league of ireland monthy: july 2014

editorial

July 2014 League of Ireland Monthly www.loimonthly.wordpress.com2

Hello and welcome to the first edition of ‘League of Ireland Monthly’! This magazine will provide analysis and opinion on all issues surround-ing Irish domestic foot-ball, as well as interviews with the top names from around the league.

Ever since ‘Onside’s de-mise in 2008 we felt that the League of Ireland has needed an alterna-tive forum for consid-ered articles and analy-sis. With around 12,000 fans attending games every weekend around the country the league still lacks a dedicated magazine. While there have been brilliant ef-forts made by websites such as Extratime.ie and Goal.com, as well as the growth of social media, the emphasis is still on delivering updates as soon as possible.

‘League of Ireland Monthly’ is a magazine which sits back, digests, and analyses the league, long after the final whis-tle. We have the luxury

of time not afforded to the aforementioned web-sites, and we think the publication will be a bo-nus on top of the superb match coverage supplied by these sites. We hope to expand the magazine more as the league pro-gresses, but we hope that what we have now sets a strong base upon which to work from.

We join the League of Ireland just after the half-way break, with the lead-ing pack already clearly defined. Last years’ chal-lengers Dundalk, St Pat-rick’s Athletic and Sham-rock Rovers have been joined this time by sur-prise package Cork City, with the Leesiders a mere three points off the impe-rious Lilywhites.

John Caulfield’s men will be explored in more de-tail on page 6, but their story has been of local heroes. A young, mainly Cork-born squad has been supplemented by former City stalwarts like Billy Dennehy and Liam Kearney, and managed by a shining example of

Cork soccer, John Caulfield.

The losers this season so far have undoubt-edly been Sligo Rov-ers; having missed out narrowly on the title last season the Bit O’Red were hoping to go one step further. Instead they’ve taken three steps back, and at the time of writ-ing find themselves almost ten points off the top-runners. Alan Finn gives us the full story on page 18

The First Division promotion race mean-while, which seemed to have Shelbourne as its only starter a few weeks ago, has seen other challengers take their place on the start line halfway through the year. Despite Gal-way FC’s difficult start Tommy Dunne’s men now find themselves two points behind Shels, tied with Long-ford Town on 24.

More than half the league are within six points of Shelbourne, with Cobh Ramblers the whipping boys of

the second-tier. Martin Cambridge’s teenage side have clearly found juggling studies and football difficult (With the manager unable to choose from a full squad for many of the opening games of the season), but even more than that the physical nature of the division has hit many U19 graduates hard (Lit-erally, they don’t call it the graveyard league for nothing!).

This month’s issue fea-tures an interview with Daryl Horgan, John-Paul Clifford on fans-run clubs, and Alex Murray previews the upcoming European ties.

We hope you enjoy the magazine, make sure to follow us @LOIMonthly and visit our website wordpress.com/loimonthly. If you have any questions or comments, or would like to contribute, you can email [email protected]

Enjoy the read!Kevin GalvinKevin Galvin,Editor

July 2014 League of Ireland Monthly @LOIMonthly 3

In This Issue Boys Of The City Stephen Walsh investigates Cork City’s hot start to the season

Eurovisions Alex Murray gives us an insight into the teams facing St. Pats, Sligo, Dundalk and Derry City in Europe this season

The Nine-Minute Championship DeciderGerry Desmond recalls one of the league’s most controversial endings

Horgan’s Flying HighWith his Dundalk side topping the league for the past few weeks, Daryl Horgan tells us about his switch to the Lilywhites

Funding Football By A Different MeansJohn-Paul Clifford states the case for supporters-owned clubs

Change Or No Change?John-Paul Fahy looks at the worrying trend in managerial changes in recent times

League of Ireland Monthly

Editor: Kevin Galvin

Phtotography

Comeragh Photocomeraghphoto.weebly.com

Pose Photo:posephoto.wordpress.com

AC Sports Images:acsportsimages.com

George Kelly

Eye To The Groundseyetothegrounds.blogspot.ie

Ciarán Culligan Photographywww.ciaranculliganphotogra-

phy.com

Contributors:

David KentAlex Murray

Stephen WalshGerry Desmond

Alan FinnJohn-Paul Clifford

John-Paul FahyCover Photo: Cork City’s Garry Buckley celebrates after scoring on the opening day against St. Patrick’s AthleticCredit: Comeragh Photo

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July 2014 League of Ireland Monthly www.loimonthly.wordpress.com

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HereContact Kev at [email protected]

4


“In order for the European results to

improve

Let me take you on a trip down memory lane. A decade ago, the League of Ireland teams had one of their more successful runs in Europe. Shel-bourne made history by becoming the first team to win two suc-cessive rounds in Eu-ropean competition which gave them a glamour tie against Deportivo La Caru-na. While Bohs and Longford both fell at the first hurdle in the UEFA Cup, Cork City went on a run

to the Intertoto Cup Third Round, where they were eliminat-ed. It is no coinci-dence that this run came one year after the League switched to summer football The co-efficient of the league had risen con-siderably, jumping 15 places between 1998 and 2010, more so than any other league, but since 2004, bar Shamrock Rovers’ Europa group stage qualification, there have been no real success stories. Despite the Hoops achievement, the co-efficient has dropped from 29th in 2010, to 43rd in 2014, below the Faroe Islands and the mighty Andorra. The pendulum has swung so much that

last season, no Irish team won a game in any compet i t ion. And as a result of the failures of the sides last season, it will drop again in 2015. We need to fix this and fix it fast. In my opinion, the drop in the league’s stan-dard of football is important in this. Since Cork

City won the league in 2005 with 74, only one other team have managed to break the tally, Bohemians victory in 2008 with 85 points. The league has seen some of its top play-ers move across the water or to other countries. Kevin Doyle, James Mc-Clean, Gary Twigg, and Wes Hoolahan to name a few. The ma-jority of the players in the league at the moment are hoping for a cross-channel switch. This mental-ity has to change. More so there are too many young players leaving this country and failing. The majority of the league clubs are semi-professional.

