Did the match remind anyone else of Iceland?

[superfrank]

I've never been but after the first half it felt alot like the Iceland match in Rekyavik. We won 4-2 on a terrible pitch and we dominated the match. It must've been about 8 years ago but it's still fresh in the mind. I remember Roy Keane scored twice and at one stage we were 2-1 down.

I know this is a weird post but after watching the match last night I kept thinking of that Iceland match. :confused:

[stojkovic]

I've never been but after the first half it felt alot like the Iceland match in Rekyavik. We won 4-2 on a terrible pitch and we dominated the match. It must've been about 8 years ago but it's still fresh in the mind. I remember Roy Keane scored twice and at one stage we were 2-1 down.

I know this is a weird post but after watching the match last night I kept thinking of that Iceland match. :confused:
Remember McCarthy roaring at McAteer.
"JAAAAYSON......JAAAAYSON...JAAAAYSON KEEP THE FCUKING BALL WE'RE WINNING 4-2 YA STUPID C#NT"

[OwlsFan]

I remember it was during the McCarthy hunting days by the panel and Giles made the astonishing statement: "What's important Bill, is the performance not the result". Strangely against the Faroes he had changed back to the result being more important than the performance.

It all depends on who you want to attack I suppose.

I remember the game well. We were hopeless and looking doomed but someone managed to get a 4-2 win and a vital 3 points. Have we scored 4 away from home since ?

[Karlos]

.

I remember the game well. We were hopeless and looking doomed but someone managed to get a 4-2 win and a vital 3 points. Have we scored 4 away from home since ?

Did we not get 4 goals away in Cyprus in qualifying for WC 2002 - Harte, Roy Keane (2) and Kelly or was that before the Iceland game???? :)

[ColinR]

think kilbane made his debut and was awful - taken off at half time - nearly went really pear-shaped that day

[OwlsFan]

Did we not get 4 goals away in Cyprus in qualifying for WC 2002 - Harte, Roy Keane (2) and Kelly or was that before the Iceland game???? :)

Iceland was before that I think so I think you're correct.

[Kingdom]

I was thinking the exact same during the Faroes match.

The iceland game was part of the qualifying series for the 1998 World Cup whereas the Cyprus away game was part of the qualifying series for the 2002 World Cup.

[Dotsy]

Wasn't the Iceland game just after Princess Di died and the lads wore black armbands during the match :rolleyes:

[superfrank]

Possibly, it was late '97 anyway.

[Dotsy]

The Iceland match was 6th September 1997

[superfrank]

That was a week after her death so it must've been. But why were they wearing armbands in rememberance of an English woman? :confused:

[Dotsy]

That was a week after her death so it must've been. But why were they wearing armbands in rememberance of an English woman? :confused:

exactly

[superfrank]

At that time most of them were English anyway! :mad:

[OwlsFan]

At that time most of them were English anyway! :mad:

Sigh!

Iceland 2 Ireland 4

Shay Given (Newcastle United), Jeff Kenna (Blackburn), Kenny Cunningham (Wimbledon), Ian Harte (Leeds United), Steve Staunton (Aston Villa), Gary Kelly (Leeds United), Alan McLoughlin (Portsmouth), Roy Keane (Manchester United), Andy Townsend (Middlesbrough), capt., Kevin Kilbane (West Brom), David Connolly (Feyenoord).

7 Irish born, 3 1st generation Irish and 1 2nd generation. I suppose that makes "most of them" English. Keep perpetuating the myths :(

[Irish_Praha]

Was this one of the games where Baaaaarnsley Mick had Harte playing at CB? No wonder we made it difficult for ourselves!! :eek:

[geysir]

Was this one of the games where Baaaaarnsley Mick had Harte playing at CB? No wonder we made it difficult for ourselves!! :eek:

As it was kinda local for me I was at the game, I sat with the natives in the old stand. It was a bit like Flanagans Ball, they stood up I sat down, I stood up they sat down. There were a few hundred Irish supporters there in the new stand but with the acoustics of that stand the sound they made vanished up into the air. Ireland score, the Irish support jump up and down but you can't hear a thing across the field.
But no matter where you were you could hear McCarthy shouting abuse at the team. At least he cared. I have no particular agenda for or against McCarthy but that Irish team were very poor in that campaign. IMO It was one of the poorest Irish teams since early 70's. Was that Mc Carthy´s first campaign? He did not make it any more difficult for that team. Romania were streets ahead even with their limited quality. They stripped Iceland bare with a 4-0 victory there.
There was nowhere to go with that team. It was a miracle they came so close in the end to a barely average Belgian team. To anyone who followed Ireland through that they were just biding time until Keane and Duff made it through.

