Shamrock Rovers V St. Pats Athletic 5th August 2002 – Tolka Park

The debris and fall out (from yet another draw) from Croker meant that there was an abundance of Dubs shirts to be seen around the banks of the Tolka. Short Fat slap heads burnt pink in the sun were waltzing out, 3 pints in hand spilling the precious porter over the stretched Arnotts logo. A much smaller crowd were splintering from the drinking masses and heading down the road towards Tolka Park to witness Shamrock Rovers home game against the visiting St. Pats.

€10 in – and €2.50 for Hoop Scene (Programme of the year according to some HOOPheads) and I was in. I headed towards the Riverside of the stadium. The new stand wasn’t open. I would reckon that there was at least 2 thousand St. Pats fans congregated on the far side. The Shed End Invincibles were there in force – banging on the drums and standing up all the way though the game. “If you HATE shamrock rovers Clap your hands” – “Your Scum and you know you are” “Champions of Ireland – give us a P, gives us a A,………………ST. Pats” They were in fine voice. There was more than a fair few Dubs jerseys in the ground. There were repeated announcements from the speakers to not use fireworks in the ground tonight. I sat over near the half way line on the riverside and saw security come over and remove a banner that read “15 Years on, NO Money, NO Ground”. I suppose some supporters might take that the wrong way. At the point where it was removed – 20 receipt rolls were launched in the general direction of the man in charge of security. All light hearted stuff.

On the other side of the ground was the hoops supporters. There wasn’t one Dub jersey in sight over there as they all were wearing the green and white. At the far left hand side I could see the ULTRAS. This bunch of Shamrock Rovers supporters are the ones who stand up all the way though the game. They had been in trouble in Dalymount the previous Friday. They were strangely silent tonight – or at least from where I was sitting I couldn’t hear anything.

The sunlight streaked across the pitch as the sun set and I sat down and thought this Summer football might just work. It was a perfect warm night for a game of ball and I knew with this great support behind them the Saints would be up for it. The Teams came onto the pitch and immediately the Shed End lads light up 4 flares. The stewards took them off and stuck them in a bucket of water – giving us all a steamy smokey start to the game. You could squint in the sun, look at the players tipping off in the smoke and imagine you were in Italy.

The game kicked off and straight away St. Pats were on the attack. Trevor Crolly played a ball down the wing – to Charles Mbabazi Livingstone to try and whip in a cross. Along came Stephen McGunniess (former St. Pats player) went in with the elbow. Ref gave a gaol kick until the ref’s assistant drew his attention to the elbow. Yellow Card no. 1 for SRFC.

The game took some time to settle down. A lot of high balls being kicked about from one end of the pitch to the other. Shamrock Rovers passed crisply enough but appeared to lack any ideas when they got into the final third of the pitch. Most of the crosses coming in from the right wing and Shay Ryan dealt with them all comfortably. Then after the opening flurries, St. Pats started to exert themselves in the right direction – towards their opponents goal. A foul by Keith Doyle on Paul Donnelly meant that we had a free kick on the left side. Martin Russell floated over the cross and Tony Bird – the old pro that we signed from Cardiff in the off season scored his first league goal for the Supersaints. He rose well above the rest to plant a powerful header towards the top left corner. Horgan got a hand to it – only to push it into the roof of the net. The damage was done and the Riverside of Tolka went mental. Flares fired off and a great somersault celebration from Tony Bird.

Two minutes later while I was texting the good news I looked up to see someone in the green and white hoops nod the ball into the abandoned net while the goalie and a few of the defenders lay sprawled.. The referees assistant held up his flag and ruled out this goal for the Rovers. The rest of the second half saw Shamrock Rovers start to try and get back into the game. They managed to pick up two more yellow cards. The game was stopped when some of the SRFC Ultras misbehaved over on the far touch-line but I couldn’t make out what it was all about. (I would guess it was abuse the linesman was taking from them for ruling out the goal) St. Pats did the usual tactic of dropping back and defending in depth and hoping to catch them on the break. A great chance fell to Ger McCarthy – just before half time. He charged into the goal – thought too long about it and pulled back inside the defender only to square the ball to one of the other central defenders. Wasted chance. McCarthy is a kid with an abundance of pace but has a real lack the calmness required to be a great striker. Hopefully it will come with time this season.

In the dying seconds of the half there was a tremendous turn and shot from the edge of the box by Noel Hunt – which rose up over the outstretched hand of Seamus Kelly and hit off the crossbar. It was a great effort and a rare piece of skill from the Rovers attackers. At half time I had to split for a gig (DJ Shadow). I had a good feeling that we were going to win though on the evidence of the first half. Roll on Friday night for the grudge match of the season (last one and this one. $H€LL$ V. St. Pats – Back to Tolka.

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