Lack of money is the main cause, but the thing is that the ‘’boom period’’ of Irish football from 2003-2007 came when there was more than just one professional club as there is now. In or-der for the European results to improve, more clubs need to turn profes-sional, there needs to be better pro-motion of the league in Ireland. This falls di-rectly at the feet of John Delaney and the FAI. In 2010, the prize pot for the Premier Division was

€ 7 0 0 , 0 0 0 . T h i s year’s, it’s € 2 4 1 , 0 0 0 . It costs €19,000 for a club to enter the league. The win-ners will get € 1 0 0 , 0 0 0 . This is laugh-able when you com-pare it to the prize money

for the European sides. If an Irish club gets past ONE round in Europe, they re-ceive €120,000, more than they do for winning their own league! Meanwhile the man of the FAI sits on a nice annual

more clubs need to turn professional”

OpinionDavid Kent If even a quarter of

that was pumped into promoting the league, crowds will rise, football stan-dard will improve, and you will see a lot better results on the European stage. As for this years hopefuls, I can see St.Pats exiting in the first round to Legia Warsaw. Dundalk and Sligo Rovers should get past their first round opposi-tion, but I think they

are finished in the second round. In my opinion our best hope lies with Derry City, who on paper have the easiest draws. Hopefully we will see a return to the glory days in the near future

6 July 2014 League of Ireland Monthly www.loimonthly.wordpress.com

Boys of the CityTipped for a mid-table finish at the start of the season Cork City FC are now touted as one of the main title contenders,

can they maintain this form? Stephen Walsh investigates

©Comeragh Photos 2014

It’s been a rollercoaster six months for Cork City since John Caulfield first took charge of pre-season training back in Janu-ary. Not even the most positive City fan would have believed that their club would be second in the table after the first round of games having gone unbeaten at home while only suffering two defeats on the road.

The last two seasons back in the Premier Di-vision have been indif-ferent on Leeside, finish-ing sixth in the past two years and not exactly set-ting the league on fire with their performances. The club brought in club record goal scorer and appearance holder John Caulfield as manager in November. Caulfield already had a strong

reputation at Munster Senior League level, hav-ing led both UCC and Avondale United to titles over the past decade. Right from the start he set about changing the attitude of a club who had lost their momen-tum after their First Di-vision triumph in 2011.

The San Francisco native was determined

to prove that City de-served to be up at the top of the league with big crowds and this was shown straight away by a number of signings.

Caulfield brought the skills developed as a salesman with Diageo to his job as boss of City, negotiating hard for his home-town club and making the most of the

7 July 2014 League of Ireland Monthly @LOIMonthly

budget on Leeside. Rela-tive unknown Mark O’ Sullivan was signed from Avondale United while striker Anthony Elding was signed on a free transfer from Sligo Rov-ers on the back of his cup winning goal against Drogheda United, in the hope of leading City up the table. Goalkeepers Matt Gledhill and Kevin O’ Brien were signed as back up to Mark Mc-Nulty. Midfield was boosted with Billy Den-nehy and Dave O’Leary signing from Shamrock Rovers and Limerick, introducing some much needed creativity to the Cork City midfield.

Strength and condition-ing has always been a main stave with Caul-field, and the City legend brought in Eoin Fehily to reverse the trend of late goals in 2013. This has been one of the main dif-ferences so far this sea-son, with City now profit-ing from late goals rather than being punished by them. In the backroom John Cotter was brought in as assistant manager having led Avondale to in-termediate success in his last two seasons as boss.

City enjoyed an excellent pre season with victories over Avondale United, Waterford United, Mer-vue United and Longford Town. A 3-3 draw against Finn Harps in Galway was the only slight blot on the copybook. Wa-terford United were de-feated 3-1 in the Munster Senior Cup, Anthony Elding continuing excel-

lent early-season form netting a fantastic goal in the tie. However, things never worked out with Elding on Leeside, and the Englishman is now plying his trade with Ballinamallard Unit-ed in the Irish League.

The league began on the 7th of March in front of a huge crowd of 5,000 as the 2013 ch ampi ons St. Pats came to town. A Christy Fa-gan goal was enough for Pats to get the draw af-ter Gary Buckley had originally given City the lead. City captain John Dunleavy was sent off with ten min-utes to go, but the Rebel Army’s determination in closing out the game showed positive signs.

Limerick were soundly beaten the fol-lowing week in the League Cup before City’s winning run continued with them defeating Der-ry City, Bray Wander-ers and Athlone Town. They did suffer a surprise 3-1 defeat to non league side Douglas Hall in the Munster Senior Cup semi-final playing some-what of a scratch side, ‘Hall eventually winning the tournament, beating Limerick 2-1 in the final.

April continued on from March’s good opening form with a near

sell out crowd over of over 5,500 people watch-ing Cork City destroy Shamrock Rovers 3-0 in Turner’s Cross. It was evident that the fortress mentality which had gone missing for a few years had returned to Turner’s

Cross that night with the crowd in full voice. Mark O’ S u l l i v a n making his mark in the league by produc-ing a top class per-f o r m a n c e topped off by a goal.

Former City player Kalen Spillane fouled O’ Sullivan in the final minutes of the Reb-el Army’s game against Sligo Rovers to allow Billy Dennehy score a late equaliser. This draw was followed up with two wins on the bounce against Drogheda Unit-ed and UCD. A draw at home in torrential weather against Bohemi-ans was next on the cards as a late refereeing deci-sion to cancel out City’s late winner prevented the Leesiders from claim-ing all three points.

May was an up and down month for the Rebel Army. A difficult fortnight in the league saw the Cork outfit lose 4-0 at Dundalk before a late Conan Byrne secured a 3-2 win for St Patrick’s Athletic in Inchicore. In between those two

games there was a rest bite with a 2-0 victory over Munster neighbours Waterford United in the Legue Cup. City then embarked on a series of five straight wins defeat-ing Derry City, Limer-ick and Athlone Town to ensure the month ended on a positive note.

June began with City’s class telling in a 6-0 demolition of non-league side St. Mochta’s in the FAI Cup, a competition which the Rebel Army have high hopes of do-ing well in this season. A fantastic performance the following week saw City end the first-half of the season on a high note. Goals from Mark O’Sullivan and Gearóid Morrissey secured a 2-0 win away to Shamrock Rovers, seeing City into the break in second place and maintaining City’s ambition of a top 3 fin-ish and a European spot.

Looking into the second half of the sea-son John Caulfield has strengthened his squad by signing former UCC and Irish University in-ternational Josh O’Shea up front, while UCD striker Cillian Morris-son is set to be the lat-est Caulfield recruit.

