Damien Duff has found dealing with pushy parents one of his biggest challenges since taking up his first managerial position at Shamrock Rovers.

At his own request, the former Ireland international was assigned the role of managing the club’s first entrants into the new national Under-15 league and the experience so far has been mixed.

He said: “I’ve really loved it and it’s given me something to focus on. There’s lot of work involved from setting up training sessions to dealing with pain-in-the-arse parents. Related Damien Duff: Martin O’Neill can reach hero status of Jack Charlton

“A few of the parents have tried getting involved – saying ‘my little Johnny is this or that’ – but I just tell them to piss off. It doesn’t help the kids.”

Duff is also miffed that he’s received flak for introducing early-morning training sessions for his players before they go to school.

“Our best three sessions of the year have been the 6.30am ones. It’s the first time anyone has done it in this country but none of the players want to miss out so it has snowballed.