[OwlsFan]

I have no particular agenda for or against McCarthy but that Irish team were very poor in that campaign. IMO It was one of the poorest Irish teams since early 70's. Was that Mc Carthy´s first campaign? He did not make it any more difficult for that team. Romania were streets ahead even with their limited quality. They stripped Iceland bare with a 4-0 victory there.
There was nowhere to go with that team. It was a miracle they came so close in the end to a barely average Belgian team. To anyone who followed Ireland through that they were just biding time until Keane and Duff made it through.

Actually they were much the better side in Romania where we lost 1-0 (Roy Keane missed a peno) and the better side at home where we drew I think. If you see the team posted above it wasn't a bad side - just badly missing a decent striker, although Connolly had his best game in a green jersey away in Bucharest. And yes Mick was experimenting with the 3 centre halves, with Harte as one of them. Giles, DUnphy and Laughing Bill were launching vicious personal attacks on him on the national TV station with no balance in the panel. It was so unfair it used make my blood boil - no one to put a contrary or even a balanced opinion. Same in Italian 90 ("I agree with John". "I agree with Eamon" - scandalous stuff).

[geysir]

Actually they were much the better side in Romania where we lost 1-0 (Roy Keane missed a peno) and the better side at home where we drew I think. If you see the team posted above it wasn't a bad side - just badly missing a decent striker, although Connolly had his best game in a green jersey away in Bucharest. And yes Mick was experimenting with the 3 centre halves, with Harte as one of them. Giles, DUnphy and Laughing Bill were launching vicious personal attacks on him on the national TV station with no balance in the panel. It was so unfair it used make my blood boil - no one to put a contrary or even a balanced opinion. Same in Italian 90 ("I agree with John". "I agree with Eamon" - scandalous stuff).
Rose tinted spectacles?
They had a good game in Romania. When Romania came to Dublin they were cruising, already had topped the group & qualified and still they did enough. Of the team that went to Iceland, Staunton was stiff and slow, (recovering from injury?)
I thought McLaughlin, Kennedy, Connolly, Kenna and Kilbane were average grafters then. As I say the team were not qualification standard and that was clearly seen against an average Belgian team (who later lost their 3 group games?)
The panelists are for the brain dead. I would rather discuss the games developments with my dog.

[superfrank]

Yes, maybe but our fate in that campaign was sealed in Skopje. Macedonia 4 Rep. Ireland 1. Oh, it was awful!

And that was just the new away jersey...... :cool:

[lopez]

At that time most of them were English anyway! :mad:Oh dear! :rolleyes:

Well what I heard was that Andy Townsend (who to be fair to you Frank is English: one Irish granny, travelled across Mallorca to support the scum against us in 1988, etc.) who was captain, was pretty devastated about Britain's top slimmer's death that he cajoled the rest of them into this token recognition of the bimbo. I wasn't present at the game but I heard many players ripped off the black armband as soon as the football started.

Anyway, the GAA in London caused a few seizures amongst its membership by lowering the Tricolour the day after, as I heard too the flag above the GPO. Personally I thought the world (well my world in London at least) went mad. Many people who hate the royals had black armbands on that Saturday at work, simply because 'she p*ssed them all off.' My own fondest memories of it all were the Irish Post photographer who got handbagged by combined membership of the local chapter of the Womens' Institute near the GAA at Ruislip for taking pictures of the hearst leaving Northolt Aerodrome. And a Gay manager telling a joke about Tommy Steele replacing Elton John as the singer at her funeral, which was overheard by almost everyone on the platform at Wembley Park tube station (He, btw, also wore a black armband on the day :confused: ).

[superfrank]

I remember my dad was living in Epping at the time and apparently he got fierce abuse simply for being Irish. :mad: He had a very strong Kerry accent so it's understandable.

[geysir]

I remember my dad was living in Epping at the time and apparently he got fierce abuse simply for being Irish. :mad: He had a very strong Kerry accent so it's understandable.

I have lost track of the thread since history has been rewritten with Macedonia´s margin of victory getting bigger over the years :-)

Seeing as we are way off the thread already,
I do not understand the connection with your dad getting abuse at that time. Did he get abuse for being Irish in Epping ? or did he got abuse for being Irish at the time of Diana's death in Epping?
I don't get it.
If it was about Diana's death, what was it that inspired the natives to abuse your Irish Dad.?
Then why do you write that it was understandable because he had a very thick kerry accent?
Just curious

[OwlsFan]

Yes, maybe but our fate in that campaign was sealed in Skopje. Macedonia 4 Rep. Ireland 1. Oh, it was awful!

And that was just the new away jersey...... :cool:

Not sure what game that was because we lost 3-2 in the game I remember. Whatever happened to Jon Goodman who played that day ??

As the the "rose tinted glasses" someone mentioned, not at all. I was in Bucharest for that game and it was one of our best performances away from home and I rang up RTE (Dessie Cahill) when I came home after I heard the scurrilous comments by the panel and to say what a great performance it was - so no rose tinted there.