Things are look-ing positive for the Rebel Army heading into the second-half of 2014, and if Caulfield can de-liver a strong Cup run and a European place it will be very much a suc-cess to toast for the for-mer drinks salesman.

It’s time to get them passports out again….

Last Monday league of Ireland teams learned where they would be spending their sum-mer holidays this sea-son as the 2014 Eu-ropean draws kicked off once again. Draw day is a special day, it usually starts with an argument between fans on who you actu-ally want or who your side actually stand a chance against, quickly followed by trying to figure out what is the cheapest way of get-ting there. Then comes the actual draw, where you find yourself glued to a screen while your team is pulled out of the hat near half 11 in the morning.

The teams are out and you’re googling pic-tures of the club’s sta-dium/twitter name/fans pictures to see what sort of trip you’re letting yourself in for. Then, you gather your mates who fully intend on going on the trip and book it. Thus, starting the countdown to Eu-rope. You also have that part where you find your opposition fans tweeting stuff along the lines of; “Who’s St.Patrick’s Athletic..” “Who’s Dundalk..”

Alas, let’s take a look at what our teams will be facing in the coming weeks;

Champions League

Second qualifying round (July 15/16 and July 22/23)

Legia Warszawa (POL) v St Patrick’s Athletic (IRL)

Europa League

First Qualifying Round (July 3 and 10)

AS Jeunesse Esch (LUX) v Dundalk FC (IRL)

FK Banga (LTU) v Sligo Rovers FC (IRL)

Derry City FC (IRL) v Aberystwyth Town FC (WAL)

Second Qualifying Round (July 17 and 24)

Rosenborg BK (NOR)/FK Jelgava (LVA) v FK Banga (LTU)/Sligo Rov-ers FC (IRL)

Derry City FC (IRL)/Aberystwyth Town FC (WAL) v FC Shakhtyor Soligorsk (BLR)

HNK Hajduk Split (CRO) v AS Jeunesse Esch (LUX)/Dundalk FC

(IRL)

First one you fo-cus your eyes on are Champions, St Patrick’s Athletic who face a top side in, Legia Warsza-wa. The club’s home stadium, (Legia that is!) is the ‘Polish Army Sta-dium’, which holds just under 32,000. They are Polish most successful football club with hon-ours such as 10 league titles, a record 16 Pol-ish Cup trophies and a record 4 Polish Super Cup trophies. There is no hiding from the fact of how Legia Warszawa is such a reputable club. You may recognise

E u r o v i s i o n s


St. Patrick’s Athletic, Sligo Rovers, and Derry City had abysmal 2013 campaigns

one of their strikers in Marek Saganowski in which he spent a short time at English club Southampton back in 2007 (stayed there until 2010 before leav-ing for Aab on loan.)

It’d be hard to go out and predict that Pats will come away with a positive re-sult from this, hence why I’m saying this is only going one way.

Moving on…..

Whilst, Dundalk are being flung over to Luxembourg to face AS Jeunesse Esch as they look to prove they can manage between both Europe and the league this season.

Jeunesse Esch play in the highest league in their country, whilst boasting an impres-sive a record holding 28 league title wins between 1921 & 2010. However, they have not tasted suc-cess since 2010 after they won the league, they last won the cup in 2005-06 season.

Their home stadium is currently, Stade de la Frontière, to which it also played host to a number of Interna-tional games involv-ing the national side. It holds 4,000 people

with 1,200 seated.

They crashed out in Eu-rope at the first stage last season, whilst their participation in the UEFA Champions League hasn’t been the best. Last reaching the qualifying round in 2010-11. They have qualified for a Euro-pean competition an impressive 32 times.

Their striker, signed back in 2012, is Sanel Ibrahimović who cur-rently boasts scoring 28 goals in 38 games for the club since signing.

Dundalk, with all their fire power and strengths, should come away with a win in this European game. If they will, well, that is another question.

For Sligo Rovers, their opposition were found-ed when England were winning the World Cup and the wars were for-

gotten about.

They are FK Banga G a r g ž d a i and cur-rently play

their football in Lithuania’s

highest football divi-sion, which, they were only promoted to the division in 2009 due to FBK Kaunas and Atlan-tas Klaipéda pulling out of the league. That’s a League of Ireland story if I ever saw one!

Despite the sacking of Ian Baraclough I would expect Sligo Rovers to give this a good go and progress, having won the Setanta Cup dur-ing the season it can only breed confidence into the side, you would think so anyway.

Now, when the Euro-pean draws take place you look at the closest places, those normally include Northern Ire-land, Wales or Scot-land. Pats did have the chance of Celtic this year, but avoided them. The team that found themselves ‘lucky’ sort to speak in gaining the closest draw was no other than Derry City, as they travel to Wales to face Aberys-twyth Town FC which poses an interesting battle, none the less.

Aberystwyth current-ly play their football in the Welsh Premier League where they have done since 1951, being one of only three clubs to have taken part in every season in the Welsh Premier League, the others being Ban-gor City and New-town. They are also the only Welsh team to have both a side in the Premier League and the Welsh Wom-en’s Premier League, an interesting stat.

Their biggest rivals are Newtown and Carm-

in the Premier League and the Welsh Wom-en’s Premier League, an interesting stat.

Their biggest rivals are Newtown and Carm-arthen Town. An out-standing player stat is none other than one coming out of Bari Mor-gan, who has currently played an outstanding figure of 305 games for the club since signing for them from fellow Welsh club, Swansea City. He has notched 15 goals from midfield during his time there, too. Another player stat would be Geoff Kel-laway who is currently playing in his third spell with the club (2003-2010 – 2011-2012 – 2013 – present!) and currently in the year 2013 he has notched up 26 games and scor-ing 8 goals for the club.

The club play their home games at Park Avenue in Aberyst-wyth Town, where the ground holds 5,000 spectators with just 1,002 of that being seated.

It would be hard to see anything else bar a Derry City win in this fixture and this year could provide a wonderful year for League of Clubs alone. Who knows, maybe we might see another Shamrock Rovers story!

