Story of Shelbourne's famous League of Ireland title - How Jose Mourinho helped inspire historic night

David Sneyd reports from The Ryan McBride Brandywell

THE LIGHTS AROUND the Ryan McBride Brandywell began to be turned off a little before 11.30pm.

Shelbourne had been crowned League of Ireland champions almost two hours earlier.

Damien Duff led his players and staff back into the centre circle. The linked arms as one. An unbreakable fond and relentless spirit endured as we edged towards midnight.

The songs from the dressing room stopped. ‘Graffiti on the walls’ was no more.

Sean Boyd had bottles of Heineken stuffed inside his socks. Mauro Martins had a Shels bucket hat on and Portugal flag draped around him. He was puffing on a lovely cigar. A Cuban?

“No, my friend. Venezuelan. It is where my Dad is from.”

Johnny Watson, the Shels kitman for long enough to know all of Tolka Parks deepest, darkest secrets walked proudly into the middle of the circle.

His two sons were in there too.

“I fucking love the bones off every one of you. Up the fucking Shels,” he roared.

There were photos and magic memories.

“If you think we are crazy in front of people, behind closed doors we are even crazier,” Duff told reporters just before that gathering in the middle of the pitch.

“There is no debating the best team won, we had numerous chances. The best team wins the league and that is us.”

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There is no doubt about that now but there was when Shels won just once in 10 games between the end of Europe in July and when they beat Waterford a couple of weeks ago.

“Winning once in 10 when trying to win the league isn’t fucking great but I never lost faith. I just worked hard every day,” Duff said.

More than that, he also worked smart.

The Shels boss revealed amid the haze of glory that he changed the background photo on his phone to the league trophy for all of this season and wrote in a diary that they would be champions on this day – 1 November.

“I was transfixed with this, manifesting. For some reason I absolutely believed we were going to do it,” he said.

“When you say things loud and write things down you believe them more. I tell you guys a lot of stuff that I do with the guys but you don’t know the half of it.

“We were laughed at for showing Only Fools and Horses but, here, I know how to run and dressing room and take the sting out of things.

“So even tonight, hats off to the players, they delivered on the pitch, the staff delivered.”

Over the last three weeks Duff felt it was time the players heard some different voices. He also revealed that there is a private Instagram page that only he, the coaching staff, and players have access too. There are more than 150 posts on it.

“I started last season and it’s got tactical training, shape, formations, everything, and just over time I might put motivational stuff, I might throw a joke in there or whatever, but it’s just the players’ page.

“There is a lot of learning in it. So any new player that comes in, they get a login to the page and there is gold on it, golden comedy, but golden learning as well.”

The last three weeks have been a prime example.

There have been video messages from former Lions head coach Ian McGeechan, legendary League of Ireland defender Colin Hawkins who has battled cancer at the same time as his wife, and Duff’s former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho.

“The last three weeks you could say they gave us three assists,” Duff said.

“Three weeks ago, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, we posted Ian McGeechan, powerful, powerful speeches, and we beat Waterford. Onto the next week, okay, Joe [O’Brien] says, ‘Gaffer, what do you want to do?’. I met Colin Hawkins in the carpark, I found him utterly inspirational, his story, his wife’s story what they’ve been through.

“He lifted me that day when I should have been lifting him. So again, we put posts Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and surprised the lads and spoke to the lads for half-an-hour.

“We let Colin speak and Sean Boyd came out, he said it was the best meeting he had in three years. It put everything in perspective and really hit home.

“Then on to this week, Joey again, ‘gaffer, what will we do?’ I dunno, I’m running out of ideas. I threw in ‘what about Jose?’ ‘Why Jose?’ Because do I try and build, have we tried to build a siege mentality, us against the world like he did? Absolutely. It would be mad not to tap into him.

“So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, there was posts on the Instagram page. Powerful lyrics, powerful words that would resonate and have a meaning to tie in for this game. Then in the team [pre-match] meeting there was a private message from Jose speaking about what it takes to win a title as a team, as an individual. It blew the guys away. A video that was shown in the Everglades [hotel] two hours before the game.

“Again, people think I’m mad but I’m a proudly deeper thinker. I don’t always get it right, the last three weeks myself and the staff I would like to think have got it right. We’ve been so calm and tapped into other people because I don’t think I’m any type of expert, far from it.

“Here, it’s not as if I’m in touch with Jose,” Duff continued. “I’m not, it was through somebody I got his number. Now I have his number I tried to ring him in the dressing room [after the game]. I said to the lads that if he doesn’t’ pick up I’ll put a monkey on your drinking tab.

“Low and behold he didn’t pick up so I owe €500. I died on the pitch for Jose, that’s what I’ve always done. His story, Chelsea, 50 years, granted we were 18 and just us against the world. Everyone hated Chelsea, everyone hates us, blah, blah, blah. Another chapter in the story.”

The best one yet for Damien Duff’s Shelbourne as they hit the road home for Dublin before midnight.

“Has the league been poor? No, absolute crap,” Duff said. “It’s been brilliant. And it’s the fitting finale, scoring the winner to win a league in the 85th minute live on national television. Is it Hollywood? Absolutely.”