The St Patrick’s Athletic boss was thrilled with the noise created during last Friday’s League of Ireland win over Bohemians.
Stephen Kenny(Image: INPHO/Ryan Byrne)
Stephen Kenny suggests novel way to keep Richmond Park atmosphere rocking.
The St Patrick’s Athletic boss is a firm believer that games under floodlights lend themselves to better atmospheres.
But the fact that much of last Friday night’s Dublin derby win over Bohemians was played in glorious sunshine didn’t stop the Pat’s fans from making a racket throughout.
A season best crowd of 5,435 turned out to cheer the Saints on – and they didn’t stop singing bar a few minutes after the shock of conceding a goal inside the opening eight seconds.
For the next few months, there will be little need to turn on the floodlights as summer football finally kicks in, ending a long, dark and wet winter.
But the time of year tends to bring in several factors that might dilute the atmosphere in grounds around the country.
The solution to one of those? A much later kick-off time, Kenny joked.
“It was a great atmosphere [against Bohemians] and we need more of that,” said the former Ireland manager.
“Sometimes in the summer months, people go on holidays and there is other stuff going on, it’s bright and you lose some of that. People shout louder in the dark when the lights are on.
“We might have to put the games on at 9.30 or 10pm! We need to maintain that [atmosphere].”
One thing that got the Pat’s fans bouncing ahead of kick-off was the presence of a Dublin-based brass band – The New Brass Kings.
“We insisted on ‘Seven Nation Army’ with the brass band,” Kenny joked. “No I didn’t, I didn’t even know they were coming.”
As for the game itself, Kenny has been in senior management since 1998 when he took charge of Longford Town, and he reckons he saw a first on Friday night.
“I’ve been in the game for a long time and never conceded a goal after eight seconds, I’ve never seen anything like it really,” he said.
“We prepared well, the fellas were coming out of the dressing room ready for a derby, and to concede after eight seconds was a kick in the teeth.
“To keep our composure and go in 2-1 up at half-time was a great effort from the players.”
It wasn’t all good news on Friday night – striker Aidan Keena pulled up with a thigh injury just 20 minutes into the game and Kenny admitted: “It was a big blow to lose Aidan.
“He has been brilliant in the last few weeks in training, he scored a great goal last week, and his shooting in the warm-up was exhibition stuff, it was phenomenal.
“I just can’t believe it and he can’t believe it, it’s such a setback for him. He just needs to regroup because he’s very important and he will be very important for us over the season.”