9 July 2014 League of Ireland Monthly

The harsh winter of 1940 spread its relentless grip across Europe. On the continental mainland Nazism was in full flow and democracy in full retreat. In Ireland, meanwhile, the general populace eked out a meagre existence; an unending balancing act between

drudgery and despair, simply to survive. While the German jackboots trod country after country underfoot life in Ireland continued with as much normalcy as possible in the c i r c u m s t a n c e s . Sport, perhaps the only true colour and release from the daily monotony,

carried on despite the endemic poverty and austerity, which saw most League of Ireland clubs limping along and literally struggling to rub a pair of sixpences together. In this severe climate the original club to bear the name of Cork City FC was heartlessly cast out of football

in very controversial c i r c u m s t a n c e s .

The 1939-40 season had been peppered with clubs begging for money from the League, scrounging for handouts from the FAI and increasingly going public with their appeals when the authorities failed to bail them out. Waterford,

Limerick, Dundalk, Sligo had all hit rock bottom at different stages; Cork was barely above the waterline. The provincial clubs especially found it hard to make ends meet but money was tight everywhere.

Following their league match against Cork City at the Mardyke


Though Irish Football has many a curious chapter in its colourful past, this one may be the strangest of all. Gerry Desmond relates the tale of...

The Nine-Minute Championship Decider

S h e l b o u r n e complained to the League that they had not received their minimum entitlement of £10 from the home club. The league upheld Shelbourne’s claim and further imposed a fine of ten guineas on the Leesiders,

hitting the club with a total bill of £21. This may seem a paltry sum to the modern eye, but at a time when a shoestring budget smacked of vulgar opulence it may as well have been a million pounds. Quite simply, there was no way Cork City could afford to pay the fine. Just weeks earlier, for instance, Limerick had been granted a loan of £20 to keep the club afloat. If £20 was the difference between going to the wall and survival, as in Limerick’s case, then the lack of

the same sum to a breadline club like Cork City, less than two years old, was a death sentence.

Cork requested that payment of the fine be deferred until after their upcoming FAI Cup joust with Drumcondra, when they would use their

share of gate receipts from that game to clear their debt. The League, however, said no. City then refused to pay what it didn’t have and the club was sensationally and ruthlessly expelled from the League in the middle of the campaign.

From the ashes of this crisis Cork United was hastily formed in February 1940. And, as fate would have it, the new club became the most successful ever to rise up from Leeside. But before all that transpired, Cork United was

on course to have an early flirtation with the weird and wonderful ways of the Football League of Ireland, to be part of perhaps the strangest game ever played in this country…

Inheriting Cork City’s results and league position, Cork United soon brought an upswing to Sunday afternoons at the ‘Dyke. The new club chalked up straight wins against Brideville, Bray Unknowns, Dundalk and Sligo Rovers to lift flagging spirits as the turnstiles gradually began to click a little bit quicker once again.

On 24 March United brought their unbeaten run to the Iveagh Grounds where it would be put to the test against league leaders St James’s Gate. The ‘Gate was a famous old outfit, drawing its strength and support from the Guinness brewery after which it was proudly named. The club had been the inaugural champions in 1922 but hadn’t tasted c h a m p i o n s h i p success since then. It looked as if this could be their year of glory at last, after almost two decades of watching

D r u m c o n d r a , B o h e m i a n s , Shelbourne and Shamrock Rovers taking turns at lifting the coveted silverware. With destiny on their shoulders and facing form team Cork United the champions -e lec t attracted a massive 20,000 supporters to the Crumlin venue and excitement was high prior to kick-off. Yet not one among the throng that day could have anticipated how this game was preordained to take its place in sporting history.

Cork were well on top from the start, playing skilful football and dictating the pace of the game, but could not translate that advantage into goals. Maybe the home side had big match nerves but United were determined to keep their run going. They continued to push forward until, with half an hour gone and against the run of play, referee MJ Nolan awarded the ‘Gate a hotly disputed penalty for handball. Paddy Bradshaw – who would go on to net 29 league goals in 22 matches by the season’s end - took the spot kick but saw his effort brilliantly stopped

by his international colleague Billy Harrington. To H a r r i n g t o n ’ s dismay, however, another Ireland cap, Joe O’Reilly followed up to knock the loose ball over the line.

Despite this setback United kept the pressure on the home side yet could not force an equalizer until, with just nine minutes remaining, it seemed as if Fate had stepped in to lend a helping hand. This time Nolan blew his whistle while play was in the St James’s Gate penalty area and Cork’s Mickey Kelly gleefully picked up the ball to place it on the penalty spot. But Kelly and most neutrals in attendance had misinterpreted the referee’s decision. This is how the Cork Examiner saw the events unfold:

“The unpleasant finish left indefinite one of the most sparkling and keenly contested of matches, and one which Cork was shaping like winning instead of being a goal down when the issue had to be abandoned.

“The incident 11 July 2014 League of Ireland Monthly @LOIMonthly

“No sooner had the kick been taken than an ugly s i t u a t i o n q u i c k l y developed”

leading to an avalanche of spectators rushing on to the pitch occurred within nine minutes of the end, when one of the Gate defenders – it was thought – handled the ball. The referee ignored the claims for a penalty, but so certain were some of the Cork players of a penalty being given to them that one of them lifted the ball to carry it to the penalty ‘spot’. Instead the referee then whistled for a ‘free’ against Cork.

“It was a decision v o c i f e r o u s l y challenged and no sooner had the kick been taken than an ugly situation quickly developed. The referee was set upon and assaulted, and some of the Gate players also came in for attack. So menacing did it become that the police rushed in and ultimately drew their batons to disperse the ringleaders of a crowd which indulged in stone-throwing. Other missiles were also thrown.

“It was obviously impossible to resume the match with the tempers of the crowd still at fever pitch, and the game was abandoned.

“Both the Cork and Gate players did their utmost to protect the referee, but without avail.”

Of course, games have been abandoned before and since. What makes this one unique is what happened next. At its meeting on 4 April the League of Ireland M a n a g e m e n t Committee decided that the game would have to be played to a finish: it ruled that the teams would have to face each other again for the outstanding nine minutes! The re-fixture was set for Saturday 20 April, the day before the FAI Cup final. To complicate matters, both clubs would also have to play full league matches against other opposition on the same day. For St James’s Gate this meant hosting Brideville i m m e d i a t e l y after their Cork United re-match which, although unusual in itself, was at least not too inconvenient. For United, however, it meant pulling up the tents in Crumlin and heading across Dublin to Shelbourne Park – the kick-offs were set just one

tight hour apart.

