When Did You make your Debut
I Don't know if this has been done before. If it has then :o
I'm sure we all remember the first time we saw our clubs in action and feeling it gave us so, I've started this thread to give everyone the chance to relate to the rest of us what it was about your club or the match that hooked you and kept you coming back
I'll Start with my first Bohs game.
The FAI cup saga between Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers in 1994 has probably been the single biggest "Event" in recent LOI history, In media terms anyway. The first 2 games had ended in draws and so it was back to Dalymount for a 2nd replay,the sports pages of the papers and the radio were full of talk of this epic encounter and I'd been supporting "The Bohs" for about a year, as one of my Da's drinking buddies was Dave Henderson (Bohs Keeper and Legend) but had yet to venture to a game. I'd been to Anfield for the first time that year and had seen Hendo and Derek Swan in action for the enemy against both Celtic and Man City a couple of years previously aswell as uncountable Ireland Internationals at Dalymount and Lansdowne, however nothing could have prepared me for the life changing day that was to come.
A friend from school (and now regular Bohs co-attendee)knew I kept an eye out for Bohs results & suggested that we head down to Dalymount to see what all this hype was about. So we boarded the 38 bus and off we went. on arriving in phibsboro and seeing the floodlights illuminated the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end in much the same way as they had when I reached the Shankley gates a few months earlier.on entering the shed I was gobsmacked the place was packed (I seem the recall the official attendance as 13,000 it felt like 10 times that many.)I dont remember too much about the game itself just that we won 1-0 I think it was Tony Cousins that scored but it could easily have been Derek Swan, it made no difference to me as the only player on the pitch I recognised was Hendo...it was all new to me. What I do remember and will take with me to the Grave was the chants and the banter and TBH the raw hatred towards the Rovers. thats what hooked me I spent as much time laughing at the fantastic chants of the Bohs faithfull as I did watching the match (I was a very Impressionable 13 year old at the time)
a favorite was Molly Malone chanting not cockles and muscles but the Boez the Boez. By the second half I had picked up most of the words even if I didn't get the meaning (not been too familiar with rovers and Miltown or the various lineage of the Players) I vividly remember turning to my mate and saying, what have we been missing !! hardly able to believe that this had been going on every friday only a few miles down the road from home.
And so it was that BGR Fell in Love for the first time not with the girl next door(that was a few months away, and incidently we got back together after a 10 year break in 2005) but with 11 men from Phibsboro.
we went back the following week to see Boh's v Limerick City (iirc) to be quite dissapointed, where a week previously there had been 7 or 8,000 packed into the shed now stood 2/300 diehards I didn't care I sang my heart out for the lads because you know what? This is where I belonged, in the wind and the rain not walking alone but singing my heart out with my brethren for my home town Club ..........I've never been back to Anfield after that and probably never will
