Sheridan brothers set to lock horns

FORMER Latics star Darren Sheridan will enter new territory when he lines up against his brother John as opposing managers when his Barrow side take on an Athletic line-up on July 30.

“We are really looking forward to the game and it will be a great experience for our players, “ said 40-year-old Darren.

Being head to head on the pitch is something the Sheridan’s are used to but this will be a first on the sidelines - if Darren doesn’t pick himself to play that is.

Having come up against John a few times during their playing days, Darren has former Latics boss Andy Ritchie to thank for finally uniting the brothers in the Latics midfield.

“I’d been released by Wigan and didn’t have a club until I got a call from Andy Ritchie. He said he was interested and I was made up. This was the first time I’d played with John and it was a great experience for me.

“John was an excellent player who had a great career and, having played against him, I was delighted to get the chance to play alongside him at Oldham.”

Darren looks back on his time at Boundary Park with mixed emotions, believing he still had more to offer when he was released by the club.

After Ritchie lost his job there followed the brief Mick Wadsworth era, before Iain Dowie took charge.

Darren made 72 appearances for the club in total and feels he did enough to earn a contract for another year under new manager Brian Talbot. But things turned sour.

“Being honest, I feel Brian Talbot stabbed me in the back. He kept telling me how well I was doing then at the end of the season he released me.

“When you’re doing well for a manager you would hope they’d look after you, but I feel hugely let down by Talbot to say the least.

“It put me in a position where I didn’t have a club but I still had a mortgage to pay and four kids at home.

“He told me so late in the season that I was under pressure to try to get a club at a time when most of them had already made their signings. It made it even more frustrating when managers said that had they known sooner that I’d be available they’d have been interested.

“Being without a club is an extremely difficult time for any player, waiting for the phone to ring - wondering if it will ring at all.

“When you’re playing you just believe one season follows the next, almost flowing into each other without a murmur. But when something like this happens it knocks you for six. It’s the being in limbo that keeps you awake at night.

“This was the reason I ended up playing in Scotland with Clyde. Stuart Balmer, who’d left Oldham, was the assistant manager there and asked me to give it a go.

“It worked really well. I trained through the week at home with either Stockport or Bury - who I’ll always be grateful to - and would then travel to Clyde on Friday, train and then play Saturday.”

Following his time at Clyde, Sheridan moved to St Johnstone before heading back closer to home in 2007 when signing for Barrow.

“When I signed we were struggling in the league. We had a good side but things just weren’t happening and we just avoided relegation.

“We didn’t start the next season well and were third bottom with a big cup game against Bournemouth to come when the club sacked manager Phil Wilson.

“They asked me and Dave Bayliss, who were the most experienced players at the club, if we’d take over for a bit as joint player-managers.

“It was initially for a month until they sorted something out but we went on an unbelievable run and things kicked off from there.

“They ended up asking us to take over permanently and we were delighted. We still wanted to keep playing and we are enjoying it.

“It is difficult at times because you don’t see as much as you do standing on the side. But we did take a step back and were subs most of the time last season.

“The players have been great and getting promoted, via the play-offs, into the Blue Square Premier last season was fantastic. The club and the town have gone mad. There’s not a lot of sport in Barrow so when the football club is successful it gets everyone buzzing. There is big potential at the club.”

Having played in the Premier League and worked under successful managers, Darren has one main belief in his management style - a belief that runs in the family.

“If you treat the players’ right you’ll get respect back and you have to be honest with them. My brother John is exactly the same in that respect.”

Keeping in close contact with John may also prove fruitful for the younger Sheridan.

“I speak to John regularly and only recently I asked him if any of the lads he released might do a job for us at Barrow. He always tells me straight.

“Maybe there are younger lads, or players who need games after being out through injury, that could come to us on loan.”