Shamrock Rovers to resist any interest from Hibs in manager Michael O'Neill

The former Easter Road midfielder has emerged as one of the front-runners to replace John Hughes, who left the Edinburgh club on Monday by mutual consent after a nightmare start to the season.

O'Neill is close to delivering Rovers a first Premier League title success for 16 years while they are also FAI Cup semi-finalists.

And with that in mind Roache, who has begun negotiations to extend ex-Brechin boss O'Neill's deal which has 12 months left, told the Scottish Sun: "It's understandable Michael is going to be linked with other jobs because he has done brilliantly for Shamrock.

"But we wouldn't appreciate interest from anyone.

"We are close to winning the league for the first time in 16 years and this is an unwelcome distraction.

"Michael has a year left of his contract and a few weeks ago we started talking to him about extending that.

"I regard him as the best young manager in Ireland and as good a prospect as there would be in Scotland and England.

"We're an ambitious club and hope Michael will be with us long term."

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