Rovers favourites

[rovers100%]

we are 9/4 favs for the cup !!! hopefully we can prove the bookies right . sp fingal are second favs at 5/2 with bray and waterford 11/4. urely this is our best chance for a trophy in years. if we get a home draw anything is possible but hopefully our luck sticks for 2 more games. after the cork,derry and bohs wins i would def say jihnny chadda is smiling down on us !!!!:D

[SligoBrewer]

we are 9/4 favs for the cup !!! hopefully we can prove the bookies right!!!:D

SSsh! Please!

[Mayo Red]

SSsh! Please!

Exactly, the favourites tag doesn't really suit us, we won't jinx it but hopefully.....!!

[Only1Rovers]

As long as we don't get Waterford I'd be mildly confident of reaching the final.

[red_away]

Underrdog is the tag for us!

[Rovers Maniac]

We have to be mature enough and level headed enough to cope with being favs. I thought Fingal were very decent when we played them in the league Cup earlier in the season and we were lucky enough to beat them and they have probably improved again of late. There will be no easy games at all as Waterford have beaten Shams and Pats in cups and Bray have beaten us in the league, we need to play to our max to do it.

[thesilverfox]

At half time last night I met a friend who said he was confident we would win. Now when rovers are 1-0 down to bohs at half time and dont seem to be that threatening up front I thought this gentleman was either a little physcotic or jusst the eternal optimist and he ended up being right.

but then i got this off him last night at half 11 "With shams gone now too, the fai cup is ours for the taking . . . . . . . But . . . . . I have a bad feeling about waterford.:("

lets wait for the draw on monday and we can work from there :)

[red_away]

This has probably been asked but what date is the semi final?

[Rovers1]

This has probably been asked but what date is the semi final?

23rd October

[CF1989]

cant take anything for granted. we're the best team left in it now but that goes for nothing in the cup. fingal are full time professional aswell and beat shams. waterford have got to then LC final and are going well in the league. bray are useless

[red arrow]

i hope boco ain,t on world cup/african nation that weekend. can anybody find out?

[MMVIII]

i hope boco ain,t on world cup/african nation that weekend. can anybody find out?

Benin are playing Ghana on Sunday the 11th of October so he'll be here.

[Rory H]

Draw is on Monday on MNS.......

[Dixie Dean]

A Rovers Waterford final would draw the largest crowd of the teams left. Waterford used to have one of the largest supporter bases back in the 70's. The 81 semi's between us drew large crowds to dalymount. Tallaght would be too small. Thomond Park would be great.

Now i am jumping the gun, someone stop me. :)

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

A Rovers Waterford final would draw the largest crowd of the teams left. Waterford used to have one of the largest supporter bases back in the 70's. The 81 semi's between us drew large crowds to dalymount. Tallaght would be too small. Thomond Park would be great.

Now i am jumping the gun, someone stop me. :)

It's not neutral venue though I don't think. Last thing I want is a trip to Waterford.

[Redie]

It's not neutral venue though I don't think. Last thing I want is a trip to Waterford.

Well Tallagh would not have been a neutral venue if Shams had got through but it would have went ahead there.

Also, Thomand is in Limerick.

[Rovers Maniac]

Looking at the various Bookmakers we are just about favs ahead of Sporting Fingal, if we were drawn away to them it could be a different story. But feck it, i don't care who we get or where get them as we have to win 2 games to win the cup.

http://www.oddschecker.com/football/european-leagues/other-leagues/ireland/fai-cup/win-market

[blackholesun]

Fingal are a joke and had about 40 fans in Tallaght at the reply. With no fanbase and no identity they would struggle to sell 1000 tickets for a final in Tallaght.

Waterford supposedly only 300 fans at home v Pats.

Brays crowds are poor too.

I can see 10,000 seats in Tallaght being enough for the Cup Final and probably too many if Fingal are involved. Talk of needing Thomand Park is crazy in my oponion.

bhs

[CF1989]

if we get to the cup final we'll have a few thousand up im sure

[Rovers1]

I can see 10,000 seats in Tallaght being enough for the Cup Final

You would be astounded by the amount of sunshiners in Sligo, and, i'm sure in Waterford and Bray. I'd be pretty sure it will sell out Tallaght anyway. (If we get there)

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

Well Tallagh would not have been a neutral venue if Shams had got through but it would have went ahead there.

Also, Thomand is in Limerick.

Sorry I thought he was on about us playing the semi at a neutral venue

Final will be in Tallaght is what they have said all season. Dalymount hosted many cup finals with Bohs in them and Tolka likewise with Shels

[Brian Boru]

If we made it to the Cup Final I believe we,d have 5,000 at it. Huge sunshine support. I appreciate that those crowds haven't attended since the 90's but come the big day they'd reappear. 7,000 attended the semi v Limerick (who only had 150 at game) in 1995.

