Henderson said in the paper that day that he'd have taken a replay if he could...
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I would have taken a draw too,better than losing, obviously :D, but its the last thing we would have needed.
Few pics here, pretty funny:
http://btid.net/forums/index.php?/to...s/page__st__40
Its a bit of a late posting from yours truly but I havent posted since Thursday.. I want to congratulate Sligo Rovers on getting to the Cup final.. I spent three wonderful years in the mid nineties and was living there just after them winning the cup! I work with Rovers fans ,socialise with them and I would like to think a lot of them are my best mates in football! Really looking forward to jumping on board the bus in Longford and I hope I am invited to the celebrations!!:D Best wishes to the Forza crew it was your support that has brought the club to the Fai Cup final..:D
took this from your message board
its a bit over the top.Quote:
Dear MNS,
I'm just dropping a line to you about the outrageous treatment of the Waterford United fans, who traveled for upwards of 5 hours to see their team in the Showgrounds in Sligo last Friday night.
I and many of the other fans still feel victimised, feel as if we were made out to be trouble-makers, yobs and were only there to cause trouble and not support our team. We were fully entitled to segregated away section, and this was simply not provided. I have to say well done to our own security man Mark Dunne, without who's presence, the situation could have got a lot worse. We suffered nothing less than abuse from certain sections of the Sligo fans, purely because we felt it necessary to stand out ground. I'm sorry that some of the Sligo fans couldn't see the match properly, all we wanted to do was stick together and sing a few songs, which was not a big ask, and this was Sligo Rovers fault.
We would like a full apology from Sligo Rovers and in fact we would like a full refund, as they could not provide seating for us, which we paid for, this one indecent tarnished what was a great day, and left us with a sour taste in our mouth about Sligo, which is a lovely town with lovely people.
Yours sincerely,
I agree, 2 things to point out aswwell.
1) We werent making them out to be yobs or hooligans, it was simply bad managament of seating arrangements and even everyone here can agree it was a major **** up on our part.
2)I dont see how not getting a segregated seating area can leave you with a sour taste in your mouth about Sligo, I know the person who wrote this then said its a lovely town with lovely people, but leaving you with a sour taste in your mouth about Sligo ? please, its not as if ye had fans subject to racial abuse or were physically attacked by fans. Just get on with life, we admit it was a major **** up on the night, but the talking was done on the pitch and thats all that mattered, ye brought up a team who were capable of bringing a replay back to Waterford and were unlucky not to hold out for a 0-0 draw.
to be honest i can see both points of view. if i was sitting where the sligo support was and ye were blocking my view i would fooking ye out of it and also if i travelled the length the waterford fans did and realised i couldnt even get to see the game properly i would be rightly ****ed off. but ye have to remember it was a cup semi final and everyone knew the ground would be packed so you chose to drink in mooneys till ten mins before kick off...... come on that was as bad planning as the sligo stewards giving away your seats !!! at the end of the day its bad planning and management from sligo towards you seating being given away but equally your own fault for not being in the ground in sufficent time !!! next time do a little less boozing and ye will get a seat no problem. remember fans of football go to the games for the football on show not the pints on draught
http://waterford-united.ie/tp_news/t...ing-blue-army/
Quote:
It must be said that the directors and management committee were disturbed, to say the least of it, to see the way our fans were treated on the night. A full investigation will be conducted into the incidents before and during the game, and letters of complaint are being sent both to Sligo Rovers FC and to the FAI over the inability of the host club to provide suitable space and seating for the travelling fans, and club officials, and the totally unnecessary unpleasantness that ensued from this.
the club contacted waterford regarding numbers travelling up to the game., something like 96 tickets were sold in waterford. the game was an all ticket affair and waterford fans clearly came up without tickets.
the club asked waterford how many tickets were sold, no more than 100, yet about 200 fans turned up.
i know that end was meant to be held for away supporters, the very end of the red stand. whatever happened on the night it obviously didnt happen. and thats the clubs fault, yes. was there no waterford fans seated at all? i thought it was just the excess ones that wernt and about 100 seats were sectioned off for them
I wrote that letter, that later appeared on Monday Night Football, so it obviously wasn't over the top, if it merited an appearance on MSN, and SEVERAL were written.
1) You mightn't have made us out to be hooligans or Yobs, but that is how we felt. On more than one occasion one or two of our fans were approached very aggressively in the early stages and before kick off. It was a major **** up on Sligo's behalf, and we want an apology.
2) We weren't racially abused, that would be silly considering we're all Irish! But we were verbally abused by several people near us, on both sides of the area we occupied and yes, were were physically attacked, nothing major, as it was quelled quickly enough by your ground staff and the present gardai. This is what's leaving a sour taste in my mouth! Plus the fact that it is UEFA rules that stipulate we MUST have a segregated area, so at the end of the day it's the principle of the thing.
All I can say is you're lucky we are not Shamrock Rovers or Bohs!
As for the, "you should have come into the ground earlier" argument, you obviously don't go to many away matches!?!? We shouldn't have had to go in early because there should have been an area ready for us to for in at any time. Also, a point of fact, I was in there 30 minutes before the game and our spot was taken, even then!
You're MC have accepted responsibility for this mess, all we want is an apology!
