Mipo and Moses are heating up. Warren Davis and Owen Elding have also found their groove. And watch out for the lethal Michael Duffy swinging off the left for Derry City.
Goals galore in the Premier Division.
Mipo Odubeko, the Shelbourne striker, has been sharpening his blades, scoring twice in three matches since Damien Duff left him out of the starting line-up against Bohs earlier this month.
Odubeko came off the bench to settle that match with a goal that his manager felt was made of equal parts “emotion, relief and ‘f**k off Duffer.’”
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Dropping the 22-year-old lit a fuse under him. What jumps out from Odubeko’s statistics is a whopping 47 shots in eight Premier Division starts. Only 15 hit the target. Three found the net.
Besides Duffy’s 32 efforts for Derry – 16 on target – nobody else comes close.
“It’s fairly simple,” Odubeko explained, “the more I shoot the more chance I have of scoring goals. It’s just instinct.”
Odubeko grew up with Robbie Keane’s cousins, played for Keane’s club Crumlin United and nowadays he is managed by the record Ireland goalscorer’s supplier-in-chief.
“When we are doing extra finishing after training [Duff] is always banging on about the side foot [finish] – he calls it ‘the Robbie Keane’.”
Seán Boyd and Odubeko tend to start matches together up front, or finish them whenever Shels are chasing a winner. The older centre forward has contributed two goals and two assists so far this year, with the rangy pair racking up 89 touches in the box, which makes Friday night’s Dublin derby in Tallaght, against the gladiatorial Shamrock Rovers defenders Pico Lopes and Daniel Cleary, unmissable television (live on Virgin Media Two).
The quiet star of the show for Shelbourne has been attacking midfielder Evan Caffrey, with three goals and two assists while creating 18 chances and drawing 15 fouls.
Much has been made about Rovers’ inability to replace Johnny Kenny’s 20 goals in 2024, with manager Stephen Bradley leaning towards 16-year-old Michael Noonan over the 35-year-old veterans Aaron Greene and Rory Gaffney.
Noonan exploded on the scene with a goal on debut to secure a 1-0 away win against Molde of Norway before his 50-yard dribble and neat finish appeared to sink Bohs in Tallaght on Easter Monday, although Colm Whelan had other ideas.
Odubeko aside, efficiency is the name of the game. Moses Dyer is having a career renaissance at Galway United with five goals, including a spectacular strike to beat Bohemians at Dalymount Park.
The other front runners on five goals are Davis (20) for league leaders Drogheda United and English teenager Elding for relegation-threatened Sligo Rovers. Davis, like Duffy, is a left winger but Drogs manager Kevin Doherty has nudged him up alongside Thomas Oluwa with the result being four goals in his last five games.
On Friday night at Eamonn Deacy Park, it is Davis versus Dyer to see who can take the outright lead on the scoring list.
The other striker on five goals, Aidan Keena, has a hamstring injury but the 25-year-old’s electric start to the season had Mason Melia playing second fiddle at Richmond Park.
Away to Tottenham Hotspur in January, Melia is beginning to shine for St Patrick’s Athletic, with an acrobatic finish in last Friday’s 2-2 thriller against Rovers. It is also worth noting the special attention his reputation guarantees, winning 18 fouls in 11 appearances, according to fotmob.com.
St Pat’s visit Dalymount, where victory could send them top of the table if they squash the tentative revival of Bohemians under Alan Reynolds.
Much was understandably made of 18-year-old Rhys Brennan’s winner in Tallaght on Monday, but Bohs only began to turn the tide when Whelan came off the bench. The former Ireland under-21 striker has been cursed since he bagged 32 goals for UCD over two seasons in the First Division. Still only 24, Whelan’s back-to-goal assists for Ross Tierney and Brennan have completely changed the narrative around Reynolds’s time in Phibsborough.
Last season’s top scorers, Pádraig Amond (37) and Pat Hoban (33), who both finished on 14 goals, deserve a mention. The veterans might come good when their teams, Waterford and Derry, start performing. They meet tonight at The RSC. Hoban is already an all-time League of Ireland marksman, having also topped the charts in 2014, 2018 and 2020.
And don’t forget Cork City sharpshooters Ruairí Keating, who recently ruptured his Achilles tendon, with three goals already banked, and their hamstrung Ireland international Seán Maguire.
The recent reward for scoring the most goals in the Premier Division is a transfer to places like Lincoln City for Jack Moylan, Carlisle United for Georgie Kelly and the Dutch second tier for Jon Afolabi.
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Mason Melia’s €1.9 million transfer record for a League of Ireland player, when he agreed terms with Tottenham in February, is set to be bettered with Rovers manager Stephen Bradley revealing that talks with clubs, including Arsenal, to buy Victor Ozhianvuna (16) are right down to “financials”.
