Oh George, where did it all go wrong?

George Best - Turners Cross 1975

Around the Airtricity League 2012

Empty terraces Flancare Park.

Longford Town tactics for corners.

Linesman at the RSC.

Away enclosure Fahy's Field.

Excited ballboy Waterford v Salthill Devon.

Foreboding skies at the RSC.

Marching orders for Barett.

Jackman Park.

The way out, Terryland Park.

It's the real thing.

The Bilberry Goat.

Normal service restored?

Following our maulings at the hands of Bray, Rovers and Wexford hopefully it is back to normal service with a thrilling 3-1 victory over Limerick, themselves strong favourites for promotion. Two goals from Willie-John Kiely and another from 17 year-old Sean Maguire won a pulsating game and sent the home crowd home in raptures.

Shamrock Rovers 8 Waterford United 1

I got my just rewards for all my harsh comments about Rovers last Friday night at the Tallaght Stadium in a pre-season friendly. Eight bleedin' one, and we were lucky it wasn't double figures.

Gone are the days in the sixties and seventies when these teams were equally matched - the scoreline is clear evidence of the gulf that has developed between the Rovis and the Blues. If anything, this disparity will only increase as Rovers benefit further from European involvement and a strong local support.

Here's the fourth goal - a classic header from the edge of the box over the despairing keeper who had no chance. Would peter Thomas have got it? Probably not.

Update on the little Z

Ok Eamon Zayed didn't win the African Cup of Nations with Libya, in fact he didn't even get a run, but it didn't stop him becoming a hero with one half of the Tehranian sporting population as he came of the bench with ten minutes to go in the local derby.

In front of 90,000 fanatical fans, he scored a hat-trick in eight minutes to enable his team to over come their bitterest rivals 3-2.  Superman or what?

Beats scoring in front of 900 people at the Carlisle Grounds, quite a number of whom are just killing a few hours before heading off to the pub on a Friday night.

The African Cup of Nations

Peculiarly the African Cup of Nations importance as a football event is measured more by the influence it has on Premiership squads in late January / early February rather than on the quality or otherwise of the tournament itself.

This year’s event, which kicks off on 21 January has an additional (if minor) point of interest in that it will be the first continental championship for nations which will feature a player who played virtually all of his football in the League of Ireland.

Although he may currently be contracted to an Iranian club, Eamon Zayed has played 224 games in the League of Ireland, scoring 101 goals on the way. Most recently with Derry City, he has also played for Bray Wanderers, Drogheda United and Sporting Fingal.

Zayed broke into the Libyan national squad in October 2010 and has played four games for them since then, a friendly against Niger, followed by three games at the Pan Arab Games in December against Sudan, Palestine and Jordan. The latter three have come after the liberation of the country so it would appear that any political or power changes that have come post-Gaddafi have not impacted his chances of selection.

The national team donned new colours for the first game under the new transitional regime in a 1-0 African Cup of Nations qualifying victory over Mozambique on 3 September 2011, a game played behind closed doors at a neutral venue in Cairo, Egypt. One gets the feeling that an inspirational team talk by the manager would not have been needed for this one and it is a testimony to the power of football that in the middle of a fierce civil war, the organisation was able to fulfil the fixture and move a step closer to qualification.

An added interest in the competition this ear then - while it appears that he has not yet cemented a starting position in the team, here’s hoping that the “little Z” gets a run.

Ten reasons why I hate Shamrock Rovers

1. The 1968 FAI Cup Final and the first real disappointment in my footballing life.


2. They are Ireland’s most successful club, and this has resulted in a Manchester United like arrogance permeating their being.


3. Ingrained in the club is a Millwall-esque aggressive nature, from players to supporters and even down to youth team coaches (where of all places expectations should be higher). The bouncing fan in the crowd at Waterford 1981 (heroic though he may have been) was not an isolated incidence.


