LOI premier division thread 2024

Wasn’t far away from ya. Great little ground when it’s full. Really enjoyed the game tonight and two lovely pints in pub beside it on the way back to the burbs. Kerr even dropped in for a pint.
Chris Forrester is a joy too watch. I have a thing for sports people with great feet and balance. Magic.

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To my shame this was the first League Of Ireland game I paid into since Bohs v Rovers on March 20th, 2009 (I have attended games since then but it’s always been a slip in the gate for free for the last half an hour job) and the first time I’ve been in Richmond Park since July 18th, 1997 (a pre-season friendly between Pat’s and Celtic in which Paolo Di Canio played for Celtic for the final time).

I thoroughly enjoyed the game last night. It was class actually. It was a very good standard played in a ground with a smashing atmosphere. Pats play lovely football. Their best player was the fella in the green and white shirt. Richmond Park is a great little boutique venue (cc: of @peddlerscross) and with a small few changes (ie. get rid of the bucket seats at the Inchicore end) could be even better. There’s a real warmth to the venue and its surroundings. It’s the little things that make a venue. Being in a natural bowl. The little lane down into the ground. Flats overlooking one of the ends. The trees hanging over the packed long terrace. The old brickwork of the surrounding buildings. The floodlights in Richmond Park are great too.

Inchicore is a grand place to have a few pints and I ticked a few pubs off the bucket list last night. The Black Lion is a very good pub. Even the lad they had warbling with a guitar was a cut above the usual.

I might be in Dublin next Friday and if I am I think I’ll head along to Pat’s v Derry.

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I’d say I was only a few yards from ya.

A brilliant goal and a thoroughly enjoyable game. Pats just about deserved the win. But it wouldn’t have been a robbery had we equalised late on. I also went drinking in Inchicore afterwards. A fine spot.

Have been supporting GUFC since 1986. This is one the best sides we’ve had. Second only to the 1993 team. Which was subsequently bought by St Pats.

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You’ve a fantastic manner about ya for a fossil. I’d have put ya down for early 30’s easily. At least lads like @flattythehurdler’s mate make it obvious they’re old.

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Thanks pal. The trick to it is not to try and stay up with young gasĂșns like yourself
 life/kids etc mean I don’t get to as many games as I’d like to now. Tis the like of yourself that flies the flag now.

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I might be dreaming this up but did Galway United go to the RDS in 1993/94 and stick five goals past Shamrock Rovers? I think it was 5-2. Rovers won the league that year. I think Galway United were a newly promoted team that season. They played in Galwegians rugby ground that season as Terryland Park was being redeveloped?

I can recall a few names off the 1986 team who continued on for a few years. Denis Bonner, brother of Packie. John Mannion, Paul Magee/McGee, was there a Richie Blackmore? There was a great game I attended on I think it was Stephenses Day 1987 when Galway beat Rovers 3-2 at Terryland Park. It was during the KRAM period. Rovers went 2-0 up and Galway came back to win 3-2.

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If there is a tie for the championship, for relegation, or for qualification to other competitions, the head-to-head record between the tied teams is taken into consideration (points scored in the matches between the teams, followed by away goals in those matches.

There needs to be a three way play off with each team playing each other on a home and away basis and if it’s still level after that they can play-off again.

Shels need 4 pointa

You are correct on all counts. The 3-2 vs Rovers was actually my first ever game. I remember Terryland absolutely hopping as the comeback happened.

The year in Crowley Park really brought the crowds and the results followed. My favourite player from that side, Ricky O’Flaherty joined pats the following season. If we had him this season we’d be winning our first title in a couple of weeks time.

It was hopping, the old shed. Hopping.

O’Flaherty played with Pats when they won the league under Brian Kerr in 1995/96 I think? Then he came back in the late 90s?

There was a 0-0 draw against Pats that Stephenses day I attended with O’Flaherty playing for Pats I think. That was my first time inside the newly rotated ground. There was another game where Galway played Shelbourne (Shel’burd’n) over the Christmas/New Year 1994 into 1995. Paul Clarke - that’s Paul Clarke of Whitehall Colmcille, Dublin GAA, and the airport police - must have spent half an hour warming up behind the goal. I don’t think he got on.

