The little man versus the mob – Irelands two soccer cultures

Is the FAI doing enough to develop football in this country or are they more interested in getting farcical frankly embarrassing awards from UEFA for being “Number 1” fans? Or maybe it's the fans fault?

At the moment Irish football is a complete mess. We were the first team knocked out of a tournament that, let’s face it, was hopelessly out of our league. We lost another League of Ireland team in Monaghan United which has been happening at a rate of a team a year for the last five years. For a country which has won an award for being the “best supporters” this smacks of unreality. We have a domestic soccer league in this country that is totally ignored by the majority of football supporters within this country. Yet we had 30,000 to 35,000 supporters travel to the far side of Europe to watch our national team get absolutely humiliated. The old sour argument from LoI fans is that the “barstoolers” will only come out when their local team is doing well or in Europe or has some glamour friendly against an English or Scottish club is tiring at this stage. But how fans of the national team can ignore local football is kind of baffling also. 

Domestic football supporters have a kind of elitist, holier than thou, siege mentality which at times can be fairly arrogant and ignorant. There seems to be a total disregard bordering on outright hatred of anybody who dares to have anything to do with the GAA for example. Now I am not saying that this is the same everywhere but in my home town of Sligo this is very true. There is a so called hard-core element within the clubs fan base who has traditionally hated the GAA. Eamonn Sweeney in his book “There’s only one Red Army” remembers standing in the old shed end in the Showgrounds and hearing the home support cheering when it was announced that Sligo had lost a football match. I remember this myself. Nowadays it’s not as bad as that but there are some elements within the league that look down their noses at “Bog Ball” and anybody who plays or is involved in it. The other side of it is, that I have had heated and pointless debates with complete fools who run down the domestic league yet at the same time have never been to a game.

But everyone’s opinion is sacred (thank you democracy) so I left that poor uneducated individual alone. What we are left with is arguing and pointless debates between two groups. One group is like an angry little man trying to out shout the mob, desperately trying to draw the public’s attention to a thing of beauty that is sitting on our door-step. He is always up to fight his corner and has endless points and arguments to show how right he is and how wrong the other man is. The other man is not as stupid as he looks, he loves beauty but in truth he sometimes does not even know that he is in an argument and in fairness most of the time he couldn’t care less.

What is needed is leadership. The FAI is letting football down and therefore the nation down in this regard. There is space for all the national sports in Ireland. As a country and culture we have changed. Due to economic, educational and health reasons Irish people have suddenly started taking care of their health. Running has suddenly taken off in the country. You cannot drive down a country road anymore without bumping into some athletic event whether it’s triathlon, duathlon or just a plain five or ten km race. There is enthusiasm for sport there and this needs to be tapped into and harnessed by the FAI.

This is a bit of a rant and in fairness I am not offering any solutions so I will leave that for my next post but I will leave you with a statistic that was mentioned in an article by Peter Staunton on Goal.com. In it he said that Ireland had an average attendance of 43,000 in the qualifying campaign for the Euros. If even half that number went to a League of Ireland match every two  weeks at €15 a head than it would mean nearly an extra €5 million for Irish football. This money would go a long way to help develop players like Kevin Doyle, Shane Long, Stephen Ward, James McClean and Seamus Coleman to name just a few.

Ireland's Footballing Future

 

 

 In what has been Ireland’s worst performance in an international tournament in forty years there will be a load of blogs, articles and comments blasting Trap, the players, the system and the FAI. But rather than go down the easy route and joining in the chorus of negativity I have decided to look forward with a bit of positivity. I am going to take a leaf out of Eamon Dunphy’s book and take this opportunity to look forward to the future. We have a chance now to issue in a new exciting generation of Irish players. 

So here are Irish players that I believe will be fighting for a place on the Ireland team of the future.

In goals is one position where we are not overburdened with choice.  And although Poland/ Ukraine was not his greatest hour I do believe that Shay Given still has something to offer Ireland. Shay may be getting on but he still a top class goalkeeper and can help ease the handover of the gloves to the next man. Kieran Westwood looks likely to be that man if he can get out of the shadow Simon Mignolet at Sunderland. David Forde of Millwall is looking likely to be the second choice but will be pushed hard by Portsmouth’s Stephen Henderson. Either of these three could be the number one for Ireland so it will be interesting to see who will step forward.

