Northern teams are not inferior

**pete** · 14/12/2005, 1:19 PM

Originally Posted by royalblue

Sure what did linfield do in europe! Let me think well a part from two european cup quarter finals, not much hee!hee!. And that was when it was a really hard competition, not like now.

Living on past glories is dangerous. At you sure your not a Shamrock Rovers supporter?

**royalblue** · 14/12/2005, 1:30 PM

And you are not living on the past? anything other than today is past mate. Mate the heritage of Shels and Cork is just wafer thin.

Lets face it cork and shels and others have had a few good years, try doing it for decades!!!

**Peadar** · 14/12/2005, 1:35 PM

Originally Posted by royalblue

Lets face it cork and shels and others have had a few good years, try doing it for decades!!!

anything other than today is past mate
Try doing it now!
Lets see something from Linfield now, don't mind giving us the history lesson.
History belongs in books!

**dancinpants** · 14/12/2005, 2:53 PM

Originally Posted by royalblue

Right away the attendances at each ground would go up when Linfield played, as Linfield have the largest travelling support around.

Not hard considering the furthest ye have to travel is about 80 miles FFS

**A face** · 14/12/2005, 3:58 PM

Originally Posted by dancinpants

Not hard considering the furthest ye have to travel is about 80 miles FFS

Yeah .... 80 miles, sure thats only an hour .... we travel more than three hours nearly every second weekend.
Remember .... its a totally different kettle of fish playing with the big boys !!

**Raheny Red** · 14/12/2005, 4:12 PM

History is a thing of the past!!

RB please come back here in April and lets see how your attitude is then!!

**dcfcsteve** · 14/12/2005, 4:25 PM

Originally Posted by royalblue

We have had legendary teams at Linfield with Legendary players like the great Jackie Milburn, who Alan Shearer is trying to break his goal scoring record.

Ever heard of a Belfast man by the name of 'George Best' ? Played for Cork Hibernians...

Ever heard of an Englishman by the name of 'Dixie Dean' ? Played for Sligo Rovers....

Ever heard of a Yorkshire man by the name of 'Alan Sunderland' ? Played for Derry City....

Or a Cork man by the name of Roy Keane ? Played for Cobh Ramblers...

Or a Dubliner by the name of Paul McGrath ? Played for St Patrick's Athletic..

I could go on. Linfield isn't alone in having had famous players on its books in the distant past you know....

**dancinpants** · 14/12/2005, 4:26 PM

Originally Posted by royalblue

Sure what did linfield do in europe! Let me think well a part from a few european cup quarter finals, not much hee!hee!. And that was when it was a really hard competition, not like now. The teams that Linfield played in those days would walk all over your teams today, like the great Liverpool team and the Manchester City team. It was a lot harder competition when it was straight knockout.

About that - whats the second occasion? I have details of your 1966-67 run but not the other. Please post details.

The one I have here, a team just needed to get past two rounds to reach the quarter final. Your opponents? Well there weren't any "greats" by any stretch of the imagination.

Aris Bonnevoie (Luxembourg)
Valerengans IF (Norway)
CSKA CZ (Bulgaria).

But maybe ye played the "great" teams on the other trip to the quarter finals.

**Slash/ED** · 14/12/2005, 8:23 PM

Originally Posted by dcfcsteve

Ever heard of a Belfast man by the name of 'George Best' ? Played for Cork Hibernians...

Ever heard of an Englishman by the name of 'Dixie Dean' ? Played for Sligo Rovers....

Ever heard of a Yorkshire man by the name of 'Alan Sunderland' ? Played for Derry City....

Or a Cork man by the name of Roy Keane ? Played for Cobh Ramblers...

Or a Dubliner by the name of Paul McGrath ? Played for St Patrick's Athletic..

I could go on. Linfield isn't alone in having had famous players on its books in the distant past you know....

European cup winner Tony Dunne for Shelbourne too

**daveh** · 14/12/2005, 10:09 PM

For clubs in both our leagues the champions league is much harder to do well in nowadays,only 2 rounds and you were through to the quarter finals at the time ye qualified sure!

Nowadays you have to go through 3 qualifying rounds before you get through to the bloody thing,in total for a small club to win it now they would have to play 19 games!!Thats more than half the games in a full season!!

**Dr.Nightdub** · 14/12/2005, 10:22 PM

Originally Posted by royalblue

You guys are hilarious!! Shooting fish in a barrel, just great, only we have been winning tournament after tournament since we where formed when you lot where included.

Apart from a couple of decades between the two World Wars when Celtic basically p1ssed all over youse. And I don't mean the Glasgow lot!

The only really valid way to settle this whole debate would be if they revived the inter-league matches that they used to have years ago - in fact, an eL Select v IL Select, played over home and away legs, would probably be a great draw. FAI, IFA and Setanta, please take note.

