Ireland Albania match

**pineapple stu** · 07/06/2003, 9:02 PM

Jayz - 5 hours after the match and not a single post about it! Shows how many foot.ie heads were there!

Have to say the experiment was a huge success - never been involved in a better atmosphere at an Ireland game. Got a bit muted for spells alright 'cos the game went that way, but at the start and the end and when the goals went in were brilliant. Shame about the game though...

Fair dues to the stewards - don't usually have much good to say about them, but they had no problem with people wandering around the stand or standing up. There was a bit of open terracing at the far left of the North stand as well - surely the fact that this contributed to the atmosphere makes a mockery of UEFA's all-seater stadia stance?

How many clubs were represented? I saw Bohs, Cork, Derry, Galway, Longford, Limerick, Harps, UCD, Shels, Pat's, Rovers and Sligo anyway. Was great to be bumping into people you knew all the time - even if the "Jayz - UCD fans! got a bit old after the tenth person! Still, all the "Thanks for beating Bohs" made up for it!

Looking forward to Wednesday already!

**Bosco** · 07/06/2003, 10:36 PM

Was a great atmosphere.It did get a bit dead but dats not entirely our fault.Twas great the way the media and the barstoole brigade were aware that there were a **** load of el fans there.
Did anyone notice the song at half time The Bhoys are back in town as in a song made for celtic for the uefa final in the chorus it goes cos we'r all celtic crazy and stayin on the whole anti-irish celtic-fans thing(see how i put that instead of anti-celtic).I usually don't go into the Fai shop but i went for a browse and found home and away celtic fans on sale aggggggggggghhhhhhh,

Oh by the way.THANKS FOR BEATING BOHs

**Gary** · 07/06/2003, 11:33 PM

Magic.

Great day, great weekend. The game was my first international since Judas' debut Vs Chile in 1991. Twas really great. I loved how fellow eL fans mingled and got along (apart from the few Rovers acting the twit).

We even got our bulbs on the telly a few times. Notable mentions to to Eanna, Ruari, and a few others. MAD.

Hope this new initiative takes hold.

But cmere, �4.60 for a pint in Jurys ballsbridge?

**Real ale Madrid** · 07/06/2003, 11:42 PM

They also played "You'll never walk alone" at the start.

Why on earth did they do that for? Another a la Celtic job. T'was pathetic.

Apart from that the atmosphere looked terrific on the telly. kept seeing faces on the telly on sky but I was flicking over and back and rte seemed not to be showing so much of the crowd.

However I thought the razzatmatazz at the end was a bit OTT. twas a feeling of relief more than joy at the final whistle

Great to see the eL fans there - tis about time. Wish I could have gone.

**Gary** · 07/06/2003, 11:52 PM

Out of interest RAM, why?

Last minute winners/equalisers etc are great? The athmosphere today was the job, and the "razzamatazz" was just fun. We knew it was a cwap performance, but we were delighetd to get a winner. remember us Vs Bohs perhaps? same deal really.

Anyway, maaaad weekend. Pure last minute buzz.

**patsh** · 08/06/2003, 9:32 AM

"You'll Never Walk Alone" was played because it was especially requested by Damien Duff!
That was a bit out of place, and did not come across well on TV. I don't really think players requests for songs is a great idea.
The carry on at the end was totally ott, and drove the Dunph mad!
Still, it was great to see some shots of the eL clubs flags, RTE mentioned it once but showed very little of the crowd until the end.

**EireBadBoy** · 08/06/2003, 11:51 AM

Originally posted by Bosco
.I usually don't go into the Fai shop but i went for a browse and found home and away celtic fans on sale aggggggggggghhhhhhh,

Fans for sale jeekers!!! Hope they were Irish at least

Niamh_GalwayGal · 08/06/2003, 12:05 PM

the cheerin looked great from the start, hard to keep a good atmosphere going though since the stands are open
they should've played The Fields at the start instead of YNWA, is that not more a footballing anthem for us? i remember hearin it being sund when portugal were playing cyprus in the last qualifiers...

**�anna** · 08/06/2003, 12:14 PM

MAGIC

Curse the FAI for importing scottish muppets to do their work for them

**Colm** · 08/06/2003, 1:19 PM

Unfortunately I couldn't make it to the game but from what I saw on TV it was a fantasic occassion for EL fans (and yes before anyone says it I know the match itself was sh!t but thats not whats I'm on about!).

It looked great to see all the el jerseys and flags on TV. The atmosphere in the EL fans end looked great all the time and sounded great some of the time!
I was flicking between Sky's and RTE's coverage of the game and while Sky frequently did long panning shots of the EL fans, RTE only showed them a few times.
I saw most of ye on TV at some stage or other and ye looked like ye were having a great time.

Let's hope this continues from now on. I'm gutted I missed yesterday but I will hopefully be going to the game on Wednesday.

hayser · 08/06/2003, 2:16 PM

Wednesday`s gonna be a cracker, oh yeah!

**pineapple stu** · 08/06/2003, 3:55 PM

Heard Dunphy was going mad on RT� after the game alright. Stuff about we shouldn't be so happy after winning 2-1 against Albania. But it was frustration release more than anything else (plus you can't help singing along to Rocking All Over The World!).

2-1 against Bohs; last-minute winner against Albania AND I really annoyed �amon Dunphy! Brilliant weekend!

Shame on the FAI though - Scottish PA and songs about Celtic's European exploits - ridiculous way to arrange a match which was supposed to be in some way about promoting the eL. Idiots.

**Eric** · 08/06/2003, 5:36 PM

Best atmosphere I've seen in Lansdowne for years!!!! And Last minute goals for City friday night and Ireland on Saturday has left me quite hoarse!!!

Was great to get shots of the fans across on tv too as a lot of people I know who don't go to games commented that it looked brilliant. Every group of eL fans seemed to have their own different songs that were pretty good but would it help if maybe there was someone to organise the songs so we were all singing the same one at the same time?????? Cause I got a bit sick of 'Come on ye boys in green' all the time

The scarfs worked a treat too

**Dodge** · 09/06/2003, 8:30 AM

Originally posted by patsh
"You'll Never Walk Alone" was played because it was especially requested by Damien Duff!
That was a bit out of place, and did not come across well on TV. I don't really think players requests for songs is a great idea.
The carry on at the end was totally ott, and drove the Dunph mad!

thats pish, Fran Rooney has a hard on for Celtic and thats why it was played. He told the soccercentral meeting he thought it should be played a couple of weeks ago. I think hamilton was joking about Duff going to Liverpool.

**Schumi** · 09/06/2003, 1:20 PM

The atmosphere was great but they have to drop that Scottish gob$hite and those idiots pretending to play their guitars at half time. The abuse they got from the EL fans was good though.

**James** · 09/06/2003, 1:27 PM

yeah twas funny alright at half time
all the el fans chanting 'who are ya... who are ya'
at the scottish announcer from glasgow and the ****e band.. even the band members turned around to us and were laughing.. muppets were the worst mimers i've ever seen..

magic day though..esp the 20min celebrations at the end.. i looked around all the EL fans were still dancing and the rest of the ground was empty ???

**pineapple stu** · 09/06/2003, 5:18 PM

By the way, what did RT� say about the whole thing, if anything? Or Sky, for that matter. I presume, being RT�, they just ignored the whole thing?

Tom Humphries chose to-day to do a column in the Irish Times on how Irish fans are bar stool idiots who are deluding themselves about being the best fans in the world. Perfect chance to mention the North Stand but...nothing.

And another thing - why don't they announce upcoming eircom League games during matches? Surely that would create more public awareness?

**Ash** · 10/06/2003, 8:28 AM

From what I've been told Sky gave us much more
coverage than RTE.

Apparently there was a decent bit of footage on the
SkySports News on the sunday morning of us singing
our hearts out at the end of the game.

**ian** · 10/06/2003, 11:58 AM

Lads it was good to see all the EL fans in the one spot of the ground. There was alot of the EL fans on show from sky sports on the day and the following day as well. Hopfully we will be able to get more tickets for the ireland matches for us all to go to.