It was one of the easiest groups we had been in (Iceland, Romania, Lithuania, Macedonia and Liechtenstein) but Mick was in the rebuilding phase.

[superfrank]

Seeing as we are way off the thread already,
I do not understand the connection with your dad getting abuse at that time. Did he get abuse for being Irish in Epping ? or did he got abuse for being Irish at the time of Diana's death in Epping?
I don't get it.
If it was about Diana's death, what was it that inspired the natives to abuse your Irish Dad.?
Then why do you write that it was understandable because he had a very thick kerry accent?
Just curious
I think it was to do with being Irish, living in England with an Englishwoman. He always said it was a bit of a racist area anyway. I think he was once accused of being in the IRA. :mad:


I have lost track of the thread since history has been rewritten with Macedonia´s margin of victory getting bigger over the years :-)

Not sure what game that was because we lost 3-2 in the game I remember. Whatever happened to Jon Goodman who played that day ??
I thought it was 4-1, but it could very well have been 3-2. My memory has deteriorated over the years due to......eh....unknown reasons. All I remeber was the orange and black jersey we wore! :o

[stojkovic]

I think it was to do with being Irish, living in England with an Englishwoman. He always said it was a bit of a racist area anyway. I think he was once accused of being in the IRA. :mad:



I thought it was 4-1, but it could very well have been 3-2. My memory has deteriorated over the years due to......eh....unknown reasons. All I remeber was the orange and black jersey we wore! :o
Defo 3-2. We went 1up, Alan McLoughlin and then 3-1 down. Two penos I believe for handball against McAteer and Phelan with Hristov getting the third. Cant remember who got one back for us, maybe Connolly.

It was an easy group as Romania were rebuilding. We should have beaten them over there, mistake by centre-half Ian Harte for their goal. Roy Keane missed a peno.

Remember Charlton refusing to re-sign after he saw the draw as he thought maybe we had a chance. He had to force the FAI to sack him.

[superfrank]

I'm too young to remember. Why was Charlton hired in the first place? :confused:

[OwlsFan]

I'm too young to remember. Why was Charlton hired in the first place? :confused:

Not sure if this is a tongue in cheek question but I'll answer in anyway. The FAI were determined to get a professional to do the job. I think it was between him and Bob Paisley and possibly Giles was in the reckoning as well. Ireland had never qualified for a tournament - we had come close on a couple of occasions but the qualifications for the World Cup in 1986 we had come bottom of the group, losing the last match 1-4 at home to Denmark in front of 18k fans, half of whom were Danes. Something drastic was required and Jack was the man to do it, although he did bring a muppet in the form of Setters with him. The rest, as they say, is history.

I was delighted Charlton was appointed - he had done a great job at Wednesday and when Con Houlihan wrote a piece in the Evening Press (remember that newspaper ?) attacking the appointment, I wrote him a letter telling him he would be shown to be wrong. EIght years later I sent him a copy of that letter reminding him of the error of his ways :D

I don't readily have heroes in my life but to me Jack will always be one. He rescued Wednesday from the bottom of the old Third Division and lead Ireland to 3 tournaments - a place I had thought was only for others to enjoy and for me to watch on TV. I still get a lump in my throat when I remember the Aer Lingus plane carrying the team landing in Germany in 1988. Ireland had arrived on the world football stage. A magical moment I shalln't forget.

[superfrank]

Oh, it was '86. I was born in '88.

[lopez]

...I was delighted Charlton was appointed - he had done a great job at Wednesday and when Con Houlihan wrote a piece in the Evening Press (remember that newspaper ?) attacking the appointment, I wrote him a letter telling him he would be shown to be wrong. EIght years later I sent him a copy of that letter reminding him of the error of his ways :D...I remember the Irish Press journalist (Seamus Brennan??) asking, after Charlton mistakingly called Liam Brady, 'Ian Brady' , if there was a Myra Hidley from England he was going to call up. :rolleyes: I liked Charlton a lot although my view of his talents were not as strong as yours. He was however on top of that a great bloke to approach as a fan (as I found in Iceland in 1986) especially compared with Hand. We owe him a lot.

[stojkovic]

I'm too young to remember. Why was Charlton hired in the first place? :confused:
There were about six or eight candidates for the job.
The FAI Executive voted, first round results ;

Bob Paisley - 9
Jack Charlton - 3
Johnny Giles - 3
Others - 7

The 'others' were eliminated from the second round vote and this is what happened ;

Jack Charlton - 9
Bob Paisley - 8
Johnny Giles - 3

Not only were the 'others' votes transferred to Charlton but someone also jumped from Paisley to Jack.

The poll was conducted by Jeb Bush.

