Greatest Comebacks

[Professor K]

After Limerick's heroics yesterday it reminded me to post this thread.

What's the best comeback you have ever seen from your club in a game?

Coming back from 4 goals down to win is rare in the LOI. Transport did it in the 1950s and I remember reading that Dundalk once did it to Waterford in the 1980s?

Also in the Irish News Cup final, Derry lost 3-0 away to Sligo in the first leg, went a goal down early in the second and won 5-1.

Recovering from a 4 goal deficit to draw examples: Shamrock Rovers at Waterford in 1931, Glenmore Celtic at Ashtown Villa in 1993 FAI Cup, Monaghan at Athlone in 2010.

Especially interested in tales of teams down to ten men...

[JC_GUFC]

Also in the Irish News Cup final, Derry lost 3-0 away to Sligo in the first leg, went a goal down early in the second and won 5-1.


All was not what it seems in that match if rumours are to be believed...

One of the best Galway United ones in my memory was in 2007 when Drogheda were Champions-elect. We were 2-0 down and down to 10 men and came back to draw 2-2 with goals in the 87th and 90th minutes.

Last year's playoff final 1st leg saw us equalise in the 89th minute and score in injury time to turn around a 1-0 defecit to UCD.

I think I remember in early Stephen Kenny Longford Town era that they had a pretty amazing comeback win in a League Cup game against Finn Harps.

[pineapple stu]

Surprised the 6-4 rovers v Bohs game didn't get a mention.

I think for us it has to be the league cup semi in 2005. 1-0 down in tolka entering injury time; won 2-1.

Coming from one goal down to win, even late on, isn't much of a comeback really, but this screwed Ollie over, so it gets included.

I think this season, they way we've come back from losing five of our first six competitive matches is seriously impressive

[Professor K]

Surprised the 6-4 rovers v Bohs game didn't get a mention.

"Only" 3 goals down at half-time and won :) I have several examples of that in my notes so I'll see how many others are mentioned.

[Comic Book Guy]

A couple of seasons ago we were 3-0 down at home to Longford and came back to win 4-3 with a brilliant Davin O'Neill volley the winning goal.

[El-Pietro]

I can't recall anything more than 2 goals but in 2008 we made a bit of a habit of giving teams a 2 goal lead.

Derry, Galway and Haka at home all took 2 goal leads against us. We came back to beat Derry and Galway and drew with Haka. Made us think at 2-0 down in Finland we were about to win. We were wrong.

[Nesta99]

Pats winning the 2015 league by going unbeaten til the end of the season...

Wasnt there a league cup game in Oriel where Dundalk came from behind to beat the famous old Derry City or something?

[littlebray]

All was not what it seems in that match if rumours are to be believed...

Don't be coy, come on, tell us all about it, there's no secrets here ...

[PartySaint]

Pats winning the 2015 league by going unbeaten til the end of the season...


Not just unbeaten, winning all the games as well

[seand]

Coming back from 4 goals down to win is rare in the LOI. Transport did it in the 1950s and I remember reading that Dundalk once did it to Waterford in the 1980s?



We haven't had a (really) high scoring game v waterford since a 7-4 win in 67-8 Shield. Not sure about scoring sequence though, will have to have a look. I think we had a 2 or 3 goal comeback against Waterford in the 1952 FAI Cup semi replay, to win 6-4. Again I'd have to check it out. We had quite a lot of ridiculous results in the 50s and 60s, including successive 7-4 and 7-5 wins in the Shield around the time we were playing Rangers in Europe.

I don't remember any massive comebacks involving Dundalk in recent times. The famous one was a 3-2 win over Derry from 2-0 down with 15 to go, when we went onto the double in 88.

There was a Blaxnit Cup game where Harps were 5-1 up on Linfield with 15 minutes to go and drew 5-5. Harps won on pens.

[outspoken]

A couple of seasons ago we were 3-0 down at home to Longford and came back to win 4-3 with a brilliant Davin O'Neill volley the winning goal.

