‘He’s my number two,’ said the Bees boss, clearing up any confusion over his fellow Irishman’s role
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Keith Andrews lauds ‘magnificent’ Damien Duff for instant impact at Brentford
‘He’s my number two,’ said the Bees boss, clearing up any confusion over his fellow Irishman’s role
Nathan Johns at the Gtech Stadium
Mon Aug 24 2026 - 06:00
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5 MIN READ
Amid the jubilation of an impressive opening day victory, Damien Duff looked up into the stands, searching for loved ones inside the Gtech Community Stadium.
He was briefly distracted by the embrace of Stephen Rice. Embarking on his second season as Brentford’s set-piece coach, Rice is yet another Irishman on a staff led by Keith Andrews. A firm right arm across Duff’s shoulder nearly launched both men into celebratory orbit.
After powering past Tottenham with a 3-0 win, it had been a jubilant day for Brentford, let alone Rice in charge of the dead ball. Their third goal came via a corner routine prominently featuring Brentford captain Nathan Collins.
Once Rice moved on, Duff’s gaze returned to the stands. It was a good 30 seconds or so before he found who he was looking for. Contact made, Duff raised both arms, fists clenched. A kiss was blown, sealing an ideal return to full-time coaching for the former Shelbourne manager.
Saturday evening saw Duff return to the dugout in a competitive setting for the first time since leaving Tolka Park midway through the 2025 League of Ireland campaign. After a run in Drumcondra that offered an insight into an unapologetically obsessive and intense character, intrigue will follow him wherever he goes. Especially now that he’s landed at Brentford, a club lauded for being one of the best run in the Premier League. Among the litany of hugs and high fives at full-time, Duff found himself in the arms of Ben Ryan, the man who led Fiji to a rugby sevens gold medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016. He is now Brentford’s performance director.
The hosts certainly looked at a different stage of their journey than Spurs. With the ease of which they played through their visitors and bullied them off the ball, Brentford portrayed a settled group armed with stylistic clarity. Tottenham do not yet look a side bolstered by over £300 million of reinforcements.
New Brentford midfielder Mamadou Sangaré cost less than half of Tottenham’s £100 million man Sandro Tonali but comfortably outplayed his fellow debutant. On the glaringly insufficient evidence of one Premier League game, he has all the trappings of another astute signing who could one day be sold to a big-six club for double the price.
After swapping Dublin derbies for London ones, what is Duff’s role in all of this?
Saturday’s return to the dugout suggested he had Andrews’s trust without necessarily being atop the assistant pecking order. His job title on Brentford’s website reads first-team assistant coach. Mehmet Ali, the Turkish former Arsenal under-21 boss, is listed as assistant first-team coach. People’s Front of Judea vs the Judean People’s Front.
Andrews had little need for his dugout seat, preferring instead a power squat, hands-on-knees stance on the edge of his technical area. Ali was, in theory, seated next to him on his left. Duff was next along the row. Of the wider group of assistants, Ali got more steps in, going up to Andrews on the sideline and speaking to players during breaks in play. On the rare occasion a case needed to be made to the fourth official, it was Andrews, Ali or goalkeeper coach Manu Sotelo doing the pleading.
Andrews would regularly lean on the dugout railing for a discussion with Duff, while the new assistant joined him on the sideline from time to time. Just not as often as Ali, or even Rice, who follows the now time-honoured set-piece coach tradition of sprinting pitchside every time Brentford secure a corner.
For all the dugout choreography, Andrews later made his pecking order clear. “He’s got a lot of responsibilities – he’s my number two,” he said of Duff.
“He’s a magnificent coach, he’s brilliant support for me day-to-day. He’s someone I trust implicitly, someone who’s already built up a really good rapport with staff members and players.
“They’ll look at his playing career, but that’s just a tiny bit of it for me. What makes him who he is? It’s his craft, his coaching, the level of detail, his passion.”
The latter has become a buzzword for describing Duff. This is the man who declared he would coach Shels for free and once pulled a fan from the Tolka Park stands into his post-match huddle. How does that passion fit into the Premier League, a competition which lacks the rough edges that define its Irish equivalent? As the number two rather than the main man, Duff won’t be recruiting from the Gtech bleachers any time soon, but how that intensity translates to his role as coach, as opposed to manager, so far appears to have gone down well.
“Ah he’s class,” says Collins, “He’s just himself. Really honest, standards are really high. He has a lot of energy.
“He’s looking more at the attackers, that was his position, but he still helps me with a few bits. He’s another voice, another established coach, someone that bounces off people really well.
“He doesn’t care who it is, he speaks the way he speaks to everyone else. We like how honest he is, that’s really important. I knew he was a good coach [before Brentford], what he did back in Ireland was impressive.”
Goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher, who despite Spurs’ impotence for much of the contest had to earn his clean sheet with a series of sharp saves, worked with Duff when he was on Stephen Kenny’s Ireland staff. While on punditry duty for Premier Sports last season, Duff joked that the two never spoke. They’re better acquainted now at club level.
“He’s still full of energy,” says Kelleher, who is Brentford’s and Ireland’s first-choice number-one. “He’s been brilliant. He works hard every day and wants us to get better and that’s exactly what we need.”
Hidden to a degree among a swathe of assistants, that energy won’t be as publicly visible as the Shelbourne days. Andrews is the main man, showing off his own reserves after the second goal on Saturday, testing the elasticity of his smart grey trousers with a celebratory leap over the dugout railing into the arms of Duff and co.
Tipped by some to be the first manager sacked last season, Andrews now looks more than secure. Duff, meanwhile, is working as the number two at a club with a history of promoting from within. Time for that sort of talk can wait.
As players departed the stadium, waving to screaming fans beyond the security barrier, Brentford’s newest assistant headed out with a hoodie drawn up over his head. Duff moved away from the team bus, slipping off into the night, no doubt to savour the first big day on the job with loved ones in tow.
The next match comes on Tuesday, when Brentford travel to Birmingham City in the Carabao Cup. All the energy his new colleagues speak of will be needed for English football’s grinding schedule. The message from the boss is clear on that front.
“I just want Damien to be Damien really,” says Andrews. “I’ve known him a long, long time. I love his personality, his drive and his passion. We’re working really, really well together.”
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