SOCCER:SHAMROCK ROVERS midfielder Ronan Finn has revealed that Sunday's improved performance over St Patrick's Athletic at Tallaght followed changes to the team's training regime prompted by post-match exchanges between management and players in the wake of last week's defeat by Sligo at the Showgrounds.

“After the Sligo game we were all disappointed,” he said. “but we had a very constructive meeting after the game. We just talked about the way things were – training and the club. We all voiced our opinion and a lot of positives came out of it. I think that showed (against St Patrick’s).

“That’s the first time that has really happened, (players expressing opinions) on how they want their training structured and I think it has changed for the better to be honest, I think everybody was a little bit fresher going out onto the pitch.”

Finn also said he was delighted with his own return to form in Sunday’s game.

“The last couple of weeks I haven’t been at my best and it was just nice to get a good performance under my belt. Even as a team I don’t think in the last few weeks we’ve been firing on all cylinders. But we showed even with the goal that there was a bit of quality there.

“Hopefully that will come back into our game, especially with Europe coming up. We need to be playing more football because we mightn’t have the ball that much against the kind of teams that are very technical.”

Meanwhile, Rovers head to the Brandywell this Friday for what has the potential to be another key game in their title defence.