferred on the left wing in the last couple of months.
But O’Brien was back starting at the weekend and scored his 39th goal in 185 matches for the Lions.
“I haven’t been playing much in the last 12 games and that was down to the manager and me probably not performing to the best I can be,” said O’Brien.
“I was sitting patiently waiting for my chance and on Saturday I was delighted – more so because I thought I had got the winner. On a personal note it is always good to score a goal.
Whether I’m playing on the left, right or centre – I’m looking to score goals. It was well overdue.
“In terms of the finish, most of it comes naturally for me. At a young age my dad would take me and we’d do finishing, finishing and finishing.
But me and Gregory usually do stuff after training as well. Touches and shots outside the area. Not too much, just 10 balls each.
“I give credit to what we have been doing because it is similar to how I got my goal.”
O’Brien is able to play despite a crack to his knee. He suffered the injury the previous weekend at Bristol City and that led to a special celebration by him and his team-mates after he had fired home against Hull.
“I had got stretchered off there and at the time it was proper painful,” he said. “I thought I had done something really, really bad.
“But it is just a crack in my knee and not the end of the world. The boys were giving me some stick and saying when I next scored they were going to do a stretcher celebration – so basically taking the p*** out of me. They were saying ‘you’re fit for the next game – how can you do that?’
“The celebration was good fun.
“I don’t have a clue how I can play with this injury. I’d have thought if you had a crack in your knee then you’d be in trouble. But the specialist looked at it and said I was fine to play – to give it a couple of days to let the swelling go down but that if I felt good it would be fine to play on it.
Aiden O’Brien
“The crack should heal by itself and it is just something to monitor.”
Manager Neil Harris wants injured players to be back in training two days before a game to be considered for selection.
O’Brien, Lee Gregory, Steve Morison and Tom Elliott all boosted his selection options against Hull by hitting that deadline.
“He likes people to train on a Thursday to get the message across about what he wants to do on set-pieces and just to get a day’s training under your belt,” explained O’Brien. “If you don’t then you won’t be as fit as the other lads.
“It’s important, especially with the way that we like to get after teams – there is a lot of running involved. You can’t afford to miss a lot of training days.”
O’Brien looked as if he might get a run at centre-forward as injuries majorly depleted the frontline options. Tom Bradshaw is out for the campaign following knee surgery while Steve Morison is playing through a hamstring niggle.
But the Lions youth product has largely played in a wider role at senior level.
“The manager played me up top when he first got the job – I probably had a run of 10 games there,” said O’Brien. “The next season he started me at left midfield and that’s where I’ve been for the last three seasons.
“But it has done me and the club a lot of good. I’ve scored nearly 40 goals from there in that time. I can’t complain and say I want to play up front because it has been a success. I’d never have asked him to play me left-mid, because I’d never done it before that in my life.
“But he saw that in me [an ability to play wide] so more credit to him.
“I’m not really an out-and-out winger who gets balls down the line and puts crosses in. What I do is sniff out opportunities. When Jed [Wallace] is running down the line and is going to cross it in then I’m always on that back stick.
“That’s what he [Harris] likes me out there for. I’m a striker in a wide position. That was really clever. It works for him and it works for me.”
O’Brien has won senior international recognition this season. He made his debut for Ireland in September – scoring against Poland – and has picked up three further caps.
Mick McCarthy is back as manager after Martin O’Neill was sacked last month.
The former Millwall boss is set to do the job until 2020 – the aim being to reach the European Championship finals – before handing over to Stephen Kenny, who resigned from Dundalk to take charge of Ireland’s U21 side.
“Obviously every manager has got different views on players and you can’t just expect to be called up,” said O’Brien. “You’ve got to make sure that you perform, if and when he comes to watch .
“I’ve got to keep my head down and do well for Millwall, that is the same as before. Hopefully I can start scoring goals for my country.
“I’d say he [McCarthy] knows the manager [Harris] from when he was at Ipswich. It makes it a little easier for him to ask about me and Willo [Shaun Williams].
“He will have his players in mind. I want to prove I am worthy of the shirt.”
Club form is vital in that and O’Brien doesn’t feel a whole lot is wrong with Millwall’s displays.
“The manager said it the other day – we should be around eighth in the table. We need to stop conceding in the last 15 or 20 minutes of games.
“We had chance after chance early in the second half against Hull and if we had got a third goal it would have been dead and buried. But that’s our luck this season.
“All of us are working really hard in training, there is no slacking off or not listening to staff. Everybody is doing what they can to make the team the best it can be.
“It’s just one little piece that we need and then we are going to be unstoppable.
“Teams are not battering us. The only game this season I felt we have been outplayed was Sheffield United. In the others we have been the better team and just not got the results that we have deserved.”