A couple of seasons ago we were 3-1 down to Cobh away and came back to win 4-3 with a brilliant Daniel Judas Purdy strike the winning goal 😂

[stann]

We haven't had a (really) high scoring game v waterford since a 7-4 win in 67-8 Shield. Not sure about scoring sequence though, will have to have a look. I think we had a 2 or 3 goal comeback against Waterford in the 1952 FAI Cup semi replay, to win 6-4. Again I'd have to check it out. We had quite a lot of ridiculous results in the 50s and 60s, including successive 7-4 and 7-5 wins in the Shield around the time we were playing Rangers in Europe.
I think in that 7-4 game Dundalk lead, and lead well, from the start, and Waterford scored the last three goals, so no comeback with that one.

Big gap in your notes Prof K, as our best comeback surely has to be against Rovers in March 1959. ;)
4-1 down at the break, the Blues scored five in twenty second-half minutes to go two ahead, with Rovers getting the last as it finished up 6-5.

[oriel]

Dundalk did it twice in 1988, and both at home, both were highly significant too. The first was 0-2 down at home in a cup replay v Sligo, almost sure it was 1-2 at HT, but we def won 3-2, and won the cup that year.

The other one as mentioned above was at home to Derry in the league, it was Easter Monday, 0-2 down with 13 mins to go, then 3 quick goals from Gino Lawless, Barry Kehoe, then Dessie Gorman with one min to go, we only won the league by a point that season, and I think the Derry game was the 2nd last home match too. We won the lge by drawing 1-1 v Pats in the last match.

[Comic Book Guy]

A couple of seasons ago we were 3-1 down to Cobh away and came back to win 4-3 with a brilliant Daniel Judas Purdy strike the winning goal 😂

I had forgotten about that. Mad season that was a lot of high scoring games for us that season.

[ped_ped]

in 67-8 Shield.

Given the context of the thread, I was disappointed when I realised you meant the year 1967-8.

[Longfordian]

A couple of seasons ago we were 3-1 down to Cobh away and came back to win 4-3 with a brilliant Daniel Judas Purdy strike the winning goal ��

We were 3-0 down to Mervue and won 5-4 a few years ago

[pineapple stu]

Not so much a great comeback as a fair headstart really.

[Dalymountrower]

"Only" 3 goals down at half-time and won :) I have several examples of that in my notes so I'll see how many others are mentioned.

Three goals up against your bitter rivals and then conceding five , must be the most humiliating turnaround though.
Did that make it into your notes?

[TonyD]

2-0 down at home to Shels coming back to win 3-2 in the "Marney" Season was particularly sweet.

3-0 down at home to Slovan Bratislava in the UEFA cup in 1996 and came back to 3-3. Unfortunately conceded another to lose 4-3, so technically probably not a comeback as such. Hell of an effort though.

[Mr A]

Back in the mid nineties Harps were 3-0 down in Longford in the D1 shield almost on full time but came back to draw.

Also, back in the days of Aertel Pg222 Harps were 2-0 down in Kilkenny a couple of hours after the game ended, before unexpectedly coming back to win 3-2.

[Longfordian]

You'd forget how ridiculous aertel was in these days of instant notifications from futbol24 and livescore etc. Especially for First Division games.

[gufcfan]

And waiting for FT to show up when you were a goal up according to Errortel, knowing the game had already finished. Schroedinger's teletext.

[MattB11]

Harps came back from 2-0 down in a LC game against Sligo in Finn park in 2007. Connor gethins pulled one back on 67 before big Parkhouse equalised on 87 and won it in added time.

[Pablo Escobar]

And waiting for FT to show up when you were a goal up according to Errortel, knowing the game had already finished. Schroedinger's teletext.
I remember seeing our injury time winner posted up in Aertel years ago, only to be crushed a few minutes later when they reversed the score line.

[oriel]

I remember seeing our injury time winner posted up in Aertel years ago, only to be crushed a few minutes later when they reversed the score line.

Well before Gillette Soccer Saturday, the old BBC vidiprinter of the 80's was just brilliant, like watching a real time typewriter with results flashing up in a matter of seconds, nearly each week, fans of one club (usually lower league) had their hopes dashed when it updated 'CORRECTION' (0-1, after typing 1-0) they also typed out the score in words if it was something big like 6 (SIX)

I sometimes wonder what a LOI fan say in their late teens must think of how we all used to get results in the past, back in early 80's I used to love listening to Sunday Afternoon Sport on RTE Radio 1, had commentators at every LOI ground, and that was how the updates came in, for away games that was your only choice to get a live score, either that or talking to someone who was at the match, failing that it was the RTE TV news for a 2 min update or if you missed it, it was the newspaper next day! I also remember the RTE Sports TV Sun night show, but LOI wasn't featured every week.