Needless to say, United appealed against the e x t r a o r d i n a r y arrangements a week later at the next LOI Management Committee meeting. Not surprisingly, the League would not budge.

In the interim, the two clubs kept piling up the points. Cork United beat Waterford at Kilcohan Park. A week after that the ‘Gate repeated the dose to the Blues on the strength of a Bradshaw hat-trick. Next, a George Jackson treble gave them full points against Dundalk while Cork saw off Limerick 3:0.

United then made a second appeal but the League was not for overruling its own decision and doggedly dug its heels in on a technicality of the rule book that the Cork club had not applied under.

On 14 April St James’s Gate won a vital encounter against Bohemians 3:2 at Dalymount Park. The result left

them a single point shy of clinching the title, with Shamrock Rovers ready to claim a third successive championship if the Gate fell short of their target. The following Saturday Cork United returned to the Iveagh Grounds, hoping to achieve the near-impossible and overturn the 0:1 deficit in the allotted nine minutes. Unlike in the initial clash, however, the title was now at stake – United would have to score twice to deny St James’s Gate the point they required to wrest the crown from their Dublin rivals. The most prestigious prize available in Irish Football was to be decided in the most ridiculous fashion possible…a ‘match’ lasting less than the length of a half-time break.

Despite a brave effort that saw the Leesiders throwing everything forward for those nine helter-skelter minutes, no further scores ensued as the home side packed everyone behind the ball at every opportunity. Just as in the original game, Cork United dominated but couldn’t hit the target. This cameo

match that decided the destination of the 1939-40 Championship was eventually settled by Joe O’Reilly’s bundled goal, which had been scored a month earlier! It was United’s first league defeat since succeeding Cork City.

As the Gate celebrated briefly before running out once more against Brideville, United had to make a hasty exit and head across Dublin’s Southside to Shelbourne Park. There, in a curious symmetry of their result in Crumlin, they lost by the only goal, scored by another O’Reilly – Cork-born Jackie O’Reilly - from the penalty spot after a handball! O’Reilly later went on to star for the great Cork United team that emerged to dominate Irish football for the remainder of the decade. But on this bizarre day – when they became the first side in history to drop four points - United’s lack of luck was crystallized in the dying seconds against Shelbourne when Hughie Doherty had a goal disallowed because the whistle was blown as it crossed the line!



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14 July 2014 League of Ireland Monthly

Eye On The PrizeHaving already established himself as one of the leading League of Ireland players and been featured on the likes of Marca at just 21, Daryl Horgan now has a league

title and European campaign in his sights. League of Ireland Monthly caught up with the Galwegian just after the mid-season break with Horgan in preparation for

a key second half of 2014.who all work extremely hard on and off the pitch which has been a big fac-tor into the way we have been playing. Hopefully now we can push on and keep the form that we have at present going.

LOIM: You now stand top of the table, how do you handle the pressure of being at the top, and the expectations of fans? DH: It’s always going to be a bit more difficult at

the top because every week people are waiting for you to drop points or fall away, but so far we have handled it quite well. Obviously nothing is handed out in June so we have a lot of work yet to do and I’d say there are still five or six teams who could push for Eu-rope or even top if they have a good run in. We’ll just have to keep work-ing hard and putting points on the board and hopefully towards the

end of the season we’ll be in the shake up, but it’s very early to be talk-ing about pressure yet.

LOIM: This month brings your first taste of Eu-ropean football with a tie against Luxembourg side FC Jeunesse Esch, how do you feel head-ing into the game? DH: I’m very excited go-ing to the game. Hav-ing never played in Eu-rope before and it’s a

LOIM: So Daryl, how are you finding your time at Dundalk after the first half of the season?

DH: So far it’s been great! We’ve been play-ing some really good football which is always a good start, and on top of that we’ve been win-ning games, so no real complaints. We had a bit of a rough start but have really rallied from then on. There’s a great bunch of lads up here


massive thing for me. I think that it will prob-ably have a slightly dif-ferent feel to the game with opposition who will more than likely play football with a slightly different style but I think if we play to our ability we can definitely get a result and hopefully get a bit of a run going in Europe.

LOIM: Was the chance to play European foot-ball one of the rea-sons which influenced your decision to join Dundalk? DH: Yeah it definitely was. As I said it was something I had never done before and I think for every player in the league it’s one of the main ambitions. It’s a whole new experience for me and I’m really looking forward to it.

LOIM: You said at the time that working with Stephen Kenny was one of the biggest factors in joining Dundalk, what is working with Stephen like? DH: It’s been great. Ste-phen is a brilliant man-ager with an excellent pedigree. He gives the players the freedom and the confidence to go out and play without fear and to go and express themselves. The job that he done at Dundalk last year was incredible and I think the whole squad is working here this year to go one better.

LOIM: Dundalk are now

your fourth club at the age of just 21, do you find changing clubs difficult or is it just a natural part of life as a footballer? DH: I’ve found it quite difficult at times defi-nitely but you’ve such a short career in foot-ball that I don’t think you can worry about it too much. I sup-pose Salthill was a great starting point for me, being my boyhood club, but realistically I always hoped it would give me oppor-tunities elsewhere. Then when I moved to Sligo it was probably a bit too soon as I was still a very young player moving to a team that was very competitive and my op-portunities were quite limited. Cork gave me the possibility of playing every week and I ended up having two and a half great years there. Hope-fully it can go as well for me in Dundalk.

LOIM: We see here in the League of Ireland that players move clubs fairly often, is there a specific reason for that do you think? DH: I think one of the major reasons is the

one or two year con-tracts. There is no real opportunity to settle down as you’re never re-ally sure what will hap-pen. Obviously it seems to happen more so in Cork and Derry where players aren’t as able to travel between clubs

because of the distance. And I suppose there is the ma-jor issue of clubs going bust and falling away. The in-ability of clubs be-ing able to offer long term contracts

would be the main issue but that won’t change until the crowds vastly improve which, unfor-tunately, doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon.

