JAYSON MOLUMBY WAS one of those players that would have caught Heimir Hallgrimsson’s eye before a ball was even kicked in the English Championship season.
A red card for punching a Majorca player in a pre-season friendly led to a charge of violent conduct from the English FA.
The West Bromwich Albion midfielder admits it’s “something I’m not proud of” but explains how a build up of “a lot of frustration, a lot of anger” in the seven months while he recovered from foot surgery had taken more of an emotional toll than he realised.
“I didn’t handle myself the best there and was probably going through a difficult time. I can only hold my hands up when I’m wrong,” he said.
“Off the pitch I’m not an aggressive person at all, I’m quite calm and relaxed but I think I just go into competitive mode when I cross the line. It’s a different ball game.”
Molumby was one of the poster boys of the Stephen Kenny era, promoted from the U21s when the former manager also progressed as part of the FAI’s succession plan.
He will earn his 25th cap under Hallgrímsson, though, and after turning 25 last month it looks set to come against England in the Nations League on Saturday.
“For us as a group we need to start taking the next step. Competing isn’t enough anymore, we want to actually start getting points, hopefully starting on Saturday.
“There’s no more excuses for us anymore. We were young lads coming in but now we’ve got the experience, it’s not good enough any more to say, ‘Ah, you’re young or whatever, you know’. We’re experienced now at the international level. It’s time to kick on for us.”
Molumby scored for West Brom last weekend before joining the international set-up and is playing in what he describes as a No.8 role.
“Everyone has a different opinion. Growing up, I used to play number six a lot. It’s a matter of opinion, different style. It’s what the manager wants.”
Hallgrímsson has spoken openly of wanting to get back to basics, of being a more defensively solid side that benchmarks itself on clean sheets and making the game as difficult as possible for opponents.
“Playing at home you want to make it as uncomfortable as possible for everyone. The atmosphere itself will do that. As players, as well, that is probably a strength of mine where I try and make it uncomfortable for players.
“I like to get tight to people, leave a bit on people, let them know I‘m there. So yeah, that’s probably a big part of my game, try and put energy into the game, give the team a lift.”
Talk of wanting more bastards in the team and the current squad being too nice was put to Molumby.
“Wouldn’t say too nice, maybe a little bit. Maybe we need to play the game a bit better,” Molumby says. “We need to be a bit nastier, you could say. We’re not going to get anything easy at home. We come from a small country. Irish people pride themselves on being hard-working. That runs deep in our core.”
The 25-cap mark is a milestone worth marking. “Getting thrown into the deep end probably a bit earlier than I expected or others might have expected but I feel in the long run it’s benefited me now,” Molumby says.
“I feel comfortable playing for Ireland and something I’m very proud of. I feel ready and ready to come in now.”
About effing time. Soccars become a total farce
any clips of the incident?
It was a match in the Conference (5th Tier) so I doubt it…
Presumably if it was overturned there was some sort of evidence which could be conclusive if it was a video as referee sent him off so didn’t see any diving…
http://sport.bt.com/epic-fails/watch-moment-that-earnt-welling-man-historic-feigning-injury-charge-91364002948090 – need a UK proxy for it or hula…possibly someone has an Irish friendly version?
Thanks for link. Tranmere player basically backs up and sticks his bum out into Kabba… who goes down like a tonne of bricks holding his face (shirt pulled up, presumably to cover up his laughter) and generally acting the maggot.
Excellent decision!
Fair play lads, cheers!
So many things I’d like to change about football. Good start here but more work needs to be done.
Managers need a challenge system, up to 2 a game. Any dodgy penalty/sending off/disallowed goal shout can be reviewed by a TMO.
We can all think of examples of where this could have been used and we’re only 4 games in. The footballing authorities are ridiculously slow to implement any change that would be beneficial to the game. Goal line tech took forever and has improved the game without affecting it at all.
Too much time wasted in matches also. I’d have a 15 second restart clock for throws and free/goal kicks. People pay a lot of money to see these people play football not to feign injury and time waste.
Til I see it implemented in the higher leagues then I’ll believe it’s really being endorsed! It’s easy to punish smaller teams sadly!
Until soccer starts to learn from rugby & insists on respect for refs who can book or send off players harassing them for cards when they dive nothing will change. Soccer has become an irritating bore with guys cheating with impunity.