Promotion of UCD V Longford cup game

**Paddyfield** · 28/10/2007, 9:53 PM

Game over.
What was the official attendance?

**superfrank** · 28/10/2007, 9:58 PM

It seemed to be mostly Longford fans. Can that be considered a sucess?

**red bellied** · 28/10/2007, 10:00 PM

Doubt there was 5,000 combined for the two sem's. It looked desperate on the telly.

**feo123** · 28/10/2007, 10:10 PM

almost looked as bad as a half empty landsdowne road when the cup finals were played there

**DmanDmythDledge** · 28/10/2007, 10:44 PM

1,250 was the attendence. Thought it was a 50-50 split in the crowd.

**gufct** · 28/10/2007, 10:52 PM

from the telly it looked at least 80/20 maybe saw about 10 UCD Jerseys.Thats a shocking crowd for a cup semi couldnt see any other club drawing as small support as taht at home and yes that includes Monoghan/Kilkenny and Kildare.

**DmanDmythDledge** · 28/10/2007, 10:55 PM

Originally Posted by gufct

from the telly it looked at least 80/20 maybe saw about 10 UCD Jerseys.

Could you see the side the camera was on? All the Longford fans were in the stand.

**holidaysong** · 29/10/2007, 12:05 AM

It really did look terrible on the TV - joke of an attendance in fairness.

**RonnieB** · 29/10/2007, 12:22 AM

I saw about 200 UCD fans. Then again I couldnt give two flying ****s what it looked like or the attendance.

**John83** · 29/10/2007, 8:51 AM

1250 official attendance, and from the numbers cheering when they scored, about 500 of that was Longford.

Originally Posted by feo123

almost looked as bad as a half empty landsdowne road when the cup finals were played there

Seen as it wasn't half empty, the main stand being near full, that's some achievement.

**De Town** · 29/10/2007, 8:57 AM

Originally Posted by John83

1250 official attendance, and from the numbers cheering when they scored, about 500 of that was Longford.

Seen as it wasn't half empty, the main stand being near full, that's some achievement.

Lads your having a laugh! If the official was 1250, at least 900 of that was Longford fans. How anyone can say it was 50/50 is beyond me.

**John83** · 29/10/2007, 9:12 AM

Originally Posted by De Town

Lads your having a laugh! If the official was 1250, at least 900 of that was Longford fans. How anyone can say it was 50/50 is beyond me.

I'm amused then at how few of your 900 fans were pleased by your goal.

**jebus** · 29/10/2007, 9:39 AM

As a neutral who was in attendance I should be able to have the last word on this (but this being foot it will probably rage on for another 5 pages). 1,250 sounds about right attendence wise, the stand was 75% Longford fans, but the wall going all around the pitch was 95% UCD fans (I moved a lot during the game), so I would say the attendence was about 50-50 with the Longford fans making the most (noise wise) of their travelling support.

As for the game, how UCD didn't have it wrapped up in an entertaining first half is beyond me, should have had 2 or even 3 goals had their strikers been a bit sharper. The second half was as bas as you'd get at a Wexford Youths - Kilkenny match to be honest. If either of these teams (and I'm assuming Bray and Galway are of a similiar standard) come up against Cobh or Harps in the playoff then they will lose. Whoever finishes 2nd bottom in the Prem should pray for Dundalk to sneak their way into that playoff final

**dcfcsteve** · 29/10/2007, 10:20 AM

I know I'm prone to snipe at UCD for their low attendances, but my heart does go out to those involved with the club on this occassion.

An excellent amount of promotion went into this game - hard to know what more they should've done - yet it still had a very disappointing crowd. God knows what the attendance would have been like without their efforts.

It really is a thankless task trying to get support for UCD amongst what is a very large University....

**pineapple stu** · 29/10/2007, 11:00 AM

Originally Posted by jebus

As a neutral who was in attendance I should be able to have the last word on this (but this being foot it will probably rage on for another 5 pages). 1,250 sounds about right attendence wise, the stand was 75% Longford fans, but the wall going all around the pitch was 95% UCD fans (I moved a lot during the game), so I would say the attendence was about 50-50 with the Longford fans making the most (noise wise) of their travelling support.

Pretty much spot on. When Longford scored, two thirds or so of the stand cheered, but about two people outside the stand did. Would have said 500 Town fans, with the balance then UCD/neutral.

Would love to know where people saw the 900 Town fans!

**Poor Student** · 29/10/2007, 11:14 AM

Originally Posted by dcfcsteve

I know I'm prone to snipe at UCD for their low attendances, but my heart does go out to those involved with the club on this occassion.

An excellent amount of promotion went into this game - hard to know what more they should've done - yet it still had a very disappointing crowd. God knows what the attendance would have been like without their efforts.

It really is a thankless task trying to get support for UCD amongst what is a very large University....

The thing is to keep plugging away. Mass promotion like this has only started this season. There was encouraging results with the free beer promotion night with Cork. I think we can improve things incrementally over time.

I hate to get dragged into this debate over who supported who but one of the problems of the crowd perception was that Longford fans placed a banner about 4/5s into the stand away from the usual away section marking the whole stand for Longford fans. The block where we usually sit was nearly 100% UCD and half of the block beside that where the big Longford flag was. All of the fans in the stand behind the goal (not many I know) were UCD and so was most of the perimiter, a preferred location for a lot of Belfield regulars.

I was also sad enough to watch a recording of the game when I got home and the whole RTE attitude towards us was very negative. Pat Morely seemed unable to make a definitive statement about us having the upper hand in the first half. He'd sigh and say "They've probably just had the edge in terms of the play" and the likes. Darragh Moloney said things like "In spite of the crowd it's a lovely pitch to play on" or as you can hear "Allez les Bleus" signing "I can tell, you have only heard the Longford fans signing throughout!". There seemed to be no mention of praise of our being well run or producing a series of underage internationals. It hurts me to say but only Roddy gave us any fair appraisal. It makes it hard to turn a corner when you're dealing with negative stereotyped stuff from our national broadcaster. I'm not saying we deserved a fluury of unending praise but I thought there was too much unecessary negativity.

**RonnieB** · 29/10/2007, 11:18 AM

I have to say having watched the recording of the game , Roddys chant came across very well

**DmanDmythDledge** · 29/10/2007, 11:33 AM

Originally Posted by Poor Student

It hurts me to say but only Roddy gave us any fair appraisal.

And telling everyone that he's robbed one of our players for Gretna.

**Macy** · 29/10/2007, 11:33 AM

Originally Posted by dcfcsteve

An excellent amount of promotion went into this game - hard to know what more they should've done - yet it still had a very disappointing crowd. God knows what the attendance would have been like without their efforts.

Friday night game probably would've bumped the attendance or even a non bank holiday weekend. Strange as it may seem, the timing probably effected our crowd too - a lot of the Dublin based fans would go down for the bank holiday weekend too.

Don't really see the point of arguing over a 100 fans here or there really. By far the biggest attendance I've seen at a UCD v Town match, so fair play to the efforts.