O' Connor's interview

[NamelessOne]

Have you seen this?


Full steam ahead with Loko
GARRY O'CONNOR

I WAS always very positive about coming to Russia and, if anything, I've enjoyed the whole experience even more than I thought I would. The club are looking after me very well, all the other players have been tremendous with me, and I'm loving the football, though it's a very different style from Scotland.

It's been a bit of a rocky start to the season for us. We didn't win a game in our first six, which is not a normal situation for Lokomotiv; I understand that was one of the club's worst starts to a season for a long time.

But we have also had more than our fair share of bad luck. For example, we went out of the cup to Spartak last week, but I think we played the better football. They took their chances, so all credit to them. But I should have had a stonewall penalty in the first half. After the game, I spoke to the referee and he agreed with me!

I said before that once we got a good win under our belt, things would hopefully come together. The win against CSKA last weekend was an important one. They are champions and top of the table on merit. But we showed we are capable of getting up there too.

We played some good stuff and finally had a bit of luck on our side. The main thing now is to keep the momentum going.

We've got a lot of new foreigners - 12 of us in all. And a new coach [a Serb, Slavoljub Muslin]. They've never had a foreign coach before, so that's a new experience for the Russian players. There are so many languages in the dressing room. You should hear the team talks. The head coach does them in Serbian - and they are then translated into Russian. But we've also got people translating them into French for the African players, English and Portuguese for the Brazilians.

I know I have to learn Russian. I haven't started the lessons yet, because we've had such a hectic schedule with all the matches. But there's no doubt I need to do this as soon as possible.

There's a lot to get used to. For example, going to Vladivostok for an away game, which was a bit of a nightmare. It's an eight-hour time difference. We had a cup game on the Wednesday, then flew there on the Friday for the game on the Sunday. As you can imagine, there was a bit of jetlag.

I think, technically, the standards here are better than Scotland. The pace in Scotland is faster, and the tackling harder. Here the referees come down on any physical contact. I'm having to adapt my own game a lot in that respect. And because the tempo is slower, I need to make deeper runs. But I'm learning a lot from the coach, and also from [Russian internationals] Dmitry Loskov and Dmitry Sytchev, who is one of the other strikers.

I'm confident I'll build a good partnership with Sytchev. He's got quality all over him. He's still only 22 like me, yet he seems so experienced, he's like a 35-year-old. He knows the game inside out. Watching him in training has been a pleasure. He's different class. We've also got this young Brazilian, Celsinho - who looks like a young Ronaldinho, and plays a bit like him too. He's still just a teenager, so the coach is just taking it slowly with him. But he's real quality.

We spend a couple of days before each match at the club's training base. I knew that would be the case before I arrived, so I was ready for that. It takes a bit of getting used to, and can be tough, but it's a good thing as it helps you prepare properly, stay focused, and it means you eat and sleep well ahead of the game One thing that's been different is not having so much media attention day to day. It's quite nice to be away from that, for now anyway, as it means I can just focus more on the football.

I speak to Derek [Riordan] about every second day. He's been keen to know how I'm getting on. And I've been keeping up with Hibs' results, of course. I was disappointed to see them go out of the cup. I didn't get to see the semi-final. But, given the result, it was perhaps a good one to miss.

I think, more than anything else, it's the standard of living here that has surprised me. Moscow is a fantastic city. And the whole country seems to be doing well. I expected it to be a bit more run down and grey. And the local people have been very pleasant and helpful.

You get the feeling that the place is growing by the day. There are new buildings going up everywhere. It's got a real up-and-coming feel to it, in terms of all the places to go, the choice of restaurants, and the shopping. The family are starting to get settled in here. Lisa and Josh have been out for a week, to get a feel for it. And I've had my mum out here too. Lisa's had a chance to see the shops and has been working out how to spend our money! She's loving it out here, and Josh has adapted really quickly.

Our flat is about ten minutes from Red Square. I took my mum down to the Kremlin to see Lenin's tomb. We're also not far from the club's training camp. The facilities there are unbelievable. The quality of the training pitches is superb. Every player has his own room. There's everything you could possibly need to help prepare. There's no doubt about it - this league is on the up and up. I'm sure other players will follow me over. There's so much money being piled into football here. They want this league to be like the Premiership. And, for myself, I'm sure the standards here can only help to make me a better player.

Garry O'Connor was talking to Dan Brennan

sport.scotsman.com/football.cfm?id=610132006

[beefy]

Sounds like he is loving his adventure.Good on ye Gaz.

[Young_hibee]

good interview gaz.