LOIM: Your Dundalk team seem to enjoy the big matches, sticking four past Cork City, four past St. Pat, three past Sligo and seven against Drogheda a few weeks back! Is that just coin-cidence or do you find that the team gels that bit better under pres-sure? DH: Honestly I’m not really sure why it seems to be happening. We’re playing and I suppose

everyone raises their games slightly for the big games but we try to go out and take every game as it comes and go out to play as well as we can. Every 3 points count the same.

LOIM: Would you rather in your career win the league or reach the group stages of the Champions League? DH: Fortunately in this league I think if you’re going to do one its more than likely that you would do the other. It’s a very tough choice but I think I’d have to pick Champions League group stages but only by a slim margin. I don’t think I could turn down the opportunity to play in the massive arenas of European football. However, ask me again in a few years and I may have changed my tune.

LOIM: And finally, who’s your pick to win the World Cup? DH: I’d love to see Argentina do it and watch Messi get the full accolades he deserves but I think its going to be the Germans. They just look very formidable at the minute.

Funding Football by a diFFerent Means

With the financial side of football so precariously placed in modern times, John-Paul Clifford makes the case for supporters-owned clubsThere are many facets to football that are known to supporters of the modern game, especially in this information age with social media, websites, radio and television, often dedicated to both on and off the field matters. The whole game has become an unending story charting the rise and sadly, demise of many clubs across Europe.

With the exponential growth in the game across the continent, quality, quantity, and information has grown to unprecedented levels. However, so too has debt. Currently we are seeing clubs scrambling to avoid crises after crises, whilst the fans must come to the rescue financially. Unfortunately, in many cases, this has been the best case scenario, as many clubs have been dealt with winding up orders and ultimate extinction. This becomes a real problem with the fans losing the team they adore, along with jobs lost, unpaid debt to local businesses and a void being formed which once brought people together in a positive manner. The massive rise in transfer fees and wages across the continent at the top levels has not improved the

overall game. Those with the massive television deals may benefit but the rest are left to fight amongst themselves for any smaller deals that may come their way.

In fact, a recent European Commission report focusing on the professional sport transfer market proves that the above is indeed correct. This has led to a massive gap between the highest tiers across Europe and anything outside the top divisions, making it increasingly harder for other clubs to compete. Sean Kelly MEP spoke on behalf of European Parliament’s committee on Culture and Education which includes sport, saying that ‘’The figures are striking, €3 billion is spent every year on transfers in professional football in Europe, with only approximately 3% of that or €60 million filtering down towards the smaller and amateur clubs for the development of the sport and talent for the future.

The proposal being floated is to have a ‘fair play levy’ on these exorbitant transfer fees would help smaller clubs and grassroots threefold: compensating them for

the costs of training and educating young players, funding development of sport at community and grassroot level, as well as helping clubs to compete on a more level playing field’’

The ‘trickle down’ economics of the massive increase of revenue in to the sport shows with the above figures, that finances are not filtering down through to the lower levels and grassroots clubs in the game, who often provide the initial starting point and footballing education for the future‘superstars’ of the game who later end up with the big clubs. This ‘fair play levy’ would help bridge that gap considerably and allow for smaller clubs to improve their facilities, equipment, standards and clear debts, which in the long run would increase the overall quality of the game, rather than a micro-focused view on the performance of the elite clubs across Europe.

This brings in a fundamental question though, if 97% of the transfer fees don’t ‘trickle down’, where does it go? Well, a lot of the top clubs across Europe have to serve many masters such

as investors, owner’s profits, operating costs, debts, high wages, dividends, and focus on the stock market. A lot of this money within the top clubs may be repatriated to areas outside with which the clubs themselves actually operate in, which leads to less money within the local economies, less spin offs, lower growth (if any) and lower social benefits to the local communities. Some clubs even have their company’s incorporated outside of the locality they represent as a club for tax reasons. Some are incorporated in the Cayman Islands. This reduces taxes and forces money which could have been reinvested or kept within the locality of the club, further increasing the ‘value added’ aspect to the economic impact the club has in the local region.

This is why fan ownership can offer a fantastic alternative. Less financial risk is likely to be taken, as fans on the clubs board of management are unlikely to personally guarantee financial risk in a club they love. The fans and board often hold many skills from their personal and professional


lives which can be of great benefit to their club. This can actually save clubs money in the long run as they don’t have to seek it externally. Fans generally pay a subscription to become a shareholder or member of the club. This generates a nest egg for the club providing security for any unforeseen situations that may lay ahead. That pot of money can also be used to improve the club, reduce debts or for social projects which can help both the club and local community. Fans are unlikely to be focused on dividends, returns, benefits, expenses, and massive profits. This means that the money is generated within the club, is more likely to remain within the club. Any profits are very likely to be reinvested in the club and/or local community. This creates both economic and social benefits to local community.

Clubs that have their fans at the heart of their ownership structure allows for instant feedback on all issues which the club can take on board and address more readily, rather than clubs which are privately owned and may have to commission studies, reports and interviews to get a feeling of how the people (fans) outside of the clubs ownership feel about fundamental issues. It is only logical for fans to have a large input in to the running of the club. After all, these clubs are a business, any good business must look at its market and how the market feels about

issues. By bringing the market in to an internal aspect of the club, this creates goodwill, loyalty, accountability and long term financial backing (in the form of membership fees) which the club can rely on. That creates a financial safety net or ‘rainy day’ fund for any future situations. This is in contrast to financial backing from privately owned groups who are likely to pull the plug on their investment as soon as it becomes unlikely that a return will be made. In fact, director’s loans may be placed on the club, pushing it in to further debt until the investor’s returns are met. This can financially strain future owners of the club, who may be the fans, as they are likely to be uninterested in paying the previous owners for their work on top of purchasing the club. However, if they are not met, this can force the club in to insolvency and possible extinction. The fan ownership model creates a sustainable, long term strategically planned club with a constant fundraising mechanism in place, in the form of membership s u b s c r i p t i o n s .

