Brouder edges closer to joining Galway United's 200 club

The Limerick native has been a rock in the United defence since he was brought into the club by Alan Murphy seven years ago, making him the longest continuous-serving player at the club, but he says hitting milestones like the one he is three games away form are something to look at at the end of a career, rather than focussing on them while playing.

“I didn’t know that. To be honest, I think they’re kind of things you look back at the end of your career, but at the moment, I just want to play as much games as I can, just stay fit, I’ll be honest with you.”

You can understand a player not wanting to lose focus, especially coming into a run of three games in eight days for a side that has just two wins in eight games, but does he not let himself a little smile of pride at what he has achieved?

“You’re never going to give yourself credit, John [Caulfield] has brought in personnel that has matched our group, there’s a group of players there that have just bought into what we are about, and we’ve come on leaps and bounds.

“You even see with boys that I’ve seen come in, being a bit quiet and stuff and not being very vocal and now they are demanding higher standards off other players. That is great to see because at the end of the day like, this career is very short, it’s 10 or 15 years max if things are going well, so you have to enjoy it and.

“You have to get the best of what you can do as well,” he says.

It is a no-nonsense answer that matches his no-nonsense style of playing, yet he has also had to very adaptable: he has forged centre-back partnerships with the likes of Jack Lynch and Maurice Nugent, with Gary Boylan and Diego Portilla, with Rob Slevin and Garry Buckley.

Now, he is forming a new bond with Gianfranco Fachinieri, with the pair staring side-by-side in all eight of United’s games this season; but ever the good team-mate, he also mentions Wasiri Williams, who has formed a three-man centre-back line in thereof those games.

“It’s not really that difficult to get used to [new defensive partners]. I don’t know, it might be different for other people, but if you're looking in and you're seeing what lads weaknesses and strengths are, the back-line that we have, there’s a lot of strengths there.

“There's certain attributes that Facch and Wass and myself have that complement each, the two of them are very aggressive, the two of them are very quick, the two of them can play very well, they’re very good players,” he says.

Now in his eighth season at the club, he has seen plenty of changes, mainly for the positive as the club has grown both on and off the pitch.

“There are changes I’ve seen, small details that a lot of people wouldn’t pick up on, that have improved the club massively. To be fair to John [Caulfield], even the personnel that he brings in, it always matches what the group is about and stuff.

“The club has been on the up since I came in, and since John come in, he has driven standards in the club, he has made demands and that’s why we’re here today in the Premier Division.”

One of the demands being made is for greater concentration: United have had a habit of conceding late goals this season, and Brouder readily admits that is something the players have to work on.

“I think what we lack at the moment is a bit of concentration, we just need to be concentrating for 90 minutes or 95 minutes. It is nothing to do with our attributes or anything like that, it is literally all we need to do is just concentrate and be disciplined in defence.

“We need to be ruthless like wanting clean sheets. That comes from training, you have to drive standards, I know I always talk about standards but you have to drive that, you want to keep clean sheets in training because if you keep cleans sheets in training, it mirrors into the pitch,” he says.