It says in the papers and on the podcasts: Bigger and Better

Crowds were the theme this week with the heathy attendances the previous Monday feeding into last weekend’s Irish Daily Mail FAI Cup semi-finals.

 

The four fixtures in question drew an aggregate attendance of almost 18,000. A figure which will have to be improved upon by 40% for one game at the Aviva if the lads on LOI Weekly are to be happy with the FAI Cup Final turnout.

 

Jamie Moore of 98 fm interviewed one representative from each of the teams left in the cup and to a man they all talked about how these are the games players want to play in. As opposed to the ones they only play in for money presumably.

 

Limerick’s Dave O’Connor even spoke of relishing the challenge of playing in front of the infamous Turner’s Cross shed. Nobody wants to see abuse go too far, however the fact remains that the type of characters who succeed as professional footballers often revel in the attention.

 

Stephen O’Donnell exemplified this point perfectly in the same podcast. The Dundalk midfielder agreed with Moore that players could feed off an atmosphere like the one in Turner’s Cross, even when their own fans are greatly outnumbered, and that the teams and the crowd together could help to provide an exciting spectacle for the TV viewing public.



 

O’Donnell cited the lack of empty seats and the closeness of the stands to the pitch as part of this positive scene; however, in my view, LOI clubs need to be careful about this idea. Empty seats may not look particularly ‘big time’ or ‘professional’ in a football sense, but neither do views of Cork’s Evergreen district or the local Christ the King Church.

 

To that end, I was surprised at how positive Aidan Fitzmaurice and Bohs Director Daniel Lambert were in the Herald when discussing the now delayed ‘Dalyer Nuevo’ having its proposed capacity cut from 10,000 to 8,000 (see here). Although, perhaps the delays may prove to be a positive by allowing temperatures to cool amongst the Shelbourne support.

 

Of course, related to attendances is the notion of the ‘size’ of a club. “A noble turnout embiggens the smallest team” as Jebediah Springfield might have said had he ever encountered the #greatestleagueintheworld.



 

Some comic relief was provided at the FIFA 18 launch when, speaking to LOI Weekly, Raff Cretaro asserted that Sligo Rovers were the biggest club in the country. If this claim were true it would make the Tubbercurry Tornado’s 2010 dalliance with Bohemians all the more questionable.

 

More plausibly, Johnny Ward suggested that Sligo might be the biggest club in terms of “the hold they have over the town”. The real controversy over club size this week was caused by Ronan Finn who, in an interview with the Irish Independent, defended his move from Dundalk to Shamrock Rovers last winter by emphasising the latter’s greater potential and facilities. