... a week later and I would have been there. Would I have been the only UCD fan present, or did anyone make a trip to the frozen North?
It had to happen when I had money on UCD. Had to.
Handful of UCD fans at the match, fair play for making the trip and even helping create a bit of noise. Not very often we get singing away supporters in these parts so it was good to hear the UCD lads making an effort.
Good luck with the rest of the season lads
p.s. Good work with the fanzine as well
UCD went down to their first defeat of the season with a surprisingly spineless defeat to promotion rivals Harps with only Hugh Davey and Seán Finn coming out with any credit. It would be easy - and indeed partly appropriate - to blame external factors such as the pitch and the referee, but the bottom line is that Harps wanted the win more and in the end about deserved it.
The pitch, it must be said, was appalling, especially for its first outing of the season, and UCD's usual passing game was disrupted as a result of the many bobbles, which evidently unsettled the team, many of whom (especially in defence) were nervy throughout. While admittedly Harps' first game of the season was called off due to storms and flooding, I wouldn't like to see the state of the pitch when we return north in September!
Harps settled quicker and their left-winger in particular impressed, getting past Pat Sullivan at ease. However, the final ball was invariably poor - only once did Harps get in an effort from a cross in the 90 minutes, and a tame second half Kevin McHugh header never troubled Neil Gallagher in the UCD goal. And when Harps went for a low cross, their traditional toothlessness up front came back to haunt them as UCD cleared with ease. The best action of the opening half saw a Harps player volley goalwards from 18 yards only for Pat Sullivan to get in an exceptional block.
The only goal of the game came on 38 minutes - McHugh was given the freedom of Finn Park by Mick O'Donell, Rob McAuley and Alan McNally in turn as he ran into the penalty area before finishing well into the bottom corner.
UCD dominated the rest of the half and should have been level two minutes later as James Gallagher, not for the first time, came to the edge of box and decided to kick clear instead of catching the ball; on this occasion, the ball bobbled under his foot,leaving Robbie Martin with an open goal 10 yards out, but he delayed and was well tackled at the expense of a corner. Two minutes later, he was threatening again whengetting the ball six yards out, but as he turned, the ball was nicked off his toe by a defender; the referee overruled hid linesman and gave a goal-kick. And two minutes later again, Gallagher got down well to turn away a Seán Finn drive.
Half-time offered a respite to Harps, and the second half was much more comfortable for them than the end of the first had been. As the rain started to lash down, the chances were fewer, but UCD should have had a penalty around the hour mark when Pat Sullivan burst into the box only to be taken out. Both the linesman, who was right beside the incident, and the referee missed it, and bizarrely, when the ball ran for Seán Finn, it ran a couple of inches out of play before he got his cross in, but no goal kick was given, indicating that the linesman must have been watching the challenge at least momentarily, but he kept his flag down.
This wasn't the first time Sullivan was in the wars - along with Rob McAuley, he required treatment in the first half, and he was to have the physio on once more in the second half before finally coming off to be replaced by Brian Newguy. Incredibly, not one of the challenges drew a yellow card from the ref - indeed, two didn't even get free-kicks!
Shortly afterwards, Seán Finn had a chance with meeting a clearance with a trademark volley, but the Harps defence blocked it away.
With ten minutes to go, Robbie Martin found himself clear in the penalty area, but was seemingly pulled back when shooting - again, the referee ignored the penalty claim. Martin required treatment after the incident and was subbed off shortly afterwards.
Overall, Harps played the better football, but the physical challenges which went unchecked, along with the blatant time-wasting tactics of the keeper (who was warned at least once by the ref) took away from the win. For UCD, the performance mirrored more the last ten minutes of the Athlone game than the preceding 170 minutes of the season, with very few 50-50 challenges being won and fairly little being created. The pitch seemed to unsettle the players a lot, and the general consensus would be that the three points are there for the taking when the teams meet on the immaculate Belfield Park surface.
And to cap off a miserable weekend, our "Pay Up Ollie" flag was ordered down by the Harps security while I ended up in Letterkenny Casualty after picking up a quarter-inch deep cut in my hand after falling while running into the pub out of the rain!
Incidentally, on the Harps forum, it says their chairman and our chairman objected to the flag. Don't know where they're getting that from, but the only UCD official at the game was Maccer and he arrived late, so certainly had no input into the flag coming down.
I used to go to Finn Park most seasons, for the Finn Harps V UCD fixture and to be fair Finn Harps fans are always glad the travelling support arrived there, being they are geographically somewhat out on a limb.
My best memory is the day we won 4-0 in Finn Park back in 1987/88 season.
There were 4 UCD Fans in the ground that day. We joked with the players afterwards that they scored a goal for each of us. Our record overall at Finn Park is not brilliant though.
My last visit there we got tonked 5-1, and I had a car with a blown cylinder at the time, which I had to nurse back to Dublin . I have not been back since. It is an awfully long way home after a defeat. Plus now Harps play on Fridays it involves time off work etc and I only started in a new job last Monday , so I missed the game. I may get to the second away fixture however depending on how things look at that time of the season
Pity you couldn't make it, a good trip apart from pineapple's swan dive! 4 of us headed up and did our best to make ourselves heard. The game was disappointing though, a very bumpy pitch didn't suit the passing game we were trying to play. Harps' attempts to take Sullivan out and the referee ignoring two penalties didn't do us any good either. Three points from the away games against Harps and Bray is a decent start though so we should be able to stay up at the top of the table.Originally Posted by Quack
We're not arrogant, we're just better.
The teams take up more space than the report.From the indo on Saturday
FINN HARPS 1
UCD 0
KEVIN McHUGH, who has just recovered from dental surgery, showed enough bite to fire home a 35th minute winner for Finn Harps in last night's first division clash in Ballybofey.
HARPS - J Gallagher; Asokuh, Minnock, Boyle, Ferry; Mohan, Lloyd, McGrenaghan, Bonner (Connolly 90); McHugh, Friars.
UCD - N Gallagher; Sullivan (Gannon 69), Davey, McAuley, McNally; McDonnell, McWalter, Boyle (Foley 74), Martin; Finn, O'Donnell (Kenna 82).
REF - T Kelly (Westmeath).
We're not arrogant, we're just better.
Be happy that we even get a report in the first division.The teams take up more space than the report.
If we could get some real coverage of the Premier, I wouldn't be too bothered by the lack of it for the first.
You can't spell failure without FAI
What the hell's a swan dive?!?!
(And yes, I do remember the incident!)
Think of Klinsmann's goal celebrations when with Spurs.
We're not arrogant, we're just better.
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