| What goes round..come round |
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| Saturday, 24 June 2006 | |
 WHAT GOES AROUND….Reaction to the win in Dalymount, by Conal Collier It’s a well-used phrase - ‘What goes around, comes around’ – and it can be applied to many sets of circumstances, but I think it is an ideal comment on Friday’s night’s action at Dalymount Park. Remember our last game in the Premier Division on the way to low-key life in the First for ‘more years than we care to remember’ – it was at the old Phibsboro venue. “Cheerio, cheerio, cheerio” they shouted at us and were probably delighted to see the back of us. FAST FORWARD six years or so – “Welcome back to the Premier Division to Sligo Rovers, we’re glad they’re back” boomed the stadium announcer as the ‘Bit O’ Red’ ran out on the soon to be no more hallowed turf of what was once the home of the ‘Dalymount Roar.’ Nowadays, it’s more like the Dalymount Echo – no, it’s not the local newspaper, but a statement of fact about a crumbling stadium which catered for banners at the ‘Phibsboro End’ which proclaimed THE BIG CLUB. More appropriate would have been ‘CRISIS CLUB’ because Bohemians look like a team in trouble. Fact 1 - We played them off the pitch. Fact 2 – We could have won by more. Fact 3 – They could have played on after we left, and it’s likely that they would not have hit the target. When you’re down, you’re down. We should be able to recognise that particular trait in others because we’ve experienced it so often ourselves “We’ve been down so long it looks like up” and that sort of thing. There you are – What goes around comes around. Sligo Rovers are definitely on an upward curve at the moment, but the difficulties which are afflicting the domestic game are not exclusive to Sligo Rovers. The main one – small crowds – is something we can all remedy collectively just by bringing a friend to the game. If everyone brought one extra person it would double the numbers and the finances. Simple solution. But simple is difficult, isn’t it? We could have been two down in two minutes, instead we won by two which prompted the small ‘Band of Brothers (and some sisters) to break into an early Christmas jingle “Oh what fun it is to see Rovers away” and it brought smiles to the faces of the beleaguered Bohemians supporters. Manager Gareth Farrelly was the target for so much abuse towards the end of the game. “Farrelly for Sligo” shouted one irate supporter. Maybe he could remember the days when a couple of cars used to leave Dublin on a Sunday morning and drive into the North West with six or seven players for the ‘home’ game. Nowadys that particular convoy might head for Monaghan or somewhere like that. We’ve moved on – upwards and onwards, still sixth, the first six were easier than the next six will be, but we’re only outside the European qualification zone – now there’s a realistic target for 2007. John O’Hara looked like the referee – same jersey and shorts (grey / black) and it probably confused the Bohs boys. We won on Friday night because we exploded the Bohs secret – play with a soft ball, but as we have quality players, we copped it and got it changed, although the linesman (sorry, assistant-referee, who also looked like John O’Hara) didn’t want to know about it. However, McTiernan and Flannery meet the‘real ref’ as he dispensed little yellow cards. And Flannery got kicked on the ground as well, but that went unpunished by John O’Hara – sorry, my mistake, it was the referee. Unbeaten away on Fridays in June. That’s a good record and with a bit of luck we’ll hold on to it as we adapt to Friday night football in the near future. What’s the fate now for Saturday Night Live – hope they don’t change the name of the fanzine because it’s a typical Irish outcome. Try explaining it to our visitors from Moldova or Estonia in the first round of the 2007 Inter Toto Cup. “Well, Sergei, it’s called Saturday Night Live because we used to play on a Saturday night, but now we play on a Friday night except when we’re in the Inter Toto Cup when we play on a Saturday night.” What Goes Around……… By Conall Collier |
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