Pete burning
Tonight Shamrock Rovers fly the League of Ireland flag when they square up to the might of Juventus in the Europa League qualifier, a match we'll all be able to watch thanks to R.T.E.'s decision to broadcast it 'live' on television.
Didn’t think Michael O’Neill’s men would survive the heat of Israel to win their way through but Tommy Stewart’s 70th minute close range strike at Bnei Yehufa gave the Hoops a chance for a crack at the Old Lady and a lift for a league sorely smarting from some desperately disappointing performances on the European circuit. Not least of this was Bohemians shattering 4-0 second leg reversal in Wales at the feet of TNS but there was also an 8-0 aggregate upset for Dundalk while on the other side of the coin, Sporting Fingal at least can take credit after going down 3-2 in both legs of their tie with Portuguese outfit, C.S. Maritimo. It might be true to say that Bohs on another day would have taken care of their Welsh opponents - the Dubliners bounced within days to beat Bray Wanderers and then Premiership hopefuls Aston Villa 2-1 in a Dalymount friendly but it still a real downer for Pat Fenlon’s team and a punch in their finances.
There was some optimism on the M.N.S. show on R.T.E. this week that Rovers could achieve a ‘result’ but it’s surely asking too much for the Italian giants to fall to an L.O.I. team, even one as well organised as the Tallaght tribe.
The high-profile fixture coincides with some cold water comments from St. Patrick’s Athletic manager, Pete Mahon, who apart from stating that he believes the full-time set-up here is just not sustainable - pointing to the fall in attendances over the past couple of years - was also critical of the afore-mentioned Monday Night Soccer highlights package which he claims hasn’t contributed to even one extra fan through the turnstiles.
But the former U.C.D. boss may have been somewhat perturbed by the failure of the M.N.S. panel to give his St. Pat’s side credit after a recent performance, something he admitted in the course of his press conference last week.
Attendances? They’re certainly down. Indeed, I saw highlights of Pat’s draw with Sporting Fingal and for a team now occupying top spot in the Airtricity Premier Division, there were a lot of gaps in the Richmond Park stands. Couldn’t see that being the case if Finn Harps, Sligo Rovers or Derry City were leading the pack in the top tier but there’s no doubt that all clubs in the league are suffering at the gates, This, however, isn’t confined to the L.O.I.; last season attendances in the English Premiership were down as far as most clubs were concerned; and here at home again, the G.A.A. Championship hasn’t exactly packed them in for every game.
Whether full-time football has been a success in the domestic game is still open to debate - some of the results from the past couple of weeks obviously excepted, clubs have turned in some impressive performances and achieved equally positive results with, for instance, Drogheda United going within the width of a post and a goal-line clearance to securing a place in the league stages of European football.
Ah, you say, but look at Drogheda now? And look at how Shelbourne almost folded up after their push for European advancement a few short years ago?
Like I say, it’s an issue still open to debate and I’m still not convinced that the way forward is the way backward if you see what I mean.
Meanwhile, I’d love, just love it, if Rovers could do the impossible and turn Juve over but perhaps the best they can hope for is an Athlone Town-like draw against illustrious Italian opponents that we’ll be talking about for years to come.
Meanwhile at Finn Park.....
And what about things at Finn Park? Reports emerging that players have been asked to take another cut to help fund an incoming contingent which, if accurate, comes as another reminder of the economic perils at a club that, remember, is still forging ahead with plans to build their new stadium in Stranorlar.
Those sparse attendances that invariably are the case when a team is struggling to find any sort of consistency and are well off the pace from even play-off possibilities have naturally eaten into finances and away trips such as last weekend’s unrewarding one to Cork don’t help.
Tomorrow night’s North-West derby against runaway leaders of the First Division, Derry City, should bring in some revenue to help stabilise the situation but, whatever the result (and history doesn’t bode well for James Gallagher’s men) there are a few barren months ahead before the end of the campaign with the notable exception of the F.A.I. Cup tie against those other neighbourly rivals, Sligo Rovers.
Hopefully Harps fans will turn out in larger than normal numbers for these derby games - not alone a vital twelth man against two clubs who will undoubtedly bring a significant backing of their own but also an injection of finance that has been missing from a gates perspective since the start of the season.
A few new faces (new to this campaign at any rate) are being unveiled at Finn Park but unfortunately tallied with some of the same old problems.
Hurricane blows out
The sad passing - sad for many reasons but particularly because of his comparitive young age and the loneliest of circumstances - of Alex Higgins prompts a memory of my one and only sighting of him.
It was in Letterkenny quite a few years ago. I can still see him approaching the table with a smile on his face, a man very much at ease with himself and with those around him. And at the table a quick glance to see his best option and after making up his mind going for it. The cigarette in his hand burning low but then those were the days when smoking in a public place was permitted and the Cottage Bar on Letterkenny’s Main Street was as publicly populated as you can get.
Obviously, or the pub would have been crammed, not that many people were aware of the presence of one of the world’s greatest snooker players but there he was, cracking jokes and sharing a laugh with those in his company and those passing it. Not something he managed too often in his career or his lifetime it appears.
Didn’t get to see him play though he was probably in Letterkenny at the time for one of those challenge tournaments. But watching him on television offered the most vivid of pictures of the Hurricane blowing through many a match and many an opponent. And that iconic image of him in tears with his wife and daughter in the immediate aftermath of his 1982 World Championship Final victory over Ray Reardon.
And years on the gaunt, hatted face staring at us dull-eyed from a newspaper photograph.
Sinking the white
And in a sporting achievement to rank up there with the very, very best of them, Cathal Roarty has hit his first ever hole-in-one. The prestigious moment in the Letterkenny man’s golfing career seemingly arrived on the 13th at Murvagh Or perhaps we got the whole thing wrong and he got a thirteen at the 1st.....
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Weather for Donegal
Monday 21 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 10 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 11 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South east