In recent years in the League of Ireland (Airtricity League), many clubs have faced several financial situations. Some have unfortunately met their demise, whilst others have become supporters owned clubs. Cork City, Sligo Rovers, Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk are just a few who have supporters groups at the heart of the decision making with

respect to the running of the club. In times before some clubs had become supporter owned, massive unsustainable losses was surrounding the league as a whole. This sadly led to the demise of some clubs including Sporting Fingal, Monaghan United and Kildare County. Some other clubs had to rejoin the league years later or reform under new ownership, such as Cork City and Derry City. In 2007, the collective losses of the league was €6.9 million. In 2012, the league recorded a collective profit of €241,000. Some of this can be distorted by prize money received by Shamrock Rovers from their very successful 2011 Europa League run, but it remains to be seen if it was included in the 2011 or 2012 accounts. Either way, the problem has stabilised for the league as a whole. Clubs run by fans are being run far more prudently. There have been no massive financial losses recorded either, the most being €40,000. As more clubs have become supporter owned, they have become far more prudent, only spending what they take in, being conservative with estimates. This shows why the problem has reduced and hopefully with more supporter involvement, we can see the league record yearly collective profits on a consistent basis.

As the huge losses that once gripped the League of Ireland has been eroded, this allows money generated by clubs to be spent in other forms, rather than

servicing debt. Stadium facilities, training grounds, under age teams and community projects can be considered and invested in by the clubs and supporters, the possibilities are endless, with less debt and supporter ownership, fans have the power to make real, sustainable and positive change for their clubs. The feeling that a supporter can have even the smallest say in the running and direction of a club is hugely encouraging, rewarding and also keeps them a supporter for life, leading to a sustainable market and model. The days of relying on outside investment based on unsustainable spending and lack of sound structures within clubs appear to be gone. Clubs have focused on prudent financial planning and developing structures, links with the community and underage teams, leading to more youths getting senior experience, has resulted in a more financially sound league with more supporter involvement in the decision making process at many of those clubs. This appears to be the way forward and for now, for the first time in a very long while, clubs and supporters are rowing in the right direction together, leading to healthier clubs and a healthier league. The supporter ownership model is leading the way.

This article originally appeared in the EC funded ‘Heart of the Game’, which was created by the FORAS Trust.


Change or No Change?

Over the close season we had half of the Premier Di-vision clubs change their managers, some we knew, some were speculat-ed and some came as a shock. Before the end of the sea-son we knew Cork

City and Drogheda United were on the outlook after the Leesiders sacked Tommy Dunne last August before put-ting Stuart Ashton in interim charge, whilst a few weeks before the Cup fi-nal Drogheda an-nounced that they

would not be re-newing Mick Cooke’s contract. We knew Roddy Collins wouldn’t be leading Athlone in to the Premier Divi-sion and therefore the Premier Divi-sion newcomers swooped for Cooke.

Derry City’s sack-ing of Declan Devine was no doubt the big-gest shock after a fourth place finish and another Eu-ropean campaign and inadvertently installed Roddy Collins as his suc-cessor. Whilst UCD

and Bray Wander-ers waited until a few weeks before the beginning of the season to make a change, Martin Russell surpris-ingly departed to be number two at Pats whilst an apparent disagreement be-tween Pat Devlin

With nine of the twelve current SSE Airtricity Premier Division clubs changing their manager in the last two seasons, John-Paul Fahy looks at a worrying trend of managerial changes in the league, and asks a number of key questions


and the Bray board saw Mr Bray depart for former Long-ford Town, Droghe-da United and Shelbourne boss Alan Mathews.

So were those clubs right to make a change?

We will focus for the time being on Derry City and their surprise dismissal of Declan Devine at the end of the 2013 season, Devine took over from Ste-phen Kenny after the Dubliner left for Shamrock Rovers in his first season in charge he led Derry to a fifth place finish and a 2012 FAI Cup success securing European football.

FAI Cup success seemed to spill into the start of the 2013 season and with Derry being UK City of Culture Devine’s troops were adding to the celebrations within the City by putting on a show for their fans as they sat top of the league in early May and were

just a few points off the top come the mid-season break. A disastrous second half to the season saw them cling-ing on to fourth place, they secured that with a 6-0 win over Limerick in the final game of the season but they still needed Sligo to beat Drogheda in the cup final to secure European football once again.

City finished the season as the league’s top scor-ers with 57 goals and Rory Patter-son collected the golden boot with 18 league goals to his name; everything pointed to another season at the helm, so it was quite a shock when the Derry City board announced the sacking of Declan Devine a decision that didn’t go down too well with the fans, replacing him with Roddy Collins wasn’t particularly popular. What was even more unpopu-lar again was when

they sacked Collins after 13 games and Chairman Philip O’Doherty stating that the decision was taken because the European cam-paign was com-ing up and the new manager needed time to get things right and get City back in Europe again next season.

That statement was baffling, to many fans as they made the point, why not give De-clan Devine those 13 games to see what he could do? Why sack someone who achieved the club’s main goal in both seasons he was in charge?

Do managers de-serve more time?

We hadn’t even made the June mid-season break when three of those six clubs made a change once again, Mick Cooke left Athlone after 10 straight defeats in the beginning of the season, Roddy Col-lins left Derry City

after just 13 games and Robbie Hor-gan left Drogheda after a promising start sitting pretty after six games soon turned sour where nine defeats in 10 games left the Boynesiders one point above the relegation play-off.

Athlone’s decision you could under-stand, they were in danger of being another Galway from a few seasons back and therefore gave Keith Long the opportunity to turn things around, which he has hav-ing picked up two wins and a draw in his six matches in charge, one of these a 6-0 thrashing of Drogheda United. Although speaking on Soccer Republic after his dismissal Cooke did say re-sults wouldn’t be far away for Ath-lone and he was right, although they do have a lot to do yet to pre-serve their Premier Division status.

Less than three

weeks later Cooke’s predeces-sor at Athlone was gone from his new job at Derry after the board along with the fans lost patience; Collins despite being voted as the fans number one choice on the Derry City Chat quickly became public enemy num-ber one for the fans for many reasons, team selection, tactics, statements and of brandishing Rory Patterson to the reserves when the first team had a home game the very same night and what finished it for the fans was his decision to send As-sistant Peter Hutton to Inchicore when Derry were playing Shamrock Rovers in the Brandywell.

Hutton has had six games in charge, which he has had three defeats to the top three in the league (Dundalk in League Cup), two wins against Drogheda and Cobh Ramblers

With nine of the twelve current SSE Airtricity Premier Division clubs changing their manager in the last two seasons, John-Paul Fahy looks at a worrying trend of managerial changes in the league, and asks a number of key questions


(FAI Cup) and a draw away at Sligo when they should’ve won; that is very similar to Collins’ first six games in charge who had two wins, three draws and one defeat h o w -e v e r t h a t was all league games. H u t -ton has c o l -lected four points, scored six and con-ceded nine in his first four league games whilst Col-lins picked up three points, scored three and conceded three.

