The Galway500

[thelimerick]

Just a quick note to those who don't know yet but we at thelimerick.95mb.com (plug!) are trying to get 500 Lims fans up at the Galway
match, Friday July8th (the match after Dundalk).
The plan is simple. Galway is only a short drive away, if anybody hasn't been
to an away match this season or if your planning to at some stage, then MAKE IT TO THIS MATCH. We get on average 1000 lims supporters to our home matches, EASY. If we manage to get half that to ONE away match this season, we will send out a massive message of intent. It will show Danny Drew that the fans are there to support his efforts, it will show the team that we believe in and support their goals for this season, It will be a statement of INTENT. Imagine 500 of the blue and white army arriving in galway, taking over Terryland, Roaring, Chanting for the blues, drowning out the Galway supporters in their own ground.
Our supporters have been excellent this season. Lets show the entire league of Ireland what Limerick FC is all about. Get cars, buses out to the Davin Arms
Carpark on the Ennis Road at 5 on Friday. If people have no way up, take them up in your cars with you, make room! We leave at exactly 5.30 so be there at 5 sharp. If for no other reason it should be a good laugh!
See thelimerick.95mb.com over the coming week for more details...

[thelimerick]

We'll get all 500 in there if Clohessy's supply a couple of buses (or cars)!

[4tothefloor]

5.30 - Is that not leaving things a bit tight?

[Éanna]

We left at about 3.45 for our cup game and still made it with over half an hour to spare. Just one thing that might be worth considering for ye- seeing as dock road etc is always so busy and Ennis is a nightmare, there is an alternative route, the way we went up. Go out towards nenagh and up through portumna. Ye join the Dublin - Galway road at loughrea. Enjoy :)

0.00 Start out at Limerick,Limerick. Follow signs Dublin N7 In 0.5 miles forward at traffic signals N7 0.00
1.50 Parkway Roundabout. Take 3rd exit In 0.7 mile at roundabout take 2nd exit In 1.1 mile at roundabout forward N7 1.50
2.50 Annacotty. At roundabout forward N7 4.00
2.30 Lisnagry Station (level crossing) N7 6.30
6.00 Birdhill (post office) N7 12.30
9.60 Junction with N52. Branch left (signposted Nenagh, Borrisokane) and at roundabout take 2nd exit N52 N52 21.90
1.00 Junction for Nenagh. At roundabout take 1st exit (signposted Birr, Borrisokane) N52 22.90
1.20 Junction with R494. At roundabout take 2nd exit N52 24.10
0.30 Junction with R495. At roundabout take 2nd exit N52 24.40
1.10 Junction with R497. At roundabout take 1st exit N52 25.50
9.00 Borrisokane. Forward N65 (signposted Portumna) N65 34.50
10.00 Arrive at PORTUMNA N65 44.50
- Section time 1:05, Total time 1:05 - -
0.00 Start out at Portumna,Galway. Follow signs Galway N65 N65 44.50
6.30 Killimor N65 50.80
10.00 Junction with N6. At T-junction turn left N6 N6 60.80
3.30 Loughrea. At end of town branch right (signposted Galway) N6 64.10
7.50 Craughwell N6 71.60
8.70 Junction with N18. At roundabout take 3rd exit N6 80.30
0.60 Junction with N18 (north). At roundabout forward N6 80.90
2.00 Junction with N6(East)/N6(West). At roundabout take 2nd exit N6 82.90
1.00 Junction with R339. At roundabout take 2nd exit N6 83.90
1.10 Junction for Galway City East. At roundabout forward N6 85.00
0.40 Junction with N17. At roundabout take 1st exit R336 (signposted City Centre) R336 85.40
1.00 Junction with N6(East). At roundabout take 2nd exit R336 86.40
0.80 Arrive at Galway R336 87.20

[gspain]

I used to live in ~Galway - best alternative route is out the Corbally road to Broadford then Tulla and you come out south of Gort - same distance.