[peadar1987]

cant take anything for granted. we're the best team left in it now but that goes for nothing in the cup. fingal are full time professional aswell and beat shams. waterford have got to then LC final and are going well in the league. bray are useless

Funny. We appear to have won one and drawn one of the three games played between the sides this season. And we have actually had our own injury problems this season. If we win our game in hand we'll actually be ahead of you in the league as well. We may be useless, but you are equally useless.

[red bellied]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V551vbdEW_I&feature=channel_page

Quarter final cup replay in 1995 against Shams and there was Champions League on the same night. The only difference that night was the crowd, it was twice as much as the Bohs match. The appeal of the Rovers has been lost on the sunshiners. Better hardcore support now than they ever had though. The country crowd arent coming in numbers any more either.

[dublinred]

If we made it to the Cup Final I believe we,d have 5,000 at it. Huge sunshine support. I appreciate that those crowds haven't attended since the 90's but come the big day they'd reappear. 7,000 attended the semi v Limerick (who only had 150 at game) in 1995.

Lets get semis out of the way first , home draw please as its the best chance of getting through don't fancy any of the other 3 away.

If we get a home draw the club should only sell the semi tickets inside the showgrounds at the remaining league games to boost the attendances as we could do with the sunshiners for the remaining league games as well as their annual appearance at the big games.

[Dixie Dean]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V551vbdEW_I&feature=channel_page

Quarter final cup replay in 1995 against Shams and there was Champions League on the same night. The only difference that night was the crowd, it was twice as much as the Bohs match. The appeal of the Rovers has been lost on the sunshiners. Better hardcore support now than they ever had though. The country crowd arent coming in numbers any more either.


I think its the town crowd we have lost not the country crowd.

I was just saying the other night my memory was we had regular 5000 - 6000 crowds the year we won the treble with McStay. I thought maybe i remembered incorrectly but i think it was that good.

[dong]

Lets get semis out of the way first , home draw please as its the best chance of getting through don't fancy any of the other 3 away.

If we get a home draw the club should only sell the semi tickets inside the showgrounds at the remaining league games to boost the attendances as we could do with the sunshiners for the remaining league games as well as their annual appearance at the big games.

Bit of a risk doing that I think.


I think its the town crowd we have lost not the country crowd.

I was just saying the other night my memory was we had regular 5000 - 6000 crowds the year we won the treble with McStay. I thought maybe i remembered incorrectly but i think it was that good.

I'd say it wasn't far off that myself.

[red bellied]

There was a survey done a few years back on people entering the Showgrounds questioning what area they were from. The results were never made public. Toolan at the time was always barking on that the country crowd were more or less in the majority in the Showgrounds and the Townies had deserted. I never heard anything more from Toolan on the subject after the survey was conducted. The town numbers are down as well but maybe not as much as I thought.

[d rovers]

I think its the town crowd we have lost not the country crowd.

I was just saying the other night my memory was we had regular 5000 - 6000 crowds the year we won the treble with McStay. I thought maybe i remembered incorrectly but i think it was that good.

I would have said that we regularly had crowds of 4000 to 5000 that year (just counting the games that were played under floodlights - I think the first game under lights was vs Home Farm. i'm sure someone on here will correct me if I'm wrong!), with crowds of 6000 for the big games, like the cup semi final. there was a great buzz around the rovers back then. Anyone got any idea how many we brought to the cup final vs Derry in 94? I was there but couldn't even hazard a guess as to how many were up from Sligo.

[red bellied]

There was close on ten thousand for the final against Derry. The west stand in Landsdowne was allocated only for Rovers supporters and was more or less full. There was a good crowd on the terrace as well.

[redobit]

There was a survey done a few years back on people entering the Showgrounds questioning what area they were from. The results were never made public. Toolan at the time was always barking on that the country crowd were more or less in the majority in the Showgrounds and the Townies had deserted. I never heard anything more from Toolan on the subject after the survey was conducted. The town numbers are down as well but maybe not as much as I thought.

Well considering how many people that seem to walk to the game, at a guess over 60% of a gate, they must be from town.

[BigMikeSmall]

The problem with estimating crowds from old videos like that shams one is that the new stand holds a lot more than the old shed/terraces on that side of the ground used to. There was a terrace between the old stand and the railway end which was always have deserted except for the Brugge game and that celtic friendly that a load of Nordies came down to.
I remember in the build up to the 94 final rte did a piece on us on the Saturday morning sports show saying how average crowds of 2,000 from a town of 20,000 was good going. I think talk talk of average 4/5,000 crows is a bit off.

[roversforever]

23rd October

is it definately the 23rd or is it one of the days that weekend?