'Dems' were the days.................

[pineapple stu]

I remember a Galway fan years ago saying that Aertel had reported a 7-2 loss for Galway in Monaghan. Some fans weren't best pleased and went to meet the bus at the ground on the way back to give out stick. The players were quite surprised as they'd actually won 7-2.

Bohs v UCD around 2001 was also 0-0 till about half an hour after full time, when it abruptly changed to 6-0.

[The Donie Forde]

Probably worth mentioning Cork City were three down at Cwmbran and won the tie having conceded first goal in 2nd as well. Is this unique for an Irish club in Europe?

[Professor K]

Three goals up against your bitter rivals and then conceding five , must be the most humiliating turnaround though.
Did that make it into your notes?

I listed all the 4 goal comebacks I knew of and wanted everyone else to bring up 3 goals. Which has worked pretty well I think, some great stuff here. Or I was pretending 2001 never happened, who knows.

Maybe we didn't have it so bad with Aertel. I remember reading in one of Robert Goggins' books, in the 1920s, thousands of people waited in town to find out the result of a big Dublin derby the next day. Finally someone put the newspaper headline up in the window shop to massive cheers.

[seand]

Probably worth mentioning Cork City were three down at Cwmbran and won the tie having conceded first goal in 2nd as well. Is this unique for an Irish club in Europe?

Definitely the best effort in Europe. Closely followed by Carmarthen v Longford. Carmarthen were 3-1 and an away goal behind before winning 5-1 on the night, 5-3 on agg.

[PartySaint]

3-0 down at home to Slovan Bratislava in the UEFA cup in 1996 and came back to 3-3. Unfortunately conceded another to lose 4-3, so technically probably not a comeback as such. Hell of an effort though.

Another non-comeback comeback was away in Russia to Krylia Sovetov in 2009, we were 3-0 down win 10 minutes to go and came back to 3-2 which meant we went through on away goals after a 1-0 win in Richmond the week before.

We were also 2-0 down at home to Dundalk in 2011 at halftime and came back to win 3-2. Foster was the Dundalk manager at the time and they were unbelievable in that first half, then totally fell apart.

[orielabu]

Professor K: “Maybe we didn't have it so bad with Aertel. I remember reading in one of Robert Goggins' books, in the 1920s, thousands of people waited in town to find out the result of a big Dublin derby the next day. Finally someone put the newspaper headline up in the window shop to massive cheers.”

It was reported in the press that at half-time in a 1930s Cup match in Cork, a Dundalk fan released a homing pigeon, carrying the half-time score!!
Beat that!!

[orielabu]

Dec 29 1935, League , Milltown
….Dundalk 5 up after half an hour
….With 10 minutes remaining Rovers make it 5-5
….Dundalk score the winner with 3 minutes left to leave the final score 6-5.

Not quite a comeback but close!

[Professor K]

Yep, I love that one orielabu.

A couple of months earlier in a Shield game Dundalk were 3-0 down to Rovers and won 5-3.

Rovers have never come back from 3 goals down to win, coming closest with the last minute penalty miss in Waterford (2003).

[pineapple stu]

Interesting thread btw. Trying to think what our best comeback is - struggling to come up with much more than dramatic late turnarounds like the League Cup semi mentioned earlier. Another example would be the 2-1 win against Longford in 2009; two goals in the last ten minutes giving us a win and putting us on the way to the title, to the disappointment of the few Shels fans who'd turned up to support Longford.

We beat Drogheda 5-4 in 2011 - we were 2-0 up, then went 4-2 down, then eventually won 5-4. We were also 2-0 down in Tallaght in the FAI Cup around the same time and came back to draw only to lose 7-1 or something stupid in the replay. That's the best I can think of for the moment!

Don't know if Professor K has any better examples?

[El-Pietro]

What bout our comeback from 11 or 12 points back to win the First Division in 2010. Though that was more on Shels than us!