4. Pierce O'Leary - the only man footballer I've ever seen trap a ball with his head (perfectly).


5. They claim to have found their spiritual home in Tallaght - since when did the residents of Milltown ever find karma in West Dublin?


6. Their crowd for an away Europa League game at White Hart Lane is a multiple of the average crowd for the Airtricity League - not a fraction.


7. Their supporters are only a small step removed from the Republican nutters - scratch beneath the Erin Go Bragh tattoos and you'll find something a lot more sinister.


8. Their supporters are incapable of talking at the decibel level as the rest of society. They are either loud, arrogant and imbecilic or else they sit with a vacant look on their face, moronically silent. These traits are particularly noticeable in the presence of air hostesses, or females in general.


9. Their supporters are also either grossly overweight or badly in need of nourishment. The normal size ratio between their head and the rest of their body is almost always skewed.


10. They destroyed Art McCooey's opportunity to embrace the beautiful game. Everyone gets one opportunity in life to convert and the false promises of Giles, Treacy and Dunphy in the late 70's turned Art away irretrievably. While Tommy Fitzgerald and the FCA boots issue a few years earlier had an impact on Art's sporting future, it was the disillusionment that came in the rain at Dalymont Park in 1978 watching Rovers that did the ultimate damage.

Irrational hatred - don't you fucking start...

Where were you when you were shite?

Rent-a-crowd Shamrock Rovers style.

Pick that one out, you nasty litte bunch of upstarts.

My boyhood dreams & the fickleness of human nature

Great result for Shamrock Rovers in Belgrade last night and now the prospect of a double header against Spurs over the next few months. Oh how I longed for that as a kid - my hatred of Rovers almost as strong as my love of Spurs, and my knowledge that the result could only go one way.

While it great news for the League of Ireland that the "Rov-is" have eventually pushed Irish soccer onto a higher stage, it will be interesting to see if they become the new Chelsea, with a myriad of new fans who have supported them "for years". How many will now claim to have been founder members of KRAM and to have stood on the pitch that fateful day in 1986 when Glenmalure was closed for the last time? How many of those who will go to the Aviva to watch Spurs will also go to the Tallaght Stadium the following Friday to watch Galway or Drogheda or the like?

The circumstances are perfect for the free-loaders and the glory-hunters - as with the re-born Chelsea and Man City fans, we'll see them crawling from everywhere over the next couple of years as Rovers begin to dominate Irish soccer and hopefully, repeat this European success. And each time it'll be appropriate to ask - where were you during the club's itinerant days?

A bit o' red

Thinking ahead to the imminent LOI season commences with looking back at a key event from last season.

Congratulations go to Sligo Rovers in winning the FAI Cup in the final game of last season and in doing stopping the Hoops from completing the League and Cup double.

The final was a re-run of the 1978 final when Ray Treacy (ex-footballer; ex-ticket tout), scored the winner for Shamrock Rovers from the penalty spot in first-half injury time. Played in torrential rain, the 1978 game was a dull affair with the principal talking point being at what stage Art McCooey became aware that the green dye from his paper Rovers hat was running down his face into his eyes. Opinions varied on this, but all agreed it was after the time that the hat-seller has scarpered with Art’s £1 coin in his arse pocket.

Looking back on it, it is hard to see how we persuaded Art up to Dalymount Park that Sunday afternoon but it was certainly worth it for the aggrieved look in his green-stained face.

The Irish Times featured the game recently in its’ archive section and it is nostalgic to remember some of the names of the day:

CONTROVERSY, raw, and at times ribald, hung like a pall over Dalymount Park yesterday after Shamrock Rovers, in the manner of so many of their earlier successes in the competition, had cheated their critics and celebrated their coming of age with their 21st success in the FAI Cup.

Sligo Rovers, at the end of a season which promised so much, were left with nothing more than memories and the singular eeriness of the losers’ dressingroom when a penalty, converted with aplomb by Ray Treacy in the 48th minute of the first half, separated the teams in a taut, tense game.