[sligoman]

is it definately the 23rd or is it one of the days that weekend?One of the days that weekend. Going by previous years, one of the semi's will be the Friday and the other a Sunday afternoon due to RTE showing them.

[srfc1928]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V551vbdEW_I&feature=channel_page

Quarter final cup replay in 1995 against Shams and there was Champions League on the same night. The only difference that night was the crowd, it was twice as much as the Bohs match..The appeal of the Rovers has been lost on the sunshiners

we were the cup holders and had just won the treble the season before. Everything Rovers was cool and we were still on a high.
Maybe if we were lucky enough to win the cup this year and were to play Shams in the quarters next year this would be more comparable.
I dont think we had huge crowds for the cup games in 92, 93 etc.



Better hardcore support now than they ever had though.

Agree 100%. The crowd has really stuck by the club over the last few years, something that would not have happened in the past.
There seems to be more pataince and better 'support' given for the team.

a few years ago if the team were doing bad it was the norm to turn on the players f them out of it, booing and even throwing objects at players going down the tunnel etc.
And the usual line 'im not going back to watch that sh1te'
The crowds would fall away but that isnt happening anymore, our attendences have stayed pretty much constant and supportive and by doing that we have nights like Tuesday against Bohs.

As someone said to me the other night, we need to be winning a trophy every 10 years or so to spawn a new generation of supporter, theyre right.
The sunshiners will be back for the semi and bring the kids with them (if at home), most will be gone after the game until the next big match and some will stay and become regulars themselves i suppose its how a lot of people start following their club, but a lot depends on the result.
If we were fourtunate to win a cup soon, ireally think we could kick on as a club because we now have a really good hardcore support.
Hopefully the commitee are in a position to keep faith with a largely full time set up for next season, oppourtunity knocks.

[red bellied]

The problem with estimating crowds from old videos like that shams one is that the new stand holds a lot more than the old shed/terraces on that side of the ground used to. There was a terrace between the old stand and the railway end which was always have deserted except for the Brugge game and that celtic friendly that a load of Nordies came down to.
I remember in the build up to the 94 final rte did a piece on us on the Saturday morning sports show saying how average crowds of 2,000 from a town of 20,000 was good going. I think talk talk of average 4/5,000 crows is a bit off.

The old side of the ground could probably hold the same as the new one does now. The seated Barn could fit 800 and the terraces either side of it could fit at least another 700. Also the area along the fence would add to it. Would agree the far terrace was usually empty except for big games. You could also argue the fact, the Shed end and terrace is now gone and now only occupied by a few hundred, plus the Jinks Avenue side has been seated reducing the capacity there by a fair bit.

I was at that game and the queues for the turnstiles would stretch all around the corner. It was a fairly regular occurrence at the time.

[red bellied]

we were the cup holders and had just won the treble the season before. Everything Rovers was cool and we were still on a high.
Maybe if we were lucky enough to win the cup this year and were to play Shams in the quarters next year this would be more comparable.
I dont think we had huge crowds for the cup games in 92, 93 etc.


Agree 100%. The crowd has really stuck by the club over the last few years, something that would not have happened in the past.
There seems to be more pataince and better 'support' given for the team.

a few years ago if the team were doing bad it was the norm to turn on the players f them out of it, booing and even throwing objects at players going down the tunnel etc.
And the usual line 'im not going back to watch that sh1te'
The crowds would fall away but that isnt happening anymore, our attendences have stayed pretty much constant and supportive and by doing that we have nights like Tuesday against Bohs.

As someone said to me the other night, we need to be winning a trophy every 10 years or so to spawn a new generation of supporter, theyre right.
The sunshiners will be back for the semi and bring the kids with them (if at home), most will be gone after the game until the next big match and some will stay and become regulars themselves i suppose its how a lot of people start following their club, but a lot depends on the result.
If we were fourtunate to win a cup soon, ireally think we could kick on as a club because we now have a really good hardcore support.
Hopefully the commitee are in a position to keep faith with a largely full time set up for next season, oppourtunity knocks.

Played Derry in 92 in a replay in the Showgrounds (afternoon kick off, Wednesday probably) well over three thousand. Pats in 1993, McStay had just come on aboard and it was over four thousand on a Sunday afternoon

[srfc1928]

Played Derry in 92 in a replay in the Showgrounds (afternoon kick off, Wednesday probably) well over three thousand. Pats in 1993, McStay had just come on aboard and it was over four thousand on a Sunday afternoon
Fair play RB your memory is sharper than mine.



