Meltdown!

[wallis]

and so it came to pass that despite being in a position to win a home game and make the play-offs , (the same situation we have been in more times than most), the Ireland fans and media finally went into meltdown.

The usual "you'll never beat the irish" attitude and one for all and all for one togetherness that had been the proudest part of Irish football vanished into a series of media attacks, knee-jerk criticism and internal back stabbing.

Some people went quietly, some went out screaming and others just blurted out confused nonsense. "Play the guy who last season was kicking around for an eircom league team". " Drop our top goalscorer for the match where we have to win". "sack the manager for its his fault how the players perform when they walk on the pitch". It was truly disturbing.

Some of the older ones remembered back to previous campaigns. They tried to bring some calm "this is how it always was" they cried, "when have we ever won a group ?" "it was always the play offs for us even when lesser sides were far more sub-standard than they are now". But they were trampled underfoot as the absurd took over and it all spiralled out of control.

The newspaper columns grew bigger, the list of hacks looking to stick the knife increased, the fire was fuelled and the majority of the fans were taken in, assimilated and then pushed back out to regurgitate what the journos had been feeding them. You could sense them baying for blood, almost hoping for failure so that they could print "I TOLD YOU SO - HOW CLEVER AM I" in big letters across their inky toilet paper.

But there was a small pocket of resistance. Still some who believed it was possible , that a victory on Wednesday was not beyond us and that Thursday morning would bring a pleasant hangover and maybe the chance to find out just how you could get to Slovakia with only 4 weeks notice. Despite reports to the contrary the battle still goes on....

October 2005 , when Ireland became the new England.

[zinedineontour]

and so it came to pass that despite being in a position to win a home game and make the play-offs , (the same situation we have been in more times than most), the Ireland fans and media finally went into meltdown.

The usual "you'll never beat the irish" attitude and one for all and all for one togetherness that had been the proudest part of Irish football vanished into a series of media attacks, knee-jerk criticism and internal back stabbing.

Some people went quietly, some went out screaming and others just blurted out confused nonsense. "Play the guy who last season was kicking around for an eircom league team". " Drop our top goalscorer for the match where we have to win". "sack the manager for its his fault how the players perform when they walk on the pitch". It was truly disturbing.

Some of the older ones remembered back to previous campaigns. They tried to bring some calm "this is how it always was" they cried, "when have we ever won a group ?" "it was always the play offs for us even when lesser sides were far more sub-standard than they are now". But they were trampled underfoot as the absurd took over and it all spiralled out of control.

The newspaper columns grew bigger, the list of hacks looking to stick the knife increased, the fire was fuelled and the majority of the fans were taken in, assimilated and then pushed back out to regurgitate what the journos had been feeding them. You could sense them baying for blood, almost hoping for failure so that they could print "I TOLD YOU SO - HOW CLEVER AM I" in big letters across their inky toilet paper.

But there was a small pocket of resistance. Still some who believed it was possible , that a victory on Wednesday was not beyond us and that Thursday morning would bring a pleasant hangover and maybe the chance to find out just how you could get to Slovakia with only 4 weeks notice. Despite reports to the contrary the battle still goes on....

October 2005 , when Ireland became the new England.

dont think were the new england just yet .. just think the 15000 or so who travelled over like myself were disgusted to watch players not showing any passion or commitment ... finnan was a disgrace and didnt make runs for car and looked like he couldnt be arsed .. robbie well nuff said .. i could go on but we still are in with a fighting chance and we should all leave all the bickering till thursday and cheer on the boys tmow .. the need all the help they can get at the mo !