I’m surprised this one slipped under @Fagan_ODowd’s radar
Dundalk’s recent success in the Europa League has thrust Louth into the wider sporting consciousness but, closer to home, the exploits of Stephen Kenny and Co have sparked a battle for young hearts and minds.
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Should Dundalk defeat Zenit St Petersburg at Tallaght Stadium this evening, they will move one point clear of the Russian outfit atop of Group D in the Europa League.
Furthermore, as the Lilywhites close in on their third consecutive Premier Division title, they have made a town boasting a population of less than 35,000 the unofficial capital of Irish domestic soccer.
Subsequently, young sports stars across the county are chomping at the bit for a place in their expanding academy, and sometimes to the detriment of previously held ambitions to represent Louth in Gaelic football.
Tutor
Colm Nally is a tutor with the Leinster Council, and has availed of the coaching awards offered to former players by the body.
Part of his remit is ensuring that promising young players graduate to the senior level.
An increasingly difficult task when the prospect of lining out Dundalk is a viable option for some footballers with dreams of emulating Messrs Horgan, Kilduff and Gartland.
"You’d have a lot of players part of Louth minor squads that are part of the Dundalk under-19s. They have the full first pull on them at the minute.
"They are following the dream. They have access to European football and are hoping to make the breakthrough.
“There would be four or five fellas that would have played on our recent minor teams who are now playing with Dundalk.”
Dundalk and Bohs locked 1-1 in a pulsating encounter, played in front of a packed house, on RTE 2 at the moment. The Lilywhites will be hoping to sure the league title tonight.
I see Drogheda went down to Cobh the other night in the play-off first leg and walked all over them on and off the pitch. Were you one of the supporters who took a beating outside the ground afterwards, @mickee321?
This was the best night of hooliganism ever involving a League of Ireland club. I lived in a house in Cabra Park in Phibsboro at the time and I thought it was going to be burnt down. The windows were all smashed.
Jesus. That brings back memories. The Rangers supporters wrecked phibsboro. They got some of their own medicine as their buses headed northwards up the Finglas Dual carriageway. I remember gangs of Finglas’s scobies stoning the buses as they passed.
We got a couple of days off school afterwards as there was no windows left in the school.
Funny enough the night of the 3-2 in Dalymount there were few enough scots . It was mostly Nordies . Rangers were at a lowish ebb then and like now were behind Aberdeen and Selltic. The Nordie prod fans back then had balls. Some of the Linfield v Glentoran riots were pretty decent and stand up to any comparison on the mainland.
Rovers played Linfield a few weeks later IIRC and it passed off relatively quitely .
+1. You had to admire the gumption of those Nordie Rangers fans. At the height of the troubles to come down here and wreak havoc like that took some balls.