Great idea btw

[Éanna]

Great idea btw
aw shucks :) anything to help my two favourite first division teams :)

[4tothefloor]

aw shucks :) anything to help my two favourite first division teams :)
I think Gary meant the Galway500 thing is a great idea, not your directions Eanna :D

[Éanna]

I think Gary meant the Galway500 thing is a great idea, not your directions Eanna :D
nonsense :p :D Enjoy anyway, hope ye'll both come up this season

[Conor H]

nonsense :p :D Enjoy anyway, hope ye'll both come up this season
Thanks Eanna :)

[thelimerick]

The Galway500 will still go ahead, despite a match performance by the Lims that provided the most effective advertisement NOT to go, and a rather baffling reaction by Danny Drew to the initative. The aim remains the same; to SUPPORT Limerick FC on the road in numbers, send a message to to our players, fellow supporters and to teams up and down the country. We would urge all true blues to back this initative and be there for this one-off event. Forget about the Dundalk match, this is a move to get a massive number of fans to ONE away match instead of 10-20 here and there. We all go to this one in the knowledge that many others will be there too, roaring on the blues, going home with the points in the bag! Roll on Friday, make the effort, be there...
(For more details visit thelimerick.95mb.com over the coming days)

[Pauliwallnuts]

The Galway500 will still go ahead, despite a match performance by the Lims that provided the most effective advertisement NOT to go, and a rather baffling reaction by Danny Drew to the initative.

You may have your work cut out for you to get 500 after friday.

What was Danny Drews baffling reaction then ??

[thelimerick]

I think we always knew that 500 would be something of a miracle, even before the Dundalk match, but the idea is to get as many fans to show up at one chosen away match out of the season so that the Lims would walk onto an away field with a HUGE reception from the blue and white army.
Granted friday's match was as helpfull as a handshake for a lepper yet the bigger picture of battling for promotion is still there. Obviously it would have been better to go up there on the back of a good string of results but hey, what can you do?

As far as Danny Drew is concerned, lets just say he has a bit of work to do on his people skills!
We were handing out leaflets at the Dundalk match to make Lims fans aware of the initiative when Danny Drew picked up a leaflet only to return moments later to say, " Why aren't you trying to get 500 people in here instead of Galway, **** sake, load of rubbish" and walked off leaving me scratching my head in disbelief. He seems to have missed the point in all of this completely and we hope to have the opportunity to explain it to him soon. We would certainly welcome any comments from him.
It was frankly disapointing considering one of the objectives of all of this is to show support for the teams efforts this season, the staff's efforts and Danny Drew's contribution to the club. How he can object to fans making the effort to support the team away from home is beyond me to be honest.

[joeSoap]

I can understand your reaction to Dannys response to your initiave, but I don't think it should be over played or dragged out and turned into something it isn't. Dannys reaction was, as far as I could read it, largely due to the disappointment of a relatively poor gate af 667 against Dundalk, and was trying to emphasise that its home gates hat we benefit from, and maybe there could be some drives to increase the home gates.

I don't think he was knocking travelling support, and lets face it, on matchdays, he is very passionate and wound up, so I think the whole thing should be put to bed now, before the rumour mill kicks in.

[fc hammer]

maybe if the passengers are dropped and other players are
given a chance to prove themselfs, because at the moment it dos'nt look good!!and if it keeps go'n it wont be long before its back to the same ol diehearts...

[Guitd]

even if yee get 500 Limrick fans da Galway fans will still out do yee in support :p plus Galway will still win so be ready

[4tothefloor]

Well joeSoap, if Danny Drew wants his home gates kept up he's going to have to do something about the $hit football that is on offer as the spectacle he expects people to pay money for. In all honesty, there are premier junior games that are a better standard than some of the stuff I have seen at Hogan Park this season. It's no surprise to see the gates dwindling, and in fact if you go back through match threads from the first 3/4 games of the season, you'll see me and many others expressing concerns about NOC's houllier-esque route one rubbish. The behind-the-scenes fiascos that have taken place has compounded things. You must realise that soccer fans in Limerick are sick of in-fighting and politics, and what has gone on in recent weeks has left a sour taste in the mouth. Same old same. That's your answer.

The solution? Maybe Drew needs to sit down with the manager and management team and find out why better players than some of those being played week-in-week-out have left the club this season. I think it's a fair question to ask and a situation that needs to be rectified. The real problem is not the results on the pitch - we're not expecting miracles here. The problem is what is going on behind the scenes. That is what has pi$$ed everyone off. That is why the crowds are dwindling, even though we are up near the top of the table. The sooner you and others at the club realise this, the better. It's baffling to me. Those involved in an official capacity with the club must be either blind or haven't a clue about football. But carry on as ye are, and as someone has already mentioned, ye'll be down to the die hards again in another few months. Danny Drew has a reputation as being a very shrewd business man. Well we'll see how shrewd he really is over the next few months, because at the moment Stevie Wonder would pick a better side than NOC.

As for Drews reaction to the Galway 500 drive - I agree that he completely missed the point of the whole thing. To me his reaction is that of someone who is not a real football fan, but someone who's first priority is making money. Nothing wrong with that, but lets call a spade a spade here lads.

