Tribal spat lacks the appeal to win over the sporting masses

The Shamrock Rovers-Bohemians title race should be just the shot in the arm the League of Ireland needs. But nobody cares. They’re all to be found at the Aviva Stadium for the rugby, and who can blame them?

By Shane Breslin

Right, so we called it wrong. Last week, as Shamrock Rovers stood six points clear at the top of the Premier Division, we suggested it was all over bar the shouting. Well, the 2010 League of Ireland is not over. Not even close.

The Hoops have slipped into something resembling a crisis. Three defeats in four have opened the door to a Bohemians side attempting to salvage a third straight title from the wreckage of a season in which the club still hovers over the abyss. Nothing is certain at Dalymount Park, apart from the fact that everyone at the club would love nothing more than to wrest the title from the grasp of their greatest rivals over the final three games.

The Hoops have endured a torrid time in recent weeks, losing three away games on the spin – 5-1 to Dundalk on a forgettable night of wind and rain; 3-2 to UCD after a thriller on the campus last Friday; and 1-0 to Bohs on Tuesday evening.

Yet Bohs haven’t exactly been hoovering up the wins themselves – Tuesday’s was their first in three games following draws against Sligo Rovers and Bray Wanderers. All in all, Rovers are two points clear so they’re still behind the wheel, and there’s enough fuel in the tank to take them over the finishing line.

Their difficulties have been on the road. The Hoops have won eight domestic games on the trot at Tallaght Stadium, including a 6-0, a 4-0, two 4-1s and a couple of 3-0s. Their next two games are in Tallaght, against Sporting Fingal this weekend and dire, dreadful, doomed Drogheda United six days later. Win them both and they could well be crowned champions before the last day, as Bohs have two tricky away assignments against St Pats and Galway United over the next nine days.

That’s the way it should go, but the twists and turns to date suggest there are a couple more to come. Should Bohs gobble all three points at Pats on Saturday lunchtime, they will rise to the top of the table before Rovers’ 3pm kick-off against a Fingal side themselves still in the running for a top three finish and a place in Europe next season. Then it really will be sweat and tremor time in the Rovers ranks. It will be intriguing to see how they respond, but there’s a sense that the Hoops’ most important player over the next week or two will be the so-called 12th man, the fiercely loyal and vocal support base at Tallaght.

The League of Ireland engages in a perpetual struggle to promote itself; and then, when an occasion comes along which should be ripe for tipping the PR scales in the League’s direction, it’s rendered unsuitable for the casual supporter whose patronage all clubs so cherish

In that they left everything teetering on a knife-edge with just three games remaining, Tuesday’s events at Dalymount Park were surely to be welcomed by all neutral observers. There is nothing which exercises sports-lovers more than a close-run thing at the end of a stamina test, whether it’s an Olympic marathon, a Grand National or a league title race.

But there’s no doubt that there was a disappointing aspect to Tuesday at Dalymount, and it was that this was a game which was, sadly, irrelevant in the great spectrum of Irish sport. Irrelevancy is the most crushing of ailments, and the tribal aspect of a typical Rovers-Bohs game must be a contributing factor. It’s no secret that the casual observer was unwelcome at Dalymount Park, forced to tune in to RTE and experience the atmosphere of the cut-and-thrust through their TV speakers.

Such has been the animosity between the fans of these two clubs – whose routine online exchanges of “scum” and “gypo” are among the more printable insults – that the walk-up supporter, who forms the vast bulk of Irish sports followers, could not expect admission. Generally, fans do not get turned away from League of Ireland grounds. Clubs are far too hard-up to offer a rebuttal to a paying customer. Yet the official stance was clear. A visitor to the Bohemians website ahead of Tuesday’s contest was met with the warning that no tickets would be on sale on the night of the game. Not only that, but supporters purchasing tickets in advance must present identification.

It wouldn’t be so reprehensible if Dalymount – with a seated capacity of around 8000 – was packed to the rafters. There was a large crowd, Bohs’ biggest of the season, but Dalyer was still thousands short of capacity. The Tramway End, where I had my first experience of live Irish football among thousands of fans at an FAI Cup final in the mid-80s, has long since been out of bounds but the 1700-seat Des Kelly Stand at the opposite end of the field was empty, leaving the dissatisfying vista of each side playing towards a barren stand or terrace.

The whole episode hints at the real barrier to progress for the League of Ireland. The product engages in a perpetual struggle to promote itself; and then, when an occasion such as Tuesday’s game comes along, an occasion which should be ripe for tipping the PR scales in the League’s direction, it’s rendered unsuitable for the casual supporter whose patronage all clubs so cherish.

It’s little wonder that the floating fans, the thousands and thousands of them who, regardless of unemployment figures which tip 14 per cent, are all too willing to spend their dough for a big sporting occasion, choose to fork out the high prices for Leinster v Munster at the Aviva instead. Speaking of which, it will be no surprise when Saturday’s League of Ireland double-header in Dublin is overshadowed by the first skirmishes in rugby’s Heineken Cup.

It’s just another reminder of football’s lowly place in the food chain of Irish sport. And that’s where it will stay until someone, somewhere agrees that nothing but radical measures will suffice if the game here is ever to regain its place in the public esteem.

Last week’s Premier Division results

Bohemians 0-0 Bray Wanderers
Dundalk 3-0 Galway United
Sporting Fingal 2-2 St Patrick’s Athletic
Sligo Rovers 2-1 Drogheda United
UCD 3-2 Shamrock Rovers

Bohemians 1-0 Shamrock Rovers
Drogheda United 0-3 St Patrick’s Athletic
Sligo Rovers 2-1 Bray Wanderers

This week’s fixtures

Saturday 8 October

St Patrick’s Athletic v Bohemians, Richmond Park, 1pm – Live on RTE Two
Dundalk v Sligo Rovers, Oriel Park, 2pm
Shamrock Rovers v Sporting Fingal, Tallaght Stadium, 3pm
Galway United v UCD, Terryland Park, 6pm

Sunday 9 October

Bray Wanderers v Drogheda United, Carlisle Grounds, 3.30pm

 

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