| Lulu might help us out |
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| Friday, 23 March 2007 | |
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Regular columnist, Conall Collier, speaks volume after the Derry match. Remember Lulu? Some of you will anyway. You might be good enough to explain to the younger set. Anyway. Lulu had a hit song in the ‘60s – it was re-released again in the ‘80s, so it might be due another airing now in zero zeroes – 2007 if you don’t understand. And to explain further – the hit song was simply called SHOUT. It used to go something like - “You know you make me want to SHOUT now” and it continued SHOUT, SHOUT, SHOUT, SHOUT ………. Now all we need to make it popular again is to play it at The Showgrounds before games. Maybe we could have some training and practice a few set pieces because we were brutal on Saturday night. I’m not talking about the players here – they were okay, did their best out on the pitch, but it must be difficult when you are playing at home in front of a packed SILENT grandstand. But before we can hear the old Lulu song played across the PA system we have to get the PA system working. I mean how difficult is it. It was funny really. In the section of the stand where I was on Saturday we were all holding our match programmes open at the team list page. We heard a kind of static and we huddled underneath the loudspeaker (totally wrong description – lowspeaker) to try and hear the teams. We gave up. It was the same at half-time when Johnny Chadda was getting his well-deserved presentation. (I got that info from the programme). “What’s going on” someone said. Then I worked out why the supporters were so quiet. You see, we hadn’t actually realised the game was on. Why? Because we hadn’t heard the lowspeaker man saying his usual “Ladies and Gentelmen, Tohers and Sligo Rovers welcome you to the Showgrounds” blah blah blah. So most of us just sat there wondering who the 11 men in red and the 11 men in black and grey were and why they were all running after an inflated piece of plastic covered leather. You see, there was no scoreboard, no shed, no PA, with all that was missing was it any wonder that we didn’t realise that the game had actually kicked-off and that Basil had made a great penalty save and that we nearly scored on a couple of occasions. And what really sold it for me was when Derry manager Pat Fenlon protested to the referee after the red card for Dave Rogers. I have always respected Pat Fenlon – from a distance because I don’t know him – but his achievements speak volumes. But I thought the referee was correct to issue the red card for what could only be described as an alleged tackle. And when Pat Fenlon showed his disgust at the decision it really portrayed him in a different perspective. I sort of felt the same way as when I discovered the secret about Santa. Maybe Pat doesn’t actually know as much about the game as I thought he did. I was shattered. It was a frustrating afternoon when I learned many things. The most important lesson was – ‘how to sit in silence for 90 minutes and not show any passion for the home team.’ Roll on the away games – they are really much more enjoyable. Supporters (alleged) are probably maintaining that it was depressing on Saturday at The Showgrounds. But that was only because so many of them adopted a depressing attitude. The crisis isn’t on the pitch or in the boardroom, it’s in the stand. And it needs to be SHOUTED OUT LOUDLY – THE CRISIS IS IN THE STAND. And just think for a moment – the next visitor is UCD – we will all be blue. Now for some therapy. Before the next home game look in the mirror before you leave home and shout the following. ROVERS. Do it once to prove you can do it. Then remember the word and remember to repeat it 100 times when you hear a man in shorts blow a whistle. It could be infectious and there is no known antidote – so we could have an outbreak of SUPPORTERMANIA. Maybe we can practice on away soil – Longford next Friday night. |
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