I won title as Celtic coach and gave my players cold shoulder because it works when my WIFE does it to me

Shelbourne manager and ex Celtic coach Damien Duff revealed he stopped speaking to his players to get a reaction - because it works when his WIFE does it to him!

And he didn't hold back in his criticism of player Shane Farrell after he was sent off for receiving two yellow cards within ten minutes during a match against Shamrock Rovers. Despite the setback, Shels managed to maintain their three-point lead at the top of the League of Ireland Premier Division with a 0-0 draw. However, Duff felt that Farrell's dismissal made things unnecessarily difficult.

Reflecting on his words to his players after consecutive losses to Bohemians and Galway before Monday's match, Duff said: "A bit of tough love, harsh words earlier on in the week, later on in the week. I probably wasn't even speaking to them, they weren't speaking to me. It's probably what my wife does to me when I'm in trouble and she gets a better husband at the end of it so honestly that's all I've ever given them and like I said they bounced back but as I've just told them there, you shouldn't always wait for a Dublin derby to play on the edge and with a real intensity, it has to be every week."

And seaking to Virgin Media post-match, Republic of Ireland legend Duff - who worked under both Brendan Rodgers and Neil Lennon at Parkhead - said of the dismissal: "He deserved to go off, I don't think he played with intensity, I don't think he has played with intensity in a long, long time."

He went on to suggest that Farrell's off-pitch lifestyle had impacted his performance, saying: "How you live your life off the pitch ends up biting you back on the pitch, it was poor from him as he's cost his teammates, for 20-25 minutes we looked fit and strong, bring on Boydy [Sean