Anybody heading to this game tonight? I was well up for it but from what I’ve being hearing theres going to be serious trouble at it/afterwards.
All tickets aswell. Gardai want to keep a tight grip on this crowd. Only meeting this season between them
Last Eircom League game I was at was a 0-0 between UCD and Bohs in Belfield Park during my last year in college.
After that I said never again and I won?t until Mick Wallace gets the Wexford based team up and running.
Eircom League is a load of sh!te. Haven’t been to a game since I left UCD. Last two experiences were awful, went to Belfield Park first week back in final year, ended up getting soaked and coming down some virus and missing freshers week, I did recover eventually and manage to feel a little fresher some weeks later ;). Before that went to Dalyer for a match and was racially abused and called a “fcuking cnut of a refugee” for wearing a Spanish top by some random scummer in a bohs tracksuit while waiting for a bus just outside Dalyer. Still don’t get that one to this day as anyone who know’s me will know I’m quite pasty. Rats from Paths to Freedom is a perfect example of the Eircom League fans I have encountered.
Violence erupted as rival soccer fans clashed outside a Dublin bar tonight.
Beer kegs and traffic cones were thrown as chanting Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians supporters fought outside the Hill 16 pub on Gardiner Street.
Neither group had been drinking in the bar, with staff believing fans had pre-arranged the mini-riot.
?Rovers supporters were coming across town on a bus and saw a group of Bohemians stood outside,? said a bar worker.
?They got off the bus and started chanting. Then more Bohemian fans appeared, they seemed to have been waiting nearby for this to happen.
?I think they had arranged to meet around here beforehand to have a mini-riot.?
The Hoops were taking on the Bohs at Tolka Park in the third round of the FAI Carlsberg Cup in the local derby which kicked off at 7.45pm. Trouble between fans started shortly after 7pm.
One motorist who witnessed the clash said he has to swerve his vehicle for fear of being hit with a keg.
?The fight just broke out as I was passing,? he said. ?The fans were chanting and garda? came pouring on to the scene.?
The Hill 16 is better known as a favourite haunt of GAA supporters attending Croke Park.
?We have never had any trouble like this before,? the bar man continued. ?This is the first time we have ever seen anything like this.
?Soccer fans never drink here, it is too far from both Tolka Park and Dalymount Park.?
A garda spokeswoman said officers were aware of a number of public order offences in the area, but no arrests had been made.
?The Garda Public Order unit is on standby at the scene and will remain in the area throughout the evening until after the match and until all fans have dispersed,? she added.
A couple of the guys who will be on the flight to Birmingham for the CL game with us would have been involved from the Hoops side last night I’d wager.
I think it’s time you gave the eircom league another chance. The standard has improved a great deal since your last experience…more full-time teams and summer football have made a real difference. One of my pet hates (see pet hates thread) is the attitude of Irish soccer people to the eircom league. They have no problem going to Lansdowne Road to watch boring friendly after boring friendly. They’ll go to a pub and watch Charlton Athletic against Middlesborough. They have no problem watching sh1te matches during the world cup. But then it comes to the eircom league and all of a sudden it’s boring and the standard is sh1te. I don’t get it.
Snobbery, I think, plays a real part in this. People think their knowledge of football is too sophisticated to appreciate what is on offer on the domestic scene.
I go to Ireland games because I’ve a keen interest in my national team. I wouldn’t make it my business to go to the pub to watch Charlton-Boro but my Saturdays generally comprise going to the pub, getting locked and watching games. In summer that means GAA and in other times it’s soccer - if that means a scheidt EPL game then so be it. Maybe I should give the Eircom league another go as it’s clear the standard has raised in the past few years but I couldn’t see myself going to games. That said I’d watch the teams in Europe all the same.
I said on the old forum that Irish League was pretty much unwatchable and I’m standing by that for now. Caught a few of the televised games earlier in the season and they were septic so wouldn’t bother watching them now.
The international attendances are symptomatic of the way punters behave. The ave total weekly attendance at Eircom league games is around 12000, 30000 odd thousand less than alot of friendlies attract. But rugby is the same, the AIL attendances are pretty low yet internationals are sell outs. The same applies to GAA. Big games bring bring crowds, just the way it is.
Heard John Delaney on the Last Word on Friday. FAI taking over the league should be huge boost to it he reckons. Was thinking that they’ve such a bad track record at handling themselves over the last 20 odd years that it’ll be the death knell rather than a boost. Muppets. He was talking about the “product” improving, the fookin product. Gimp. Still to be convinced by him, but to be fair I think it was somewhat of a poisioned chalice given the apparent incompetence that was there before him.
I’ve mentioned this to you before Humbug but a big reason for me not going to any Eircom League games is that there’s no club I have an affiliation to. You have a local team, I don’t. Since the demise of Dublin City (a franchise) the nearest teams to me are Bohs (setup as a recreational team fot the British army and scabs during the 1913 lockout) and Shels (another British Army team and run by a fuckwit in Ollie Byrne). Bohs and Shels are moving anyway, Pat’s seem a grand club but they’re for the people of Inchicore. Rovers fans are scum, wannabe English hooligans.
lets not lose the run of hourselves