It was Collins’ neg-ativity and seem-ingly lack of ambi-tion to win games against the likes of UCD and Limer-ick that cost him his job; replacing Devine with Col-lins obviously a move for the wrong replacing Collins with Hutton is ap-pearing a change for the good.

Drogheda replaced Mick Cooke with his assistant Robbie Horgan with excite-ment among fans at the appointment of a former hero it wasn’t to be a fairy tale but it certainly

did begin like one with a 4-1 demoli-tion of bitter rivals Dundalk, in fact they were unbeat-en in their first six games before losing 2-0 at home to Bray Wanderers on week seven. Collecting twelve points and sitting in the top reaches of the table but with one win and nine defeats in the last ten games which has includ-ed a 7-0 defeat to Dundalk and a 6-0 defeat to Athlone has saw them plum-met to 10th and one point above the rel-egation play-off.

K n e e - J e r k R e a c t i o n s ?

Are the decisions of Derry City, Drogheda United and Athlone Town knee-jerk reactions to their previous decisions; have they realised what they had was good and should’ve been continued, are they now trying to fix what they broke? We don’t know, but what we do know is the other three teams have to date stuck by their new manager whether

it’s a case of lack of ambition, targets are being met, fans are happy, perfor-mances are good or have improved or what seems to be the case with the League of Ireland,

lack of finances. However in the case of Cork City and Bray Wander-ers we do know that their current positions have a lot to do with it as they have improved immensely from this time last year.

However I don’t think I should finish without comment-ing on Ian Bara-clough’s departure from Sligo Rovers who took the de-cision during the mid-season break and replaced him

w i t h former A c -cr ing-t o n S t a n -l e y m a n -a g e r J o h n C o l e -m a n .

This time last year the Bit O’ Red were challenging for the title, still in both cups and lost out to Drogheda in the Setanta Cup semi-final. In contrast to this year four

defeats in their first games sees them a long way behind inthe league, beaten by Derry City in the league cup and Dundalk in the FAI Cup, practi-cally ending their season before the break; a first Se-tanta Cup title was not enough to save Ian Baraclough.

Is this another knee-jerk reaction and will we find Sligo making an-other change come the end of the sea-son as Coleman is only on a rolling contract? We shall wait and see the answer to both.

20 July 2014 League of Ireland Month-

When It Rains It PoursAlan Finn gives us an insight into Ian Baraclough’s sucessor at Sligo Rovers, John Coleman

During what is usu-ally a quiet period in the League of Ireland season, Sligo Rov-ers remained in the sporting headlines with the announce-ment that they had parted ways with manager, Ian Bara-clough, and his As-sistant, Gary Stevens.

This decision took many by surprise, particularly fans of other clubs, who took to Twitter to question why the club would let their most successful man-ager leave midway through the season. Looking in from the outside, it may ap-pear strange, but the Rovers faithful who have watched them throughout the season will suggest otherwise, believing the timing of this de

cision makes sense and that change may be required in order to revive their hopes of finish-ing in the top four.

T h i s naturally

prompted m u c h debate, with names such as Pat Fenlon, Paul Doolin, Roddy Collins and Mick Cooke all being thrown around. The Bit O’Red would instead continue to do what they have done so many times throughout their history by extending their search for a successor outside of

the League of Ire-land merry-go-round with the appoint-ment of John Cole-man on June 21st.

The 51-year-old Liver-

pudlian brings w i t h h i m a

wealth of ex-

p e r i e n c e in the dugout.

While his first ven-ture into manage-ment was with Ash-ton United as in 1997, it would be his next club where he would truly make his name.

WIn 1999, Coleman joined a then non-League Accrington Stanley. He would

go on to do a phe-nomenal job with his new side, tak-ing them through the conference and earning promotion to League 2 in 2006 on a shoestring bud-get. Part of that pro-motion squad was a certain Paul Cook, now synonymous with Sligo, as well as

Cup and title win-ning Captain, Danny Ventre. John would remain in charge for another six years be-fore earning a move to Rochdale. Up un-til his departure, he was the third-longest serving manager in English football be-hind Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger.

His time at the helm would unfortunately prove to be much shorter lived, lasting

just under a year when his contract was terminated following a poor run of form in January 2013. Coleman returned to management last December, this time re-visiting his old stomping ground, Southport, where he remained an ever-popular figure. He was able to steer the club well away from relegation, but chose to resign shortly after the season’s end.

Joining him at The Showgrounds will be his Assistant, Jimmy Bell, who has previously worked with John at Accrington, Rochdale and Southport. He was also part of the set-up at Port Vale where he coached the club’s


Development Squad.

With a history of coaching potential stars of the future, Bell revealed at their press conference

that both he and Coleman’s intentions of bringing local players in the Sligo Rovers first team again and he is expected to be

heavily involved with the club’s Under-19 set-up.

As for the immediate future, Coleman has identified a handful

of players he wishes to bring to the club, one of which he was questioned about by a member of the crowd who quizzed the new boss about a possible return of Romuald Boco, to which he promptly replied if those in attendance would like to see the Benin International come back for a fourth spell.

He has previously

worked with Boco, as well

as Padraig Amond and Mauro Almeida among other ex-Rovers players, but stressed that it is not always a wise decision to go back

Former Accrington Stanley boss John Coleman is the man entrusted with turning the Bit O’Red’s Fortunes around

to former players, although he did not totally rule out the idea of re-uniting with ‘Rommy’.

The new duo have left a positive first impression on sup-porters, however they may have to hit the ground running to gain full support from all sections, with the club going into the mid-season break on the back of three defeats and a draw, form that has become somewhat foreign to The Bit O’Red in recent years

Alan Finn is founder of Sligo Rovers fan-site ‘Bit O’Red Blog’


Back Cover: The Aviva Stadium hosting the tie between Shamrock Rovers and Liverpool FC. The Merseysiders comfortably won 4-0 in front of 42,517 with goals from Iago Aspas, Fabio Borini, Martin Kelly and Jack Dunne.Credit: George Kelly

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league of ireland monthy: july 2014

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