Bohemian Football Club Crest

Evening Herald football correspondent Aidan Fitzmaurice interviewed ex-Bohs midfielder Gary Deegan about his experience with Coventry City.

This shortened version of his article is published with the kind permission of the Evening Herald.

BEING SENT to Coventry was the best thing to happen in the five-year senior career of midfielder Gary Deegan as the former Bohemians man is loving life with Coventry City. Coventry boss Chris Coleman paid Bohemians £90,000 to secure the services of Deegan, 22, when the 2009 League of Ireland season ended, a pittance compared to the money splashed out before that on players like Freddy Eastwood (£1.2 milion) but the midfielder has already earned his keep.

Deegan, who made his debut in senior football with Shelbourne in 2005, has responded with some fine performances and some important goals: “two goals in four starts” he states, his latest goal an equaliser against Leicester City last Saturday (20 March). But there's one thing that makes his blood boil and that’s the underlying, patronising attitude in sections of the game and the media in England towards Irish football.

Deegan learned his trade in the League of Ireland, starting out with Shelbourne, finishing up with Bohemians but playing for Kilkenny City, Longford Town and Galway United in between, and he gets annoyed when the country that produced him is depicted as something from a Punch cartoon of old.

“It really annoys me sometimes and I have to grind my teeth to stop myself from reacting,” Deegan told the Herald. “You hear comments all the time. I did an interview with the BBC a while ago and I thought some of their questions were very ignorant, going on about how big a step-up this was for me, compared to where I came from, as if I was a kid who had just stepped off the boat. “Some people in England think that we play with jumpers for goalposts in the league back home. Last year I was playing in the Champions League, it’s not mickey mouse stuff. “They seem to know nothing about the league back home, or else they ask patronising questions, and it really bothers me. I know the league has had its faults and its problems but I was brought up in the League of Ireland, I was proud to play for clubs like Bohs and Shels, I won’t forget where I came from,” added Deegan.

He won back-to-back league titles with Bohs, and though the Gypsies side from last season was weakened by the sale of Deegan to Coventry and the departure of keeper Brian Murphy to Ipswich Town, Deegan feels that his Bohs side could compete with clubs in his present place of employment.

“I played in a very good Bohs side last season, with some very good players, and having played over here for a few months now I feel that Bohs could hold their own in the Championship, mid-table at least,” he says. “I don’t want to see Bohs lose any more players, but if Chris Coleman was to ask me if there were any more decent players back home, I’d have no problem in recommending someone like Conor Powell or Paul Keegan.”

Quiet-spoken Deegan says he hasn’t had his head turned by big salaries and the WAG culture since he moved to England. When the English season finishes in May, he’s not off to Dubai for a month with some celeb pals but is heading straight to Dublin for a holiday there. “I’m a home bird, Dublin’s the place for me,” he jokes.

But one thing has changed – and it’s very welcome in his career. Deegan’s style of play saw him compared to a pit bull at times and that reputation, along with some “silly mistakes” on the field last season, saw him clock up a number of disciplinary matters. He missed 14 league games for Bohs last season and many of those absences were due to suspension. “It’s something I was aware of and something I have worked on, I have matured as well,” said Deegan, who was sent off three times in the space of 13 games last term. “I made some mistakes last season and did some silly things, and then you earn a reputation with referees as a troublemaker. I had that in my head coming over here and I have changed, I have been booked just once in 13 games so far, touch wood.”