Eamonn Sweeney
.....
I used to hate Shamrock Rovers. And I wasn't alone in this. In every town with a League of Ireland club Shams were public enemy number one. Long before ABUs were heard of, most followers of domestic soccer were ABSRs.
They were the team you loved to beat, largely because they were the team which usually beat you. In the 1960s, the great Hoops team of the time played my club Sligo Rovers.
Sligo missed an open goal in the first minute, Shams went on to win 7-0. After the game Liam Touhy, who I think had scored a hat-trick, was asked if the game might have turned out differently had Sligo scored that first chance. "It would have," he's reputed to have said, "we would have won 7-1." We chafed under their domination, resented what we saw as their arrogance.
So why am I not delighted this morning? Shams have been relegated for the first time in their history after losing a play-off to Dublin City.
I should have leaped from my bed and sang, "Can you hear the Shams boys sing? We can't hear a f***ing thing." But I didn't. Because the relegation of the one time kingpins of Irish soccer is just one more step in the horrible decline of a great club. We are all diminished by their failure.
Incidentally I must apologise for my use of the word 'Shams', which I know bugs the life out of the club's fans. But it's part of my culture, as far as I'm concerned there's only one Rovers. After all, who's the Premier Division club here? Sorry, a brief reversion to type there.
I was there the day the Hoops began their slide into oblivion. An outsider wouldn't have seen the doom clouds gathering on the horizon, the club were chasing a League and Cup double at the time, an assignment they successfully completed. But those of us who were at the FAI Cup semi-final between Sligo Rovers and Shamrock Rovers did have a feeling that a mighty era was coming to an end.
That was the day when Glenmalure Park, Milltown finally closed for business. Within a couple of years there were houses on what had been one of the great Irish sporting venues and Shamrock Rovers were forced to become football refugees, flitting from place to place like disinherited White Russians fleeing the October Revolution.
The heart and soul was ripped out of Shamrock Rovers that day and, though there have been moments of revival, it has been largely downhill since. The Hoops became just one more struggling League of Ireland team until, on Friday night, the extent of their decline was made horribly obvious.
The irony is that the team which played in that 1-1 draw back in 1986 was one of the finest to represent the club, one of the best the League has seen. Pat Byrne, Noel Larkin, Mick Byrne, Peter Eccles, Mick Neville, they were names to conjure with on the local scene. They had been brought to the club by the great Jim McLaughlin but, in that final season, they were managed by Dermot Keely, a fearsome centre-back in the Chopper Harris mould transformed into a boss of considerable substance.
That it was Keely who was at the helm of the Dublin City team which relegated Rovers (OK, I give in) is perhaps the unkindest cut of all. Keely was only at Dublin City because of his outrage at what happened last season when his old club poached Roddy Collins, then manager of City.
It was short-termism, it was cheap and it was nasty and Rovers did it in the name of staying in the top flight. How silly that reasoning looks now. Collins wasn't even in the dug-out for the play-off games; the club had suspended him.
Someone like Keely would have kept them up but Rovers are ace marksmen when it comes to shooting themselves in the foot. (They would have been safe had they not been deducted eight points for off the field irregularities, something which would normally elicit sympathy had it not seemed like just one more episode in the sorry saga.)
To see the Hoops ending up like this is akin to seeing a hero of your youth reduced to panhandling in a bus station. Because when they were good, no-one matched them for glamour and accomplishment in this country.
The six-in-a-row Cup-winning team of 60s set a record which will never be beaten. That team, of Touhy, Frank O'Neill, Johnny Fullam, Paddy Mulligan, Mick Leech and David Pugh, was good enough to come within a few minutes of a place in the Cup Winners Cup semi-final before a late Gerd Muller goal for Bayern Munich denied them.
The Johnny Giles experiment of the late 70s was not successful, but it's impossible to think of him at any other League of Ireland club. No-one else had the cachet.
It would be tempting to turn the decline and fall of the club into some kind of moral tale embodying a similar weakening of the league at large. But what must be most galling is that as Rovers have waned, other clubs have risen.
Once poor relations, Shelbourne and St Pat's, have made the opposite journey to their former superiors. But, try as they might, Shelbourne will never have the same magic about them as Shamrock Rovers. Money can't buy tradition. Tradition can, however, be tarnished by incompetence.
The spectre which has always haunted the big Dublin clubs is that of Drumcondra, the giant felled for good in the 60s. Shams look increasingly like Drums as the years go by (and not just because they're regularly beaten).
It took a considerable anti-talent to reduce them to their current state but the root cause of all their troubles is the move from Milltown. It's been sad to see them move from ground to ground, perpetual nomads.
You can almost hear that old Ewan McColl song about Travellers playing, the one with the chorus of, 'Get along, move along, go, move, shift.' It has been no way for a club to try and get by.
I remember back in 1994 when Sligo played Shams in a big cup tie in the RDS, the visiting fans eliciting a great deal of ire from the ostensible home support by singing, "You're **** and you have no ground."
The first part of the chant was unfair, the second undeniable. Whatever happens to Sligo, they always have The Showgrounds, as Dundalk have Oriel Park and Bohs have Dalymount. Pats spent a few years in exile in Harold's Cross but returned revitalised to Richmond Park.
But, nearly 20 years after being put out on the road, the one time kings are still wandering the highways and byways.
