Shamrock Rovers v Brazil (The Blizzard magazine)

For anyone interested, the latest issue of The Blizzard has an article on this game.

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Shamrock Rovers v Brazil - At the height of the Troubles, a united Ireland side took on the world champions and nearly won

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https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/product/issue-twenty/

You can download the entire magazine on a pay-what-you-like basis, starting from £0.01.

Shamrock Rover XI ie the All-Ireland project. Always felt sorry for Dougan being dumped by the IFA after even if he was nearing the end of his career. Did any of the other Northern Ireland players involved play international football again or was he the fall guy?

Pat Jennings did alright for himself after that game. Not to mention the current ROI manager (and a few others)

Yeah, Brian Hamilton also played in the game if I recall correctly, and he went on to manage the North, so in this instance at least I don't think the IFA were acting the maggot too much (although, again to the best of my recollection, it was opposition from Harry Cavan which lead to the team having to play under the Shamrock Rover banner rather than be billed as an all Ireland team.)

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Originally Posted by TonyD

Yeah, Brian Hamilton also played in the game if I recall correctly, and he went on to manage the North, so in this instance at least I don't think the IFA were acting the maggot too much (although, again to the best of my recollection, it was opposition from Harry Cavan which lead to the team having to play under the Shamrock Rover banner rather than be billed as an all Ireland team.)

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Harry Cavan was a rather unreconstructed character, shall we say. In otherwords - he was a feckin' bigot :)

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Originally Posted by TonyD

Yeah, Brian Hamilton also played in the game if I recall correctly, and he went on to manage the North, so in this instance at least I don't think the IFA were acting the maggot too much (although, again to the best of my recollection, it was opposition from Harry Cavan which lead to the team having to play under the Shamrock Rover banner rather than be billed as an all Ireland team.)

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correct Bryan hamilton played that night..

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Originally Posted by TonyD

Yeah, Brian Hamilton also played in the game if I recall correctly, and he went on to manage the North, so in this instance at least I don't think the IFA were acting the maggot too much (although, again to the best of my recollection, it was opposition from Harry Cavan which lead to the team having to play under the Shamrock Rover banner rather than be billed as an all Ireland team.)

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Fair enough. Much of the reading or stories ive heard seemed to imply Dougan was punished by not being called up again. Other players mentioned would have been too good to consider dropping no matter what was thought of them for taking part. But of course it could simply a dose of finding something to be critical of the IFA in some quarters rather than Dougan simply not being considered good enough anymore.

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Originally Posted by Nesta99

Fair enough. Much of the reading or stories ive heard seemed to imply Dougan was punished by not being called up again. Other players mentioned would have been too good to consider dropping no matter what was thought of them for taking part. But of course it could simply a dose of finding something to be critical of the IFA in some quarters rather than Dougan simply not being considered good enough anymore.

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Oh I'm not saying that deefinitely wasn't the case. He was one of the principal organisers, and I suppose the IFA would have been completely cutting off their nose to spite their face by excluding the likes of Jennings, O'Neill and Hamilton. On the other hand Dougan was about thirty five i think, so was coming to the end of his career anyway and was more expendable if they wanted to pick a scapegoat. I think we can all agree about Harry Cavan alright.

My first international game to attend was some adventure travelling to Dublin and seeing the Brazilian team that had enthralled me during the 1970 World Cup . It got me hooked and been following Ireland since as well as getting me interested in loi where I went to games in Athlone before Galway rovers joined the league. Great game terry Conroy really shone .