There was a Dublin game shortly after that - it might have been the defeat to Kildare in Newbridge on February 19th, 1995, where Clarke makes a mistake and some wag shouts out “Yer not with Shelbourne reserves now Clarke”.

I flicked through the final day of that League Of Ireland season one night there recently. It was mad how many Gaelic football players were involved in the League Of Ireland at that time. Shane Curran saved the penalty that denied Derry that league title and gave it to to Dundalk. Peter Withnell played for Dundalk at that time. He was a skilful player.

Jayo was lighting it up for UCD that season and people thought he was off to Liverpool. Match had him down as a certainty to sign after he finished up with Dublin in that hallowed Britpop summer of sunshine of 1995.

A few other games I recall: A 0-1 defeat to Cobh Ramblers on January 2nd, 1989. Big Seamus (Jim) McDonagh had recently taken over as player-manager and spent the match lashing players out of it. I don’t think he last too long. Immediately after the match I had to push my granny’s car into Paddy Francis’s garage after it broke down. Then we went home and watched Arsenal beat Spurs 2-0 on ITV, which was a big novelty as my granny’s house had only just got the cross-channel (pipe) TV just before Christmas.

A 4-0 home defeat by Pats’ over Easter 1991. I think Mark Ennis scored all four goals. I was at the Cup Final six weeks or so later but I was up for Rovers. :grinning:

The Ballinderreen game against Odense. A miserable enough night if I recall. This was a beauty of an association football/GAA crossover story which the media loved, leading to the failed RDS multi-sport “double header” of Rovers v Bohs/Dublin v Down a few months later. Lars Elstrup scored in that game. 10 months later he was winning the European Championship.

The Cup semi-final at home to Finn Harps on April 4th, 1999. We lost. The PA was constantly playing canned cheering. “United, United, United”. It rained. It used to rain a lot at Terryland Park.

The League Cup final against Pats on September 19th, 2015. I walked down when I heard it had gone to extra time and possibly forfeited some of Up For The Match as a result. The only time I’ve ever seen an association football penalty shoot live as a spectator. Fidelma Healy Eames turned away and scarpered as soon as the clinching penalty for Pats was scored/missed (I can’t remember which). The look on her face suggested she wasn’t best pleased at having to endure 120 minutes of a football match for possible electoral gain.

My oul’ fella used to talk about the 1986 League Cup final against Dundalk, played on a bitter Wednesday night in January. Galway brought big support to that.

People say Galway isn’t a sporting city and perhaps that’s true, but Galway United winning the league would be a big deal.

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You’ve some memory. I remember some of those games you referenced and no recollection at all of others.

Odense was some occasion out in Ballindereen. I think I referenced it here before, but United’s linesman at the time was an extended family member. And a complete lunatic. He measured the soccer pitch off the two 21 yard lines from the hurling pitch. Needless to say, the professional Danes couldn’t believe their luck. It absolutely teamed rain for the first half and then cleared. Odense was 3-0 up once the rain stopped. It was a procession.

On the Galway City not being a sporting City thing, it’s something I never really understood. All four sports (Soccer, Hurling, Gaelic Football and rugby) are all played competitively in the City. There has been club All Ireland winners in both codes (Castlegar 1980, Salthill 2006) Something that will never happen in a Limerick, Sligo or a Watherford. All four sports would have their ‘tribe’ somewhere in town.

I would class it primarily as a soccer town though. As every Galway townie at some stage, has played ‘a bit of soccer’. A League of Ireland win for Galway United, whenever it eventually arrives, would be absolutely massive.

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https://twitter.com/McDonnellDan/status/1849152975530254367?t=pp_IcnswTMeDJ-IvKoz22Q&s=19

KOH

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https://twitter.com/davidsneyd/status/1849149551354978486?s=46&t=pBoz6vwJNpAFZhshXLNoZg

Assume something other clubs replicate

No doubt the socialist poet movement from Phibsboro will have some issue with it

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Couldn’t be worse than some of the other childcare doled out in Tallaght

Will Rovers be obliged to offer the 3 hours preschool ECCE care for 2 years for each child now?

Stop that nonsense

Only if their good enough. If the 8 year old is deemed to be not good enough they will be thrown out on their ear at the end of the season. Childcare me hole. They only care about the child if they think the child can make them money down the line.

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Pro sports mate

Government will put a stop to this in the same way they did the IIP