Across the back there are a number of players who I could see filling roles. Marc Tierney for Norwich had an excellent season last year and it will be good to see how he gets on this year. Tierney plays left back but has been known to fill in at centre back. Greg Cunningham, Ciaran Clarke, and Shane Duffy have been talked up for a few years now so this upcoming World Cup qualifying campaign will be a great opportunity to blood all three. From the current squad players like Sean st Ledger, Kevin Foley and John O’Shea would offer experience and good cover if needed. Marc Wilson who seemed to fall foul of the present management is a decent player who is a great option at left back and should be integrated into the squad. 

Midfield is an area where Ireland have had problems in the past but looking closer there are some seriously exciting and talented players who would be more than at home on the international stage. Dunphy mentioned two other Norwich players Wes Hoolahan and Anthony Pilkington as potential stars for Ireland in the future. The stats this year for the much lauded rising star of Irish football, James McClean, were that he played twenty three premier league games scored six goals and set up five. Pilkington played thirty games, scored eight goals and set up one. Hoolahan played thirty three games, scored five goals and had eight assists. The three mentioned players were far and beyond the best performing Irish players in the Premier League last year. With established players such as Keith Fahy, Darren Gibson and Aidan McGeady coupled with real potential in youngsters such as David Meyler, Jamie McCarthy, Seamus Coleman and Manchester United’s rising star, Robbie Brady; Ireland actually have seriously top-class players who will be competing for places. I would still love to add Stephen Ireland’s name to this list simply because he is a quality player.

Up front Jon Walters has shown that he has a lot to offer. Long, Doyle and Cox have still got a lot of goals in them and would offer significant competition for places. If Leon Best could shake off his injury problems then he could be a real presence for us up front as he is the type of skilled target man that Ireland has missed for numerous years. 

The future is exciting. We do have a generation of players coming through to the senior squad that could offer us entertainment and memories for years to come. Qualification for major tournaments is a realistic achievement. These lads I have mentioned are skilful, exciting, energetic and eager. I can honestly say that I believe we are on the cusp of what might be a very significant time for Irish football. 

The question to be asked now is in what direction are we going to head.

Sligo Rovers V Shamrock Rovers

Sligo Rovers-3  Shamrock Rovers-0, The Showgrounds, Sligo 12^th May

Sligo Rovers sent out a resounding challenge to the rest of the League on Saturday afternoon with an efficient display of football against Shamrock Rovers. The match was broadcasted live from the Showgrounds in Sligo. 

The TV coverage was decent to begin with and the fact that it was mildly decent weather during the game was a big help. When the sun is shining Sligo and consequently the Showgrounds can be a real beautiful place, but if the weather is bad then it can feel like hell on earth. Which I may add is how many Sham’s fans will be feeling right now after their little sojourn down the railway tracks from Tallaght.

The opening half hour saw few chances as both teams tried to wrestle control of the game. Mark Quigley hit a beautiful, dipping 35 yard shot which bounced off the crossbar. Gary Twigg had a couple of half attempts for Shams which came to nothing. Danny Ventre and Quigley were attempting to dominate the game in the middle of the park. Ventre was tackling hard and Quigley’s moving and passing was intelligent creative. 

The game’s first goal came through Quigley as he burst towards the Sham’s box. The defence didn’t really deal with the loose ball from a despairing lunge at the Sligo forward and it fell nicely for Danny North who drilled the ball low to the left. The keeper's positioning was all wrong for the goal but he was hardly solely at fault. The second Rovers goal came from a corner that was not cleared properly by the Shams defence. After some neat play from Sligo it was teed up nicely for young David Cawley to spectacularly hammer the ball home from outside the box. The ball hit the crossbar and flew into the back of the Shams net, replays showed that the ball did take a deflection but all in all, it still was a fantastic goal. 

The second half was marred by some stupid lack of discipline from Shamrock Rovers when first Chris Turner got sent off for a straight red after what looked like a reaction punch/push on Alan Keane, who in fairness went down fierce easy.  Graham Gartland then caught Raf Cretaro late near the side-line and, after the referee had allowed play to continue, was given a second yellow card which saw him walk.

North got a second goal from a wonderful pass from Danny Ventre, of all people. North had been running the channels diligently all day and finally a good ball came his way and he finished low and hard to the keepers right. 

Sligo Rovers had a good few chances after that but they failed to punish Shams satisfactorily. In his post-match interview manager Ian Barraclough hinted at this, stating that goal difference could be important before the season is over. He was happy though with the overall performance.

It was a great game for Sligo Rovers and nothing should be taken away from any of the members of the team. The one criticism I would have though is that they should have been more lethal and really punished Shams. They were there for the taking and you get the feeling that a chance to really spank them was lost today. But like I said it was a great game all the same and as a Rovers supporter you have to be happy.