History teaches that all of the more memorable cup finals contained the essential element of controversy. And in this aspect, at least, yesterday’s game seemed destined to stand the test of time.

John Carpenter’s preparedness to make unpopular refereeing decisions has, perhaps, involved him in more debate than any of his contemporaries. His award of the critical penalty merely served to embellish that reputation.

The players were already anticipating the respite of the interval when Tony Fagan, in a moment of rare carelessness, gave the ball away to Johnny Giles. And Giles, perceptive as ever in such situations, immediately pushed the quick, through pass to Steve Lynex just inside the penalty area.

There will be a dozen different versions of the incidents that followed, but, as I saw it, Lynex was pushed as Paul Fielding and Chris Rutherford converged to make the tackle. The referee first ran in the direction of the scene of the foul and then, in a change of stride that will haunt Sligo men for years, he veered towards the penalty spot with a total certainty which brooked no argument.

In the context that Lynex was pushed, I believe he ruled correctly. More contentious, by far, was his decision to play four minutes injury-time in a half in which the stoppages were minimal.

In those eventful seconds, the game was won and lost for, while Sligo enjoyed the odd, fleeting moment of affluence in the second half, Shamrock Rovers held their line intact in varying degrees of efficiency and expediency.

Thus, the trophy, suitably decorated in green and white, went back to a familiar resting place last night and Shamrock Rovers, in a fashion, had fulfilled their destiny.

Those who had thought in terms of a huge crowd to provide the requisite atmosphere on the terraces, reckoned without the whims of nature. This was an afternoon taken from deepest winter – with wind and sleet sweeping the grounds for hours before the kick-off. It cut the attendance to less than 15,000 and yet, for much of the first half the level of entertainment was quite superb …………………

Shamrock’s concession to enterprise was predictably smaller as they staked everything on retaining their advantage in the second half, but they might have had a second goal in the 74th minute when Mark Meagan’s shot was rather fortuitously blocked by Fielding’s boot.

................ Giles himself had contributed nobly to success and some of his distribution on a day when ball control was hazardous in the extreme was as good as anything he has produced in recent years.

Dunphy’s first-half performance outweighed his eclipse subsequently and Meagan, in his own unspectacular way, contributed to the success of the middle line.

Fullam’s achievement in winning his eighth cup-winners’ medal was distinguished by characteristic skill and vision and it was his influence which dominated a defence in which Pierce O’Leary, Mick Gannon and Synnott all showed to excellent effect.

Treacy. coated in mud, was unsparing as ever in his efforts to bludgeon a path down the middle, but, like Lynex and Larry Murray, he was invariably blotted out by sheer weight of numbers.

SHAMROCK ROVERS : O’Neill, Gannon, O’Leary, Synnott, Fullam; Dunphy, Giles, Meagan, Murray, Treacy, Lynex. Sub : O’Sullivan for Gannon (63 mins).
SLIGO ROVERS : Patterson; Fielding, Rutherford, Stenson, Fox, Gilligan, Fagan, Tobin, Cavanagh, Hulmes, Delamere. Subs : McLoughlin for Cavanagh (65 mins); McColl for Delamere (77 mins).

Penalties featured strongly in this years event when, after a nil all draw, the game went to extra time and then penalties with Ciaran Kelly saving all four of Shamrocks Rovers' spot-kicks to win the cup for Sligo. A positive note from the game, in addition to the Hoops losing, was the attendance of 30,00 at the Aviva.

The Bouncing Rovers Fan

Some of us will recall the trip to Waterford for the Rovers Blues Cup game in either 1981 or 1982 and the hooliganism which took place in the main stand during the game. Clearly there is no place for physical violence in a football ground but it has to be said that the performance of the bouncing Rovers fan was the stuff of legends, in a time when this was close to being the norm.

Faced by a wall of locals, this guy (probably no more that 5 foot 6) performed a kind of a grasshopper movement (yet remaining in the same place throughout), as he landed kick after kick on the noses of the dumbfounded locals. Brutal though it probably was, it stays in our minds because of the close to comical movements of the Hoops fan and the total unexpectedness of it all.