[Professor K]

Haven't got any other UCD examples, no.


Rovers have never come back from 3 goals down to win, coming closest with the last minute penalty miss in Waterford (2003).

In a single game that is...they did recover from a 3-0 defeat in the 1945 FAI Cup semi-final first leg against Dundalk, winning 5-0 in the second.

[seand]

What bout our comeback from 11 or 12 points back to win the First Division in 2010. Though that was more on Shels than us!

I think that's a seperate thread altoghether! we were 15 behind Athlone at one stage in 2000-2001 but won the division and Athlone missed out on promotion altogether.

[atfconline]

I think you're getting a bit carried away there Sean, I think a paltry 9 is the most we were ever ahead!

[Longfordian]

I remember a Galway fan years ago saying that Aertel had reported a 7-2 loss for Galway in Monaghan. Some fans weren't best pleased and went to meet the bus at the ground on the way back to give out stick. The players were quite surprised as they'd actually won 7-2.

Bohs v UCD around 2001 was also 0-0 till about half an hour after full time, when it abruptly changed to 6-0.

Ha those two are classic Aertel. Love it. Must go search for the old errortel thread some time.

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

What bout our comeback from 11 or 12 points back to win the First Division in 2010. Though that was more on Shels than us!

In fairness they did claw 15 points off of Pats a few years back

[gspain01]

Limerick scored twice in injury time to beat Shels at Tolka 2-1 in 2011.

I recall a Billy Daly last gasp equaliser in 1983/84 when playing with 9 men and trailing 1-0 v Bohs at Dalymount.

In our 1980 league winning season we trailed 2-0 in Ballybofey after 16 minutes and still after 68 minutes. We won 3-2. It was an absolutely crucial victory as Waterford beat Dundalk the same day.
We were also mistakenly told Dundalk were winning. Furthermore a significant portion of the travelling support went to the pub at half time and refused to believe we won.

Bohs came from 2 down to beat us 3-2 in Rathbane I think can't recall the year for sure. John Mannion scored a late 30 yard deserved equaliser for 9 man Shamrock Rovers in Rathbane circa 1990. Stevie Johnson grabbed an injury time winner for us. We were awful that day but how we celebrated.

[pineapple stu]

Barca v Sevilla a contender tonight! Not LoI of course, but a minor technicality

[ATFC-1887]

http://www.extratime.ie/fixtures/detail/101/2010/12052/1/

4-0 up against Monaghon until the 71st minute only to draw 4-4.
Thankfully i missed that game

[outspoken]

http://www.extratime.ie/fixtures/detail/101/2010/12052/1/

4-0 up against Monaghon until the 71st minute only to draw 4-4.
Thankfully i missed that game

We had a similar game against them too, 3-0 up after 13 minutes, goals scored on 11,12 and 13 minutes for Town only for Meath GAA keeper Brendan Murphy to make 3 howlers and leave us hanging on for our life at 3-3. Madness.

[El-Pietro]

I think that's a seperate thread altoghether! we were 15 behind Athlone at one stage in 2000-2001 but won the division and Athlone missed out on promotion altogether.
For the record we were 8 points behind you a couple of weeks back! Think we made up 10 points last season, but it wasn't enough in the end.

[El-Pietro]

In fairness they did claw 15 points off of Pats a few years back

Talk about late results on aertel!

[outspoken]

How fitting on the week this thread was started we get an incredible come back from Sevilla last night inside of the 90 minutes

[seand]

Barca v Sevilla a contender tonight! Not LoI of course, but a minor technicality

We're not including minor cup competition here

[seand]

While we're spiralling off topic here this one is probably worth a mention. The biggest comeback in the English leagues, 10 man Charlton 5-1 down with 27 minutes to go, won 7-6!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlton_Athletic_F.C._7%E2%80%936_Huddersfield_To wn_A.F.C.

[Martinho II]

We had a similar game against them too, 3-0 up after 13 minutes, goals scored on 11,12 and 13 minutes for Town only for Meath GAA keeper Brendan Murphy to make 3 howlers and leave us hanging on for our life at 3-3. Madness.

luckily enough was in London that weekend and couldnt make it!