| Too posh to shout |
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| Thursday, 24 August 2006 | |
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Regular contributor, Conall Collier, gives a timely reminder to fans to find their voice in advance of the cup game against Bray on Saturday night.
____________________________________________________________________________________________ Start with a contradiction – it sharpens the senses. So many talking points, but Silence Please is what roars out at you. About 37 years ago the Sligo Champion published a headline ‘Silent Soccer Has Come To Sligo’ – it followed a resounding 4-0 FAI Cup victory over non-League Rialto (as far as I can remember). Again, older supporters will remember the onset of Telefis Eireann in the early’60s and an old black and white programme of the same name ---- Silence Please ----- in that you could enjoy the silent films and people like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the unforgettable Keystone Cops. Unforgettable. TheKeystone Cops were totally inept at enforcing control and they used to be dressed in black and run around blowing whistles. Oaky, so it was a silent film and you could only see them blowing the whistle, you couldn’t hear it. First assignment – figure out who were the Keystone Cops on Friday night against Bray? When you have answered that correctly you have permission to read on! Fair play to the referee – he got the red card right, can’t have any complaints about that, well, maybe one – More Discipline Please required by the players. And Keith Foy. Always does something memorable in a game – this time it was for a yellow card he could have avoided – More Discipline Please. And do you ever watch horseracing on RTE? You will be familiar with racing pundit Ted Walsh. Ted calls it as he sees it, pulls no punches. Recent comments about a top French jockey who was deputising for the suspended Kieren Fallon. The deputy won a big race and waved to the crowd and stuck out his tongue as he flashed past the post after stirring up the Hurricane. Over to Ted: “Well he won, but that’s ridiculous carry on, all that gesturing to the crowd, top class sportsmen don’t do that, it’s silly behaviour.” We saw some of that ‘silly behaviour’ on Friday night – And we don’t need it, we have the makings of a top class side. I can understand the frustration which arose out of the delayed substitution and I couldn’t understand the reason for the delay. I couldn’t understand how throw-ins which were blatantly ours went to Bray. I couldn’t understand how frees were awarded to Bray which were either A) – not frees Or B) Sligo frees. I couldn’t understand how we didn’t get a penalty in the first-half. So much to be misunderstood. But all that pales in comparison to the big COULDN’T UNDERSTAND – this ‘to posh to shout’ which has descended on the Showgrounds. It’s an epidemic. It’s almost at fever pitch and the other threat we have to contend with is that we are going to lose this team very soon. Do the sums – the figures will add up, but the books will not balance. More supporters need to come back quickly – where have you all gone? On Friday night we saw a masterful display. Two up and cruising early on. Great headline potential – Singh On Song will be plastered across the nationals (newspapers) in the not too distant future. I must admit I had my doubts, but I have changed my mind. When he settles into the team he will be a major threat to opposing defenders. Not the finished article yet, but he’s getting there. And the way we adjusted when it was 10 against 11 augurs well for the remainder of the season. That third place finish is not out of the question yet, and you know what that might mean – European football. Maybe we could play our home game away because the level of encouragement from behind the perimeter fence is ………… SILENCE PLEASE – we’re too posh to shout. By Conall Collier |
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