Football grounds in the seventies and early eighties (up to the introduction of all-seater stadiums) were potentially dangerous places, although this, (with a perverted logic applied), arguably added to the attraction.

These two videos document the visit of Man Utd fans to White Hart Lane in the mid-seventies when the badge of honour for away fans was to "take" the home terraces. Ignore what was happening on the pitch, and put all your effort into taking the home end. Success generally came at a price - getting thrown out of the ground, being carted off to hospital with a very sore head, and occasionally worse.

The supporters adopted identities and even had business or "calling" cards - the Red Army Red Army (Man United), the Inter City Firm or ICF (West Ham), the Headhunters (Chelsea) or the Zulus (Birmingham City). Political influences were strong within the ranks of these groups and many were infiltrated by right-wing factions who preached intolerance towards blacks, Asians and Jews.

Only when the activities of these groups resulted in fatalities was action taken by the Authorities - looking at videos of games from the mid Seventies it is amazing to note how many indicate an almost total absence (or inadequacy) of a police presence. This was to change gradually over time and the increased stewarding and policing, together with the all-seater stadiums demanded after Hillsborough, has led to the high quality product, in terms of safety, that the Premiership represents today.

Looking at the videos also brings back to memory the hairstyles and dress sense (or lack of sense) from the era. Horrendous, and we were close to being part of it.

Finally I wonder where that Rovers fan is today, thirty years on? I hope he didn't succumb to a life of crime and aggression - the reality I'm hoping is a lot simpler - that he settled down, has a two-bedroomed terraced house in Knocklyon (two children), works as an Administrative Assistant in the Service and gets the Luas up to Rovers new stadium every Friday night.

Here's hoping.

Seanie Fitzpatrick

They arrested Sean Fitzpatrick (Seanie to his mates) today on charges which will no doubt prove to “unenforceable in a court of law” and therefore short-lived. Or worse still maybe if won’t be short-lived and the taxpayer will pay for years and years of protracted legal debate and dispute culminating in many people forgetting what it was all about in the first place. Those that remain in jobs, or regain employment, in typical Irish fashion will lose interest in the rightful pursuit of justice. After all, I’m all right Jack.

On this day, therefore let’s lament another and much earlier instance of greed and ruthlessness, when the legacy left by the bankers and developers was not the destruction of the financial future and well-being of so many, but rather the cultural and social heritage of a small but important sector of our society.



Pictured above is Glenmalure Park, home of Shamrock Rovers football club from 1926 until midway through the eighties. In 1986, the then owners of the stadium, the Kilcoyne family sold the stadium to property developers. The family had acquired their ownership of Rovers in 1972, and their freehold interest in the stadium at a subsequent date (purchased from the Jesuits).

While the Kilcoynes pointed to the fragile state of the LOI at the time, and their difficulties in attracting crowds, it is not circumstantial that large profits were made from the sale of the ground. The Kilcoynes’ proposal to the local football community was to move home games to Tolka Park in Drumcondra, a plan which they themselves must have known would not have worked. If it was difficult to get bums on seats in Milltown, how could moving the club to the northside make “social” sense.

And therein lies the rub.

Football is built around local communities and it remains an integral part of the social fabric of the cities and towns in which it is played. Witness and understand the fanaticism of the ultra supporters in the Italian cities, or the devotion of the father and son combinations trudging along Saturday after Saturday to Burnden Park (Lowry’s famous painting Going to the Match) and then ponder the irrationality of the proposal to move the Hoops from South to North Dublin. In selling Glenamalure Park to the developers the Kilcoyne family showed no appreciation for the core values and motivations of ordinary people and like so many others (nowadays) opted for the money. Thankfully the worst of those days are behind us for a while. Long may they stay away.





