Fenlon confirmed as Shamrock Rovers manager

Shamrock Rovers will formally unveil Pat Fenlon as the club's new manager at a press conference in Tallaght tomorrow morning. The 45 year-old is due to take the players for training for the first time tomorrow afternoon.

Fenlon's appointment follows several days of talks during which it was clear that the former midfielder was the preferred choice to replace Trevor Croly who departed last weekend after a poor run of form left Rovers needing to improve if they are to qualify for Europe next season.

"There are just three points between us and third place going into the last round of fixtures," said chairman Jonathan Roche in a statement issued this morning, "and we have a big game coming up against Derry City on Friday night. So it was very important that we moved quickly to put a manager in place to make sure that he has the chance to hit the ground running.

“European qualification is extremely important to the club and so we need to keep the pressure on in that regard.

“Pat is the right person for the job at this time,” he continued, “and so there was no need for delay. Pat has considerable experience at this level and comes into a club that is building good football structures and has a good squad of players. It has been a disappointing couple of weeks for everyone involved, but we need to move on quickly. Everyone at the club needs to pull together now and battle for every point for the remainder of the season.”

Croly, who led the club to both the EA Sports and Setanta cups last season, admitted this week that he had struggled to insulate the team from the pressure to produce results and pointed to the recent home defeat by league leaders Dundalk as a turning point in his tenure. Rovers also lost at home in recent weeks to title contenders cork city but the manager's fate was sealed by losses over the last couple of weeks to Drogheda United and Limerick.

Despite the setbacks, Fenlon, who won five league titles during stints with Shelbourne and Bohemians but failed to establish himself in Scotland with Hibernian, is upbeat about the remainder of the campaign as he takes over: "The team is in a good position, and so we'll be looking to push on and build on that. I am familiar with the team having seen them numerous times this season and so we will get to work straight away."