Where's Willie John when you need him..... :rolleyes: :D

[sadloserkid]

There's no rumour mill doing the rounds here for once JoeSoap. But as I happened to be standing next to Danny Drew when he chastised JohnD about the Galway500 idea and his words were something to the effect of...

'That's a stupid idea. It's just handing Galway money. Then they can go out and buy a player. Why don't we just give them Robbie Kelleher?'

Would he prefer is we didn't go to any away games? It was a stupid reaction from Danny, one that I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for and assume that it was a heat of the moment thing but one that looking at it in the cold light of day was indefensible. Criticising his own support for attempting to raise the clubs profile?

And it's all well and good for him to say that these supporters should be out dragging people to Hogan Park but most of the people up there have dragged friends up on a semi-regular basis. I met a friend's brother whose mates had persueded him to pay a visit on Friday night. I can't imagine Gareth will be rushing back to be honest.

Far more than the fans it's the clubs job to maximise attendaces at Hogan Park. As it stand it seems to be a couple of members of the supporters club who are trying to poster the town but this is something that I think could make a difference if there was a big push made. The increased attendances this year are a credit to the club and are down mostly I would imagine to the verious schemes the club have instigated like improving relations with the Limerick Leader, bringing kid's teams in (are they out of season or was their another reason for this not happening Friday night?) and the free buses from the county (though again this could have been advertised much more strongly). It would be a shame for anybody to throw in the towel at the first sign of waning attendance. But with prices going up as well the club is going to have to allow for the fact that people aren't going to happily watch football like the other nights. I'll always be there. So will the other 150 or so who stood morosely in Pike for the last two years but the people who appeared earlier in the season... they expect a little more value for their money (and they won't find it in our programme which may be the most expensive in the Division but isn't so much better than the others that it justifies the price. And yes I have bought one at every match so far).

Overall I think people are in danger of throwing the baby out with the bathwater here. Sure attendance have slipped but they're still not poor by this divisions standards, especially allowing for the fact that our recent form is patchy. So I don't think there's any need for panic. If Noel O'Connor is the manager Danny Drew touts him as this will just be a blip on our form chart and the crowds will swell again as soon as the results pick up again...

[Aaron GUFC]

Fair play to you if you can manage gettin anywhere near 500 fans goin to galway Its apity we normally cant get more than 18 : (

[Conor H]

lol but our 18 makes more noice than many home teams do ;)
Exactly! ;)

[Aaron GUFC]

Ihave to say i am proud to be part of the usual 18 or so :cool: even tough my troat does be absolutely wrecked after a full 90 mins..... and a bit of top of my lungs chanting :mad: and im sure u two are too (vinny and conor haych!)

[sadloserkid]

But why not organise a Hogan Park 1000 for home games-and bring a friend.

Because we've been trying to do that all along maybe? Maybe if the club advertised their games a little better around the city they might have a bigger home gate.

I have nothing at all to do with the Galway500 but I'm absolutely staggered by the amount of griping that people are throwing at it. Are people really suggesting that we should only attend home matches rather than finance other clubs..

If we want to stop handing advantages to other clubs there's other ways to do it too. We could drop Can't Pass for starters...

[4tothefloor]

We could drop Can't Pass for starters...
Poor old CP gets it again :D

[LFC in Exile]

thats €5000 for the Tribesmen and FA for Lim FC

Except support for the players and a better chance of three points. :ball:

[deise deserter]

TheLimerick:

You're a disgrace!!!!

Imagine wanting to support our team away from home. What's with that? Lets blanket ban coming to home games too. I'm sure the 500 that we hope will go away to support Limerick NEVER come to see our home games. I'm sure thay are completely separate crowds......

:rolleyes:

Danny Drew/Willy John/Whatever you're posting as this week: You really would want to apologise to the organiser if you want to retain any sembalance of professionalism when this is over. We can all agree that NOC isn't the best people person but I bet even he is appalled at your carry-on. Just think of how management and players view your actions - you're knocking people who are willing to use their Friday evenings to go up to Galway to help support a team who without being callous really need that support to encourage them after the recent debacles.

[thelimerick]

Fair play to ALL Lims supporters who were at the match on Friday. Especially those who wouldn't normally make it to an away match. There was never really much of chance of getting 500 but to get a few more heads there to support the blues on the road was still a positive. It's a pity that the Galway500 idea became a bone of contention to some, i don't understand it myself. Geting blues fans to show up bigtime for the lads out on the pitch at an away ground should be about SUPPORT not concerns over money. This was the first incentive of many not a one-off. Danny Drew and-or "samuel" needs to understand this. We are supporters, we support our team, we have supported our team, we will continue to do so. We make no apologies for that.