**Fortuna1886** · 16/12/2005, 10:38 AM

I don't subscribe to RB's view. I believe there is more strength in depth in the EL. I cant see to many up here arguing that fact. What I would say though is there is not a great deal of difference between your top 3 and our top 3. We are on a fairly big downward spiral up here, have been for over a decade due to under investment and lack of media coverage but we still held our own in last years Setanta.

My (albeit poorly informed) opinion would be that the EL has been on the up over the last decade and for me that makes our achievement last year all the sweeter, I was expecting to get turned over in the Final big style.

Regardless of which league is stronger at the minute, things change. This is a graph of the European Club rankings or our respective countries and its fairly even with highs & lows for both countries.

**R�iteoir** · 16/12/2005, 10:52 AM

Originally Posted by Slash/ED

European cup winner Tony Dunne for Shelbourne too

Didn't Ronnie Whelan turn out for Home Farm?

**R�iteoir** · 16/12/2005, 10:55 AM

Originally Posted by dancinpants

The one I have here, a team just needed to get past two rounds to reach the quarter final. Your opponents? Well there weren't any "greats" by any stretch of the imagination.

Valerengans IF (Norway)

Ah yes - that was in the era when we (V�lerenga) were still very much an amateur club.

Heck we even lost to Athlone Town a few years later

**Galwayexile** · 17/12/2005, 2:27 AM

jesus roylablue get a life and stop looking at this through your foggy glasses.

Yes linfield are prob the form side in ireland atm but the standard up the north is terrible where 6 nil wins are common ffs. Its a long ball game up north while down south teams actually like to pass the ball.Now tell me who has the more ability.

Cork and shelbourne have progressed further in europe in the last 3 years than any club up north in the last ten years.

Oh and did i mention kevin doyle who went for a paltry 100 k and now hes worth at least 10 times that and his stock is rising playing for reading who will get promoted to the premiership this season.

I have read all your posts and all you bleet on about is technical ability, what a load of crap, wes houlahan has more ability in his right foot than any player you mention. If linfield are so great why dont they go fulltime. I see that the last great hope up north andy smith is still languishing in the preston reserves. He used to score buckets full for glentoran like peter thompson.

Is this power trip coming from when the north beat a poor england side then. I think so. If you want to see abilty come down to Utd park, the brandywell, tolka park and finally down south in cork, the current EL champions. Linfield may be a decent side but i know who i would be backing if they played cork or even shelbourne.

Once the setanta cup is played you will find out who is the better team.

**Gerrit** · 20/12/2005, 6:16 PM

Linfield is IMO the only club here in the North that would be a top club in the EL as well.

The difference in level is not that big, on the contrary, but there is still a difference. I don't think Glens and Portadown would be competing in the top of the EL. If there'd be an all-Ireland league I think Linfield would be the only northern team having a decent chance to win the league (with Shels, Derry, Cork as competitors)

Same for the Setanta Cup: the cup will be won either by one of the EL sides or Linfield. Linfield are the one IL team that have a fair chance.

But the level difference may be there, it's not huge. I have seen some pretty good games here in the North as well, it's not all bad what you see here

The one thing by the way in which Northern Ireland overpowers the south, is the standard of the stadiums. And then I'm not just refering to Windsor and The Oval.

**pete** · 21/12/2005, 11:40 AM

Originally Posted by Gerrit

The one thing by the way in which Northern Ireland overpowers the south, is the standard of the stadiums. And then I'm not just refering to Windsor and The Oval.

All the other grounds are terrible & certain no better than top 5-6 eL grounds. I;ve only been to Portadown & that was shocking as floodlights didn't light the middle of the pitch.

**paudie** · 21/12/2005, 1:12 PM

Originally Posted by royalblue

Mate the heritage of Shels and Cork is just wafer thin.

Can't believe a Shels fan didn't take you up on this.
Shels won the IFA cup in 1906, 1920 & 1921 and have the LOI over 10 times since 1925/26. Not a bad hertiage at all by any yardstick.

Also while Cork City are just over 20 years old Cork clubs first won the FAI cup in 1926 and the league 1940/41.

Just because you happen to follow a successful club means you can label all other clubs as having little or no heritage.

**Gerrit** · 21/12/2005, 7:59 PM

As for my statements on grounds: Portadown and Cliftonville for example have no top-of-the-bill ground but also not bad, definitely better than for example Drogheda, UCD (although Belfield has other charms) and whatever it is in Tallaght that's supposed to be a stadium

Glenavon is new in the IL (okay, played IL before for a long time as well) and has a very charming ground.

And yes, Windsor Park is the best ground of both EL and IL put together.

But as I said, the grounds are the one thing in which IMO the North is better. Football level-wise it's definitely the EL that's on higher standard.

**thejollyrodger** · 21/12/2005, 8:09 PM

I agree Gerrit, the stadia down south could do with some serious work and investment. The north have got some good grounds and its not all great news down south. But the league down south is far better TBF. All we needs is more people at the games