Played Derry in 92 in a replay in the Showgrounds (afternoon kick off, Wednesday probably) well over three thousand.
Back when Summerhill and St Johns would close for the half day due to afternoon cup replays. Happy days :)

[unclekev]

Whoa, steady up there. One game at a time. No talk of the final until we are in it. I know we love to dream but lets put the euphoria away for the moment and get on with the job in hand. GETTING TO THE FINAL. Then we can all go mad and talk about crowds and reminisce. Don't take away the magic by using up all our dreams now. We can have three wonderful weeks in November to savour then. ;)

[d rovers]

Whoa, steady up there. One game at a time. No talk of the final until we are in it. I know we love to dream but lets put the euphoria away for the moment and get on with the job in hand. GETTING TO THE FINAL. Then we can all go mad and talk about crowds and reminisce. Don't take away the magic by using up all our dreams now. We can have three wonderful weeks in November to savour then. ;)

i did mention the final, but only in relation to crowds. don't worry, i think everyone on here is well aware that getting to the final is going to be a job in itself. depends on the draw. i'd be confident we can beat anyone in the showgies, so hopefully we'll get a home draw. the luck we are having in the draws i'm guessing we'll get fingal away - my least preferred option.

[srfc1928]

Whoa, steady up there. One game at a time. No talk of the final until we are in it. I know we love to dream but lets put the euphoria away for the moment and get on with the job in hand. GETTING TO THE FINAL. Then we can all go mad and talk about crowds and reminisce. Don't take away the magic by using up all our dreams now. We can have three wonderful weeks in November to savour then. ;)
In fairness unclekev nobody on the previous page of the thread has mentioned much about getting to the final, there are a few 'ifs' regarding attendences but most of it is stuff about attendences from the past.
Your right, We have a long way to go yet.

We're not favourites according to this poll. Someones got very tired fingers in Waterford :D over 3500 votes
Good luck to them:rolleyes:

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/mns/features/damienrichardson/damien46.html

[Brian Boru]

Under Willie McStay and the following season after promotion the average attendance was comfortably 4,000. These 2 years were the best attended in our history I'd say. Successful team though with gifted players ( eg Annand etc). I agree that the core support is better now and more consistent. Also the extra crowds in the 90's were country lads. I think the core support is Sligo town based.

[Only1Rovers]

These 2 years were the best attended in our history I'd say.

I doubt this, all LOI clubs would have had large support in the 50's, 60's & 70's prior to the EPL.

[Roo69]

You would be astounded by the amount of sunshiners in Sligo, and, i'm sure in Waterford and Bray. I'd be pretty sure it will sell out Tallaght anyway. (If we get there)

You're dead right there ! the last really big game of importance we had was against Dublin City. It was the last game of the season and who ever won the game won the first division and got promoted. We brought about 3,000 out to whitehall that night. Previous Cup finals have seen us bring 15,000 to Lansdowne and over 5,000 to Tolka. I'm sure if we made this years final we would muster up 5,000 "Bray" fans easy...

[CF1989]

i'll probably end up getting sick if we make the final and see all the sunshiners there thinking there big supporters. i hate it

[sligofan4ever]

i'll probably end up getting sick if we make the final and see all the sunshiners there thinking there big supporters. i hate it

Just out of curiosity, how many supporters who attend atleast every home game are there ? going by home league games there is about 1,200 regulars and the rest would be either going for the first time or going every so often, and then you also got event junkies. I wouldn't be complaining if we brought a big crowd to the final, sunshiners or not a big crowd for Rovers would be a massive boost for atmosphere and the game in general so long as the sunshiners will help create it :D. If we make the final the best rendition of Stand up for The Bit O' Red is in order :D.

[rovers100%]

in fairness the more ya get the sunshiners to the showgrounds the more chance there is of getting them to come regularly. i think if we win the cup attendances will improve next year. people complain about the sunshiners but if ya convert a hundred or so its a good thing. i went to shrowgrounds al the time from 11-16 and i doubt i entered the ground once from 1996 until tarted going again in 2004. went a few times due to a friend in the team and never looked back

[gustavo]

You'll always get sunshiners when any team are doing well in any sport especially in Ireland where people are event junkies. As rovers100% said it's a good chance to attract some regular support.I imagine if we get to the final my flatmate will be making his 2nd trip to a Rovers game this season

[ItaC]

i went to shrowgrounds al the time from 11-16 and i doubt i entered the ground once from 1996 until tarted going again in 2004. went a few times due to a friend in the team and never looked back

Same as, except I've only gotten back there in the last year-was always working sat. nights, but not doing that anymore, so I can now actually get to matches! so I've found one advantage to being unemployed :D

[sligored]

paddypower odds after the semi final draw
Sligo Rovers 5/4
Sporting Fingal 2/1
Bray Wanderers 4/1
Waterford United 11/2

for the gamblers out there we are 21/10 or just over 2/1 with boylesports, get on soon as it wont last long