Not a bad way to spend your Friday night.
I couldn’t have really asked for a better introduction to the League of Ireland. Opening night, Dalymount, the Dublin derby, floodlights, rain (let’s face it, it adds to the atmosphere) and a palpable sense of excitement that local football was back.
Having relocated from Belfast in December, my experience of local football was of the Irish Premiership. Not dissimilar to here, it has some decent teams, some shite teams and some fairly tasty rivalries. There are times when it’s genuinely exciting, too, like when all the derbies are packed into one cracking day’s action on St Stephen’s Day.
Rivalries have always fascinated me in football. The passion, the hatred, the intoxicating sense of tribalism that manifests itself when two sets of fans who’d love to knock seven shades of shite out of each other are thrown together in a stadium.
In Belfast, the mutual enmity between Linfield and Glentoran is fairly legendary. Crusaders v Cliftonville is not to be sniffed at either as a rivalry of two north Belfast teams representing the two sides of the political divide.
However, Bohemians v Shamrock Rovers feels on a different scale. Like most people outside of Dublin, my knowledge of the rivalry was, unfortunately, limited to what I’d gleaned from the COPA90 YouTube documentary from 2015.
While that video adequately captured the intense atmosphere this rivalry produces, I wanted to take advantage of living in Dublin.
So I bought a ticket and decided to go. Terraces, not TV, and all that.
With the bastarding drizzly rain falling from the Dublin night, I arrived at Dalymount. One of the great things about passionate football fans is hearing them before you see them. As I queued up, the roars and cheers from those already inside were more than enough to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
There are not many things more depressing in football than a quiet stadium. Although I never felt that was going to be a problem here, it was exhilarating to walk into a cauldron of noise and colour. It was a stirring spectacle, looking up at the main stand and seeing a pulsating wave of red and black.
In the away stand, the rain failed to dampen the Rovers fans either. In fact, come the 23rd minute, they were making all the noise. When Graham Burke’s imaginative overhead kick came back off the post, Ronan Finn reacted quickest and fired into the roof of the net to make it 1-0. The mood changed, but the Bohs fans around me certainly weren’t for turning on their team.
Unfortunately, the first half was dire stuff. After a misplaced pass skidded out for a Rovers throw-in, one of the lads in the row in front of me turned to his mate and said, “when you pay 50 quid for a Premier League you know what you’re getting.” A bit haughty and, as it turned out, a bit precipitous, too, considering Bohs’ rousing comeback in the second half.
Admittedly, it hadn’t been the greatest game of football. There were mishits aplenty, owing somewhat to the greasy conditions, but a wild and wonderfully spirited Bohs charge late on still made it a night to remember. On 73 minutes, Dan Casey rose brilliantly to head home Keith Ward’s corner, sending the home fans into ecstasy. It was difficult not to get wrapped up in all of it. The celebrations, the flares, the sheer volume (much of it coming from Spandau Ballet’s Gold blasting out from the tannoy).
And there was more. Eight minutes later, Paddy Kavanagh latched onto a flicked-on header and lashed a thunderous effort past Kevin Horgan. Delirium – and a few more flares. It was cracking stuff. Then, when Casey pounced on some slack defending to score the third with a looping header, it wrapped up an immensely satisfying night for him and his teammates.
Had it petered out for a 1-0 Rovers win, it would have constituted an instantly forgettable experience. Luckily, the footballing gods had other ideas and, as the first taste of this infamous derby, it made for a thoroughly enjoyable brilliant Friday night.
It was refreshing to see the League of Ireland whipping up such emotion. Local football is never going to usurp Gaelic football or hurling as Ireland’s foremost sporting love but, not unlike, the Irish Premiership up north, it still has a strong following. And those who do follow it, who get off their arses and attend matches, will continue to be the lifeblood of this league. They need it and it needs them.
I might need it too. Football will always be my first sport and, with the new League of Ireland campaign off and running, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited for what’s in store.
So, here we go. The League of Ireland has awoken after its three-month winter slumber – and how. And, after immersing myself in a thrilling Dublin derby, I’m glad I’m along for the ride.
.@paddykavanagh14 scored the pick of the bunch in Bohemians 3-1 win over Shamrock Rovers pic.twitter.com/dorwEg99ST
— Soccer Republic (@SoccRepublic) February 16, 2018
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