There are clubs which the Premier Division can do without, the likes of UCD, Bray Wanderers, Dublin City and Longford Town, who draw from the same pool of Dublin players and have little organic local support.
But it can't do without Shamrock Rovers. A home game against Shams was the biggest league match every season for Sligo, we've been robbed of that big day for the moment and so have the other clubs. That's a pity.
There may be tougher times to come for the faded aristocrats. Division One can be a bit like a crack habit, easy enough to fall into but pure hell to get out of. Next season, every club will be looking to take a scalp they can never have expected to be on offer, and it will take a good manager to motivate players for those trips to Kilkenny, Cobh and Monaghan.
Limerick and Athlone know just how hard it is to get out of the dead zone and the debilitating effect of a prolonged stay. The Premier Division won't be the same without those lads in the green and white jerseys strutting on to the pitch as if they were doing everyone else a favour by turning up.
Jimmy Dunne wore that jersey, so did Paddy Coad, Paddy Ambrose, Alan Campbell, Liam Buckley, Jacko McDonagh, Ray Treacy, it wasn't designed for trips to Monaghan and Cobh.
Rovers are at rock bottom now and the options are recovery or death.
I hope they recover. It amazes me, but I really do.
Particulary love the bit about us being the only rovers, after all we are the premier division team
[QUOTE=shedhead
There are clubs which the Premier Division can do without, the likes of UCD, Bray Wanderers, Dublin City and Longford Town, who draw from the same pool of Dublin players and have little organic local support. [/QUOTE]
Thats a bit rich. Might as well have added his home town to that list too. I didn't notice any nationwide outcry while Sligo were outside the top flight.
no you didnt but every eircom league fan wants us in the Premier.
? WhyOriginally Posted by The Stars
Wonder how may Sligo fans will make the trip down to the Carlisle on a Friday night next year? Doubt there will be many, but hopefully I'll be proved wrong. On a possitive note congratulations on getting promoted. Looking forward to a trip up to your gaff next year.
I'd love to invent a time machine then go back in time and win the lottery, buy new players and a stadium. Time machines are brilliant aren't they- Ian Holloway
150 would be my guess..depends really
because we are a big club and we are too big for the 1st division,simialr to the way people dont want shams down there
5 years and people forget about you..like leeds now even though its only been 2...
Like I said hope I'm proved wrong!
I'd love to invent a time machine then go back in time and win the lottery, buy new players and a stadium. Time machines are brilliant aren't they- Ian Holloway
i dont agree with the whole "too big for the first divison" thing at all. i mean you get to the first division because you have a crap team and you dont get out of it cos you have a crap team . we were crap for 5 years so we didnt deserve to be in it . now we are back and we deserve to be back cos we were the best team in the first division
Agreed, no club is too big. They didn't fulfil the license requirements they even went further and cooked the books, so good luck to them.
However I am glad to see the 400 club are now in control and this sort of thing won't happen again. Good luck to them in the future I don't think there survival plan really will be affected even if they are in the first div. It will be a long road, good start unloading the ****e before next season.
Bye Bye Roddy....
It's only just begun...............
If the last 21 years were class, here's looking forward to the next 21 years. It is our time
think he speaks for everyoneEamonn Sweeney
.....
it's part of my culture, as far as I'm concerned there's only one Rovers. After all, who's the Premier Division club here? Sorry, a brief reversion to type there.
Particulary love the bit about us being the only rovers, after all we are the premier division team
Good article and well balanced overall except for the part about being too big for the division. It's a pity he went off and sort of reinvented himself after the excellent "There's Only One Red Army", by writing that GAAah book though! Maybe it's just me but it kind of takes away from it a bit.
Last edited by Mayo Red; 28/11/2005 at 7:29 PM.
The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.
Muhammad Ali
Roy Keane is still a pri*k!
Have to remember that we only got a relatively small local area to get fans from (mainly the bray-shankill area) with the likes of shels around. Agree though we'll probably only have about 30 at the VERY most unfortunatelyI know that there will be a lot more of us down there and than you up with us for the return !. But those of us who do make the trip will make as much noise as possable
I'd love to invent a time machine then go back in time and win the lottery, buy new players and a stadium. Time machines are brilliant aren't they- Ian Holloway
population of bray is 30000. sligo town is 18000.
"Even if the sun ceases to rise, Even if the sea ceases to flow, Even if the wind stops to blow, The name of Sligo Rovers will shine and shine forever like the morning, glinting star in the sky."
Sligo is not on the Main Dart & Suburban rail link to the biggest City in Ireland - Bray has trouble losing fans to the big Dublin Clubs, think thats the point
In fairness, it's not hard for ye to get the train to Sligo. The dart goes from Bray to Connolly Station and then get the train to Sligo and yer away
.
Life without Rovers, it makes no sense...it's a heartache...nothing but a fools game. S.R.F.C.
All Smiles now yis are back up
I wonder does Eamonn Sweeney come onto this site, i dont recall seeing him around the showgies last season either.
pretty sure he was standing in front of me in turner's cross
"Even if the sun ceases to rise, Even if the sea ceases to flow, Even if the wind stops to blow, The name of Sligo Rovers will shine and shine forever like the morning, glinting star in the sky."
yeah he was there at turners in froont of me 2 with his brother who used to come on the old yahoo version of this which is about 5 years ago!
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