GREG BOLGER HAS blasted RTÉ pundit Declan ‘Fabio’ O’Brien for the nature of his assessment of Shamrock Rovers’ display in Friday’s Dublin derby defeat to Bohemians.
O’Brien heavily criticised Rovers for the 2-1 loss at Tallaght Stadium on last night’s Soccer Republic programme, expressing his view that “the situation is dire” at the club in the context of their recent results and performances.
A couple of hours after the former Drogheda United striker made those comments, Stephen Bradley’s team suffered a fourth defeat in their last five league games by losing 1-0 to a Bray Wanderers side who had yet to register a win this season.
Paul Corry, a member of the Shamrock Rovers squad last season, shared the punditry duties on the latest edition of RTÉ’s highlights show. After Corry singled out Bolger as one of several players who under-performed against Bohs, O’Brien was in agreement.
“Greg Bolger is an experienced guy,” O’Brien said of the 29-year-old, who moved to Tallaght for the 2018 season from Cork City. “He has played hundreds of games in this league. He played in front of the back four the other night. If I was him, I’d give my wages back after the performance he put in on Friday night.
“It was a disgrace. He missed every tackle. When they needed him in the 90th minute he air-shotted, totally missed the ball, for the goal to make it 2-1. His manager’s head is on the block, you’re playing as an experienced player, he missed three or four tackles early on in the game to set the tone that Rovers were on the back-foot from the get go.
“These players are letting Stephen [Bradley] down, but the buck stops with Stephen and his decisions have been fairly horrendous to date.”
Earlier today, Bolger took to Twitter to issue a heated response to O’Brien, who — like Bolger — won every major honour in the domestic game during his own playing career.
@fabster9 Hey Fabio mate no problem with getting or taking criticism and rightly so ...but would you keep it constructive hammering boys you’d swear you were a superstar when you played or something you clown 🤡
— Greg Bolger (@Greggyb6) April 17, 2018
He tweeted: “Hey Fabio mate, no problem with getting or taking criticism and rightly so… but would you keep it constructive… hammering boys, you’d swear you were a superstar when you played or something you clown.”
Disgrace and hand back me wages yeah that’s constructive alright 👀
— Greg Bolger (@Greggyb6) April 17, 2018
After O’Brien replied and insisted that he felt his criticism was constructive — “A player of your calibre, I’m surprised you had a problem with what I said” — Bolger responded: “Disgrace and hand back me wages… yeah that’s constructive alright.”
Rovers, who are now in fifth place in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division, will look to return to winning ways when they host Limerick on Friday night.
