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Seeing as we have a thread on the stuff that annoys people.. let's hear the good stuff as well.
That there is generally little real hostility between rival clubs fans.
Brian de Salvo
The way there is always at least one club in full blown soap opera mode
Managers just saying mental stuff
The craic on away buses
Terraces
Mad wee local bars on the way to away games
LOI clubs losing it on social media
And many many more.
The fact that the players talk to you as if you aren't a waste of their time.
My limited experience of EPL players is of being made to feel like a slightly dopey inconvenience that they cant wait to get away from.
I love the community aspect. You see generations of families at games.
The dank
Ew.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr A
Anyways, just to stir trouble, I'll say everyone supporting LoI teams in Europe.
We had Pat's, Rovers and Dundalk fans in Bratislava with us; was great fun and new friends made.
Also sbgawa's point about the players.
Crap grounds that you call a home away from home.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
It is one of my favourite things about the League. Also, when you randomly meet someone else who supports the League and there is this instant connection between you both. Like a LOI Cosa Nostra.
Conor Sammon and Andy Boyle in the Ireland squad.
The font on the back of Tobi Adebayo-Rowling's jersey.
The smell of hash in the shed at Oriel Park
Great thread idea! For me the camaraderie, community aspect of the league is a big thing I love about the league, and is a USP that distinguishes it from supporting a 'big' UK team. Likewise indoctrinating my children, following LoI in Europe etc.
Anyway, silly little things I love:
The floodlights at Dalymount
@HistoryLOI
Bray's seafront location (for now)
UCD's PA guy
Dundalk's jerseys
programmes
original songs... Teenage Kicks, Hold Me Now, Buttercup...
the FAI Cup second round draw
Brian Kerr analysis
Cobh announcing that 'anti-racist behaviour will not tolerated'
First sight of the floodlights as you get close to the ground.
one thing i like is even for all the many many many major flaws with clubs we still support the league. we have plently of excuses not to.
UCD's PA guy passed away, and the FAI Cup 2nd Round draw is now the 1st Round draw!Quote:
Originally Posted by seand
I love that we'll struggle to get to 6 pages of things we love about the league, yet have no problem reaching that for the things that annoy us! :D
I love the excitement of seeing a LOI jersey on someone when living in a far away land (compared to the revulsion of seeing a GAA jersey). Immediate nod of respect and, if its in the pub, enough to start an all night session...
Nice listQuote:
Originally Posted by seand
Bray is a good trip, but i wonder is there a colder place to watch a game in the LOI?
Tallaght's colder with the wind coming down off the mountains, imo.Quote:
Originally Posted by bennocelt
Other little things to love:
sensible squad numbers (very few numbers above low 20s)
the way the Flansiro can look like a proper little football ground if you look at the right angle and squint and ignore the crappy bits
Dundalk FM
the Cat and Cage before a match in Tolka
Harps' new home kit
recategorising the Presidents Cup as a preseason friendly or a crucially important trophy depending on the result
balls going up on the very slightly banked roof in front of the stand in Oriel and rolling off between 5 and 30 seconds later
goal times (the scratch card thing)
half time draws which include breakfast for one in a local café as one of the prizes
Jason Byrne interacting with the crowd
Cork Tom cornering somebody else for a chat
Michael D
Hooperman
the remaining bits of crumbling terrace that hint at what Dalymount must've been 60 years ago
Roddy Collins trailing Roddy Junior around with him
I work with a Pats Fan and a Dundalk fan, I love the way we don't like each other 3 times a year for 90 minutes a time
Even better - no squad numbers.Quote:
Originally Posted by seand
Never knew you felt that way about Tolka.Quote:
Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954
My favourite thing about the league is that first time you walk into your home* ground at the start of the season.
Oh, and asterisks on league tables and elsewhere.
*NB this may change come our transplantation to Baile Phib.
Jason Byrne- his desperation to break the goal scoring record.
PA guys badly pronouncing names
The craic with opposition goalkeepers
Roddy Collins.
Shamrock Rovers Cup specialists.
Drogheda's away section.
Cork City's impeccable disciplinary record.
Moses with his "Plastic Chumps" sign.
Moses with his yellow and red cards.
Kenny Shiels.
Last minute winners.
Being annoyed when one of your players joins a team you dislike, giving them abuse, forgetting everything when they re-join you
A Harps supporters bus or the twilight zone as its sometimes known, the only certainty is something will go wrong the fun part is seeing what it will be!!
Away trips to Sligo
Random conversations with random LOI supporters usually over pints.
The town end terrace at Finn Park the best goal end terrace in the league!
The bar at Cabinteelys ground!
The bar at Dundalk's ground!
Bars at Loi grounds :)
Watching a match at Inchicore!
The grim nod exchanged between myself and a bohs supporter in my local Tesco most nights of the week, we're keeping our distance but acknowledging each other :)
The one bit of solace that I take from any slight injustices is glancing to my right across the CSR to see Moses go absolutely mental. It's great craic.Quote:
Originally Posted by patrickccfc
PA announcers, commentators, analysts, fans, and lots of others saying "Drogheda" when they mean "Dundalk", and vice versa.
Our league being the most unpredictable/volatile in Europe.
The stand/terraces at Inchicore being about a metre from the sideline.
Looking at the old terraces in Dalymount and imagining what it must have been like during those memorable Ireland wins against the USSR etc.
Some Bohs fans taking "stimulants" in the stand and singing "the bohs have no money, all we've got's a bag of pills".
The sound of flares cracking off
I also think when the Drogheda lads sing, "I can Boogie'" is one of the best things I've ever heard
All good stuff.
One of my favourites is that the PA speaker system is Dalymount is by 'Bose'.
The half time draw for breakfast for one was hilarious, reminded me once when the car radio got stuck on LMFM and I couldn't change it, the prize on the sports news that am was 'a box of USA biscuits' almost certain that line was covered in Fr Ted.Quote:
Originally Posted by seand
The random meeting of ex players too is great, I often bump into Martin Lawlor in Dublin and you can hardly get away from him as he wants to know all about DFC. I was walking in central Sydney years ago and guy spotted me at traffic lights the other side, came over and asked me was I a Dundalk fan, it was Joe Hanrahan.
Another great story, a mate worked in London in the 80's, and thought he recognised a guy from Dlk every evening at London Euston train station, so one night he is on the opposite platform, and amidst hundreds of commuters all packed on the platform, he shouts over 'come on the town', the other guy smiles and gives him the thumbs up just before getting on his own train.
Pat Flynn.