If ever there was a silver lining to a story, it is that over twenty years later, Rovers are thriving in their new stadium in Tallaght. Crowds of in excess of 4,000 are commonplace and if the club can put a management structure in place to match its’ fine surroundings, it is likely that they will dominate League of Ireland for years to come.

And good luck to them, they might just deserve it ……. the latter bit said through gritted teeth.

Mary Leech and Cork City

n a week that saw the demise of Cork City, appropriate to take a look at one of their great days as they won the play-off for the League of ireland in 1971, beating "the Rov-is" 3-1 at Dalymount Park. This win was one of two which interrupted Waterford's run of LOI victories, when they won the championship in six out of eight seasons. God be with the days.

Hard to believe that the country's second city does not have a team in the Premier Division of the LOI but shit happens eh?

Anyhow look also for Mary Leech, the darling of Glenmalure as he tucks away the Rovers equaliser.

Play-off chances gone for Blues

Sadly Jackman Park yesterday evening effectively saw the end of Waterford's hopes of reaching the First Division play-offs. A dismal run of form has resulted in the Blues slipping alarmingly down the table and their current position of 4th is probably as good as it will get.

Pictured below are the three goals from last night's encounter - Vinny Sullivan putting the Blues ahead (playing in white away kit), followed by two goals, one a debatable penalty, from a baldy bollix from Limerick.

Roll on the Cup semi-final in Sligo next weekend.

Took my wife out last Saturday night

To Finn Park in Ballybofey to be precise. Never let it be said that I don't know how to look after a lady.

She may not have known it but the trip was a passage of rites as I completed the "set" of LOI First Division away grounds. The complete list reads - Tolka Park, Dublin; Belfield Bowl, Dublin; Morton Stadium, Dublin; Finn Park, Ballybofey; Station Road, Kildare; Jackman Park; Limerick; Terryland Park, Galway; Gortakeegan, Monaghan; Lissywoolen, Athlone; Flancare Park, Longford and Ferrycarrig, Wexford.

Seven wins, three draws and one defeat.

Bohs spoil the party

Premier Division class showed as the Bohiz won reasonably comfortably, with a final scoreline of 3-1. No complaints, apart from the fact I missed Robbie's four goals at the Lane - would have been nice to witness and reminiscent of the three he got against Everton back in 2003 in our company.

So for Waterford, back to the bread and butter of the league with Longford at home on Tuesday followed by the trip to Ballybofey next Saturday evening. A joy in store.

First Bohs goal:

Thirty five years later

Two months before the trip to Liverpool mentioned in the last posting, a trip to Tolka Park was made to witness Waterford win the inaugural League Cup by defeating Finn Harps 2-1 in the final.



Tomorrow, a similar trip will be made, but to the RSC in Waterford as we take on the league leaders "the Bohiz" in this years League Cup final. Three to one odds indicate that we are rank outsiders but it's a two-horse race and hope springs eternal.

Watch this space.....

This man was my bombers, my dexy's, my high ......

Times were tough in the late seventies for the Blues with several barren years, compounded by the rise of the hateful Rovers, inspired by the legion of returning emigrees - Gilesy, Treacy, Dunphy - and the foreigners from West Brom - Lynex, John Osborne and the like. We had precious little to sheer about until a young lad from Everton arrived and set the place alight. Single-handedly he challenged the authority from Glenmalure.

The pinnacle may have come later (with the Cup Final win against Pat's in 1980) but the day that we'll always remember him for was the cup semi-final at Dalymount Park in 1979 against the Hoops - three minutes left and Syd strikes home a penalty, then climbs on the fence in front of the Shed as the surge of hatred from the Hoops fans commenced. What did it matter that he looked like a total poof - we all did in those days.

That evening we drank in the Merrion Inn, with the sound of "Hit Syd" still loud in our ears.

Not all good news

Not all good news on the football front as the Blues have gone a little astray of late - above shows the UCD goal which gave them a 1-0 victory at the RSC yesterday evening. I'm beginning to know how Brian feels these days.

Kildare 0 Waterford 2

It's that man Cummins again.