The rest, as they say, is history

[geysir]

I think it was to do with being Irish, living in England with an Englishwoman. He always said it was a bit of a racist area anyway. I think he was once accused of being in the IRA. :mad: :o

Thanks for some clarification, There was no context for your remarks, maybe you misinterpreted the post by Lopes.
But why do think a thick kerry accent made the abuse understandable?

Thick kerry accent?
How many times did he say yarrah in the same sentence? ;-)

[geysir]

snip: As the the "rose tinted glasses" someone mentioned, not at all. I was in Bucharest for that game and it was one of our best performances away from home.
I had made the comment about rose tinted spectacles, Maybe you did not read my post so carefully.
I wrote that they had a good game in Romania.
If you strongly think that they had a great game then I might be tempted to have a look at it again.
Rose tinted glasses was in reference to your general comments/post, that it wasn't a bad team just badly missing a striker.
Should I have written "green tinted glasses" :-)

[superfrank]

Thanks for some clarification, There was no context for your remarks, maybe you misinterpreted the post by Lopes.
But why do think a thick kerry accent made the abuse understandable?

Thick kerry accent?
How many times did he say yarrah in the same sentence? ;-)
If you heard it you'd know that hes from Kerry. It was understandable because, with his accent, it was obvious he was Irish.

On reflection it makes no sense, sorry. :o

[OwlsFan]

.If you strongly think that they had a great game then I might be tempted to have a look at it again.
Rose tinted glasses was in reference to your general comments/post, that it wasn't a bad team just badly missing a striker.
Should I have written "green tinted glasses" :-)

Absolutely - it was a cracking performance. If you keep the tapes you should have a look at it. You won't recognize Connolly. He was superb. But the panel excelled itself that day in its slanderous and personal attacks on McCarthy. And when I hear DUnphy attacking the "gutter press" in the UK in a sanctimonius way, it really irritates me the hypocrisy of it when I recall his personal attacks on McCarthy - that day being one of the worst ever. So much so that listeners phoned in to complain and O'Herlihy said it irked him when people complained about "objective" :eek: opinions.

But I digress - because we lost 1-0 (we missed a peno) the game is forgotten about but it was excellent.

[pineapple stu]

Defo 3-2. We went 1up, Alan McLoughlin and then 3-1 down. Two penos I believe for handball against McAteer and Phelan with Hristov getting the third. Cant remember who got one back for us, maybe Connolly.
David Kelly, after a great run past three or four players by Jon Goodman. You have everything else correct.

[superfrank]

You won't recognize Connolly. He was superb.
Did you really mean it to read like this? :D

When was the last time he played, anyone know?

[pineapple stu]

That Australia (or was it Turkey?) friendly? (When he scored a brilliant goal, incidentally)

[superfrank]

That Australia (or was it Turkey?) friendly? (When he scored a brilliant goal, incidentally)
Incidentally, I don't remember. It must've been Australia.

I only remember playing Turkey in Euro play-offs. :mad:

[pineapple stu]

I only remember playing Turkey in Euro play-offs. :mad:
You don't remember the Turkey game?!

We drew 2-2, and they brought on a keeper wh owas so bad that he was subbed off again 15 minutes later! Spilled everything - even hit his own post! Best atmosphere ever at a Lansdowne friendly just mocking him! :p

[superfrank]

I only remember the 1-1 when funnily enough we had to sub our keeper. It was the first time I saw Dean Kiely play for us and, poor chap, first thing he had to do was pick the ball outof the net.

[tetsujin1979]

Connolly started against Switzerland and was substituted for Clinton in the second half - http://www.soccerbase.com/results3.sd?gameid=403581

[pineapple stu]

That was the 2003 game though - I'm sure he played a friendly since...?

[tetsujin1979]

That was the 2003 game though - I'm sure he played a friendly since...?

Not according to soccerbase, although they only record actual appearances, not call ups to the squad, I thought he was involved in the Poland 0-0 game.

[pineapple stu]

Looks like you're right (http://www.soccerbase.com/players_details.sd?playerid=1602) - the Turkey and Australia games were in early 2003...!

[mypost]

Romania were streets ahead even with their limited quality.

Romania were so far ahead in our group, that they qualified for WC '98 in August '97, following our 0-0 draw at home to Lithuania. Our 1-1 draw at home to Romania in October, prevented the Romanians from getting all 30 points from their games in the group. They went on to win their first round group in France, beating England along the way, before losing 1-0 to Croatia in the second round. The team that knocked us out, Belgium, failed to qualify from their group, going out after a 1-1 draw with South Korea in Paris.

Ireland would probably beat both Romania and Belgium now!!! :o

[OwlsFan]

Ireland would probably beat both Romania and Belgium now!!! :o

No, they'd probably draw with them :p :D