20 mins to GO!!.....within the first 10 mins. you could see Waterford players very slowly going to take throw in etc.. they were looking for draw from the first whistle...a horrible way to send a team out to play...they got what thet deserved...ironicly the played the better football in the first half.
I know the club were at fault, but anybody think Waterford would not be complaining as much if they had beaten us on Friday night, and were now in a cup final? There has to be a lot of sour grapes here, asking for a refund after the game? :D , should have done it that night while in the ground surely, just seems all seems a little bitter now considering there club probably got the biggest gate receipts of the year or many the year off us.
Also this craic of saying Sligo Rovers fans should be ashamed of themselves ! bringing 93 fans to a cup semi final now that something to be shameful off.
get over it, its over now and ye failed to beat us. thats the long and short of it .ye are out of the cup whether or not ye got seats. i think everyone on the forum feels for ye and wished that it had not happened. any football fan would symptatise with ye as having no seat is scandalous but i was in the ground 50 mins before kick off and struggled for a seat. as i have said before ye were too interested in boozing in mooneys than worrying bout getting a seat. everyone knew the ground was gonna be packed and ye chose to stay outta the ground until 10 mins before kick off. next time ye come up and play us i promise we will round up a few lads with little violins to play a tune for ye. ye got your few mins of fame on mns now keep writing letters to who ye want but this thread was set us by rovers fans on the semi final but ye have turned it into the cry babies section, pick up yer dummy and get over it
All our fans on here have apologised for ye not getting a seat-we are not proud of it but it happened. i think if ye have nothing more to add on the match, there is no more input required from waterford fans on this thread.
What do you want us fans to do - have a whip around and get 93 x 15 euro.
your club were very lucky to get to a semi final against sligo rovers .
what was 35% of the gate in fingal last sunday.
93 is what was sold before the game. There was atleast 200 there. Now don't go on about oh ye should og gotten your tickets before hand because that's ridiculous. We were allocated 200 tickets which to me means we have a section in the ground which is sectioned off giving us 200 seats regardless of how many show up. It's not a case of sour grapes. Ye won the match fair and square and throughout the course of the competiton are well worth your place in the final.
To be fair if that's the case then how could we know what size away section to put in place for you so? When your club sells 93 tickets and they don't know that over half the rest of you travel without tickets? You handed back all but 93 of your tickets by the way.
O.K fair enough if that is the case. Where were our 93 allocated seats then?
Well done to everybody associated with Sligo Rovers and Waterford United for their contribution to what was a fantastic advert for the League of Ireland. Managed to watch it on Sunday night and everything from the football to the atmosphere was truly magical.
Haven't seen Raf Cretaro in action in a couple of years but his control is fantastic and that ball sticks to his feet.
Good luck in the final.
Fair play to ya boy, nice commnets
The segregation issue kind of takes away from the fact that there was over 5,000 people at the game.
The FAI will no doubt be tripping over themselves to fine us, as this is what they do best, that and helping clubs out of holes they have dug themselves into, due to sheer fiancial mismangement.
Maybe if they took a step back they'd see that there are clubs like ours that have huge potential. Perhaps these are the clubs that they really should be helping.
Given it was a 5 hour drive to Sligo, for a match kicking off at 7.35 on a Friday evening, we did ok at what I still maintain was about 200 people, people have jobs!
If the FAI had of done the sensible thing and switched it with the Fingal/Bray match on Sunday would have been a LOT more! But this is the FAI, after all!
It's nothing to do with sour grapes , this kicked off before the match did!
For the record, I hope Sligo go on to win it now, I do like Sligo, spent a while there a few years back, helped set up Homebase, some craic and the people are grand, lovely women there! As well as that, no-one likes Fingal!!
See you's next year, I'm sure!
When we played Derry in the semi final a couple of seasons ago the FAI cut back the permitted attendance numerous time and eventually allowed the club to sell 5100 tickets. Now I am totally depending on my very dodgy memory here but I think the Railway terrace way more packed Friday night than against Derry and I’m not sure if there was anyone allowed at the old shed end Terrace for the Derry game. And yes we know the main stand holds 1800 but we also know there was an extra 98 in there.
My guess is that there was over 6000 at Friday nights game.
Hi.:rolleyes:
The 5,000 figure I mentioned was taken from The Sligo Weekender (27/10/09)
"The official turnout in the Sligo Showgrounds for the Ford FAI Cup semi final between Sligo Rovers and Waterford United was 5,100"
Todays Sligo Champion also gives the same figure.
Sorry mate but there is no way there was 6000 there the other nite. Against Derry in 06 the shed end and shed end terrace were both open and full. The terrace on the shed side was split half-way for Derry fans iirc. I think the official attendance that day was 5500 with the ground mostly full around. i would guess that there would have been 1500 on shed side that game compared to about 200 so i would hazard a guess at about 4400.
On a more positive note there was probably more Rovers fans there on Friday than the other semi coz id say Derry brought between 2000-2500 that day!!
Well I certainly bow to your more detailed breakdown of the figures involved, which unfortunately I am struggling to fully follow so I am tending to rely on my wholly unscientific theory that if there was 5100 at the Derry semi final then there was way more at last Friday nights match.
Anyway we both agree that it was fantastic to see such a huge crowd in the showgies and 99% of them Rovers fans and just think if the match was not live on the telly there could have been another thousand looking to get in.
All this talk of figures and attendances bores me!