Cork City winger Dylan McGlade: 'From my experience it looks like it's going to be one of the strongest divisions'

At the age of 25, Dylan McGlade finds himself in the bracket of being one of the more experienced players in the Cork City dressing room.

Also, unlike many of his teammates, the City winger has plenty of experience in the second-tier – having played in it with Shelbourne, Longford Town and Bray Wanderers previously.

But this is a different First Division that McGlade finds himself thrown into.

Dubbed as the most competitive in years, the Dubliner admits he has witnessed a notable jump in standards since his stints at Longford and Bray.

“It has improved massively since then,” McGlade told extratime.com. “You would have seen what Athlone and Wexford were like in 2018 and 2019 – the division was nowhere near as competitive as it is now.

“When you look at it now, you have Galway, Shels, Bray, UCD and us. They are all big clubs. Even when you look at Athlone now the squad, they have put together is very competitive.

“Wexford will be as competitive as well and Treaty are an unknown quantity. Quality wise there are some great players in this division.

“If you look at Shels I think they have more Premier Division experience than they had last year. From my experience it looks like it’s going to be one of the strongest divisions this year.”

The Dubliner’s first year on Leeside was one to forget, that much is quite clear.

But a newfound freedom for the winger in this years City side has seen him allowed to operate in a freer role than he had last year – something that he enjoys.

“My way of playing would naturally be on the front foot so it wouldn’t be too common for me to start games on the back foot,” he said.

“It’s almost a welcome relief that we’re going to try and dominate the ball and create as many chances as we can.

“For the fans as well it’s more exciting because they’ll see chances, attacking play. When the fans come back that will be a welcome relief with that.

“We want to make sure that we’re at the top of the division as well, so we want to be dominating possession, creating chances and being on the front foot from the get-go.”

But for now, McGlade is wary of the challenge that he and his teammates face on Friday evening – having played with several of the current Athlone crop at Longford and Bray.

“They signed four players off the Bray team I was with in 2019 along with the players I played with at Longford in 2018,” he finished.

“You have to respect the players that they have brought in. They’re all experienced but not that old so I know what we’ll have to look out for.

“But they’ll also know what they have to look out for also, so we want to be making teams worried about us rather than us worrying about other teams.”