RICHARD BRUSH HAD all-but made his mind up to quit football when Ollie Horgan came calling in the winter.
Brush joined Sligo Rovers in 2006 from Coventry City and the Englishman had three spells at The Showgrounds, with two separate seasons at Shamrock Rovers in between times.
At the end of last year, Brush, who turned 31 in November, decided that enough was enough.
He’d enrolled at IT Sligo to study Healthcare Support and football was taking a back seat.
He had a conversation with Dave Roberston, the new Sligo manager, but Brush’s ability to commit only to part-time football meant that his time at the Bit O’Red was over.
Horgan was keen to add experience and quality to his dressing room and he finally convinced Brush to join.
“I was looking at retiring and just going full steam at things away from football,” Brush said after making his Harps debut in Friday’s 3-0 loss to Dundalk at Oriel Park.
Picture caption: Finn Harps goalkeeper Richard Brush. Picture by Gary Foy, newsandsportfiles
“I spoke to Ollie a few times. I told him that was the way I was going, but Ollie was persistent, he was saying the right things and I liked his enthusiasm. It was a new challenge, so that’s why I made the move.
“It’s different for me. I’ve been involved in full-time football for 15 years so it’s a different set-up and a different atmosphere, but I’m enjoying it.
“I decided to take a step back. I turned 31 at the end of last year so I need to concentrate on life after football. I’ve gone into college and it’s going well.
“I spoke to the manager who came in at Sligo and we had a good chat. I told him that I definitely wasn’t going back to playing full-time. He left it at that, he called back and we spoke about maybe going part-time in Sligo, but I needed a clean break.”
Brush’s capture was certainly a surprise move, but it has proved a good piece of business by Horgan.
With Ciaran Gallagher starting a new job last Monday in Pramerica, he was unable to make the trip to Oriel Park and Brush stepped into the void for his first Harps appearance.
Brush came in as Gallagher’s understudy, but could push the Raphoe man hard for a regular berth now. This week Harps play his former clubs with tonight’s game at home to Shamrock Rovers followed by Saturday’s trip to Sligo.
“There are good goalkeepers here with Ciaran and Lee McCarron, two young goalies. I want to help them along too. I think I can bring something to them,” said Brush.
After signing for Harps, kitman Shane Elliott was dishing out the squad numbers for 2016. Brush wears the number 73, but there is nothing behind the strange set of digits on his back.
“I kind of just threw it at him,” Brush said.
“He was asking what number I wanted and I just kind of went: ‘73’. He was like: ‘Really?!’ and we just ran with it. He didn’t ask me again after that.”
Sligo has been home for Brush for most of the last ten years. In 2012, after winning the Premier Division title with Sligo, he married Stacey, a Sligo woman, in Maya, Mexico .
He makes the twice-weekly commute from Sligo to Letterkenny for training in the company of assistant manager Gavin Dykes and team-mate Liam Flatley.
Last season, Brush was part of a Sligo Rovers side that lost 4-0 at Oriel Park and he was well aware of Dundalk’s potency even before a game on Friday that demonstrated the difference in class.
“I’ve come here with better teams, or supposedly better teams – and that’s no disrespect to the lads in there – and been turned over worse than this. There is a danger coming here that it can go very, very wrong,” he said of his first outing in a Harps shirt.
“It was a tough debut, coming to the League champions. We wanted to come and set up to give us a chance of winning. We held our own until the first goal.”
The manner of the goals, even on a night when Dundalk were dominant, will pain Horgan and his rearguard, usually so solid in their defence of such situations.
Paddy Barrett headed home unmarked from a corner and Ryan Curran put through his own net when Harps didn’t deal with another corner late in the game while Patrick McEleney powered in from the edge of the box after Dane Massey’s cut-back was seized on by the Derryman.
Brush said: “Every goal is disappointing, but to concede from a free header in the box when we’d done so much work on not conceding like that was disappointing.
“Things like that are avoidable and it was gutting. That was a very soft goal to concede.
“With the quality that they have, to give them two goals is something that you’ll find it tough to come back from. We did well enough, but it was tough on the legs in the second half.”
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