February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Bohs, as expected, have settled down after their Champions League exit and they’ve been slowly closing the gap on Shels. In the initial stages of the league there was much hype about how tight the games had become. There was no such thing as an easy game. The league was supposedly more competitive than ever before. Teams were playing better football due to the new summer experiment of playing in the sun. Fields were better and players would finally take the ball down to play the beautiful game. It was even expected that Eircom teams would do well in Europe. Well, they haven’t. Shelbourne were beaten 4-2 by Slovenians NK Olimpija Ljbuljana in the Uefa Cup. “A bunch of nobodies,” wrote a Shels fan about the Balkan team on the website chat line.
Shels manager Pat Fenlon said he felt his Reds were “really up for it and were raring to go” after Olimpija manager Suad Besirovic reportedly made dismissive comments about Shelbourne. “Disrespectful” is what Fenlon said about Besirovic’s comments. “He’s setting himself up for a fall,” concluded the Shelbourne manager.
It happens all the time in football. Managers get into little head games before kickoff and the media, of course, love it. Often it’s a sign that managers are not confident or feel threatened by the opposition. Shels were beaten 1-0 on the road and must have felt very good for the return leg in Tolka Park. Fenlon did say he was “disappointed” to have been drawn away again. “It would have been nice to play it at home, but that’s cup football,” he said.
The Irish manager was also shrewd enough to admit it was a tough draw. Then in the return leg the “nobodies” showed up and won 3-2, shocking Shels and their fans. Fenlon and his team experienced the realities of survival in European football after expecting to go to Slovenia and “win against a First Division side.”
After all the hype that Eircom League teams were going to do well abroad due to summer football, and that fans would return to see a higher standard of play, the balloon has burst.
The disgruntled Shels fan on the website continued: “The good name of Shelbourne FC is being dragged through the mud at the moment. Too many average signings, a chairman with a ridiculously loose sense of fair play, knocked out of Europe by a bunch of nobodies, knocked out of the FAI by a bunch of nobodies, strike force bolstered by a bunch of Pats rejects, smallest, most useless manager in the league. Bring back Roddy Collins! Poor playing surface, match day atmosphere needs radical overhaul. Pathetic attempt at supporters group. Fenlon out, Roddy in! Average players out, top quality imports in! Some kind of hilarious mascot in, preferably a dollar sign.”
Derry City were trounced 5-1 by APOEL as European dreams tumbled. It will be argued that City did well to come back to the Brandywell with a 2-1 deficit and that all-important away goal. Many a Derry supporter will recall how close it could have been.
There were spells in the games when the Irish teams were knocking on the door. In most games of football, teams knock on the door. There are always those moments when it seems there’s a chance. But, let’s face it: Eircom football has a longer way to go than the chiefs, the reps, the clubs and some supporters are saying.
One only has to visit the dilapidated grounds — for example, Richmond Road where St. Pats play — to realize just how poor the facilities are for supporters and the players. There has been very little done to renovate the grounds for far too long. The way in which they have the advertising set up is embarrassing to say the least. It looks like a bunch of carpenters put some boards together, painted some logos on there and slung them around the field. The seating is tight and very uncomfortable for watching games. It’s no wonder the fans are beginning to shy away again. When one looks out from the stand at St. Pats it’s like a facility you’d see in a Third World country. Sounds harsh? It’s a fact.
Never mind harping on about how talented the young soccer players are and how big the schoolboy leagues have become. That there are several leagues from amateur to junior and from premier to senior doesn’t really matter. We can hardly expect to rebuild club grounds given the fact that Ireland, here we go again, has no national soccer stadium. But there are many other reasons why soccer in Ireland is behind the times. Besides the style which lacks in technical ability and flair, there’s a simple lack of ball possession. Climate used to be a factor. But now that the heat is on, shouldn’t the style change over the next two or three years? The Irish game of soccer models itself on the English game. Domestic and national football is a slower version of the EPL and the English national team. It’s been the main influence; English roots are imbedded in the Irish game, which aims to be fast and furious, in contrast to its continental counterparts.
The summer experiment however is not over; it has a long way to go. In the early stages of the season not many points separated the entire table. That’s changed, the league is looking like its old self. Shels on top, Pats second, Bohs third, Cork chasing and a likely later runner being Shamrock Rovers. Gaps are beginning to appear in the table as the legs fall out from under struggling clubs such as UCD, Derry and Drogheda. It’s a sunny romance to think that the Eircom League is going to improve at home, never mind in Europe. We will be lucky to see huge Eircom crowds in our lifetime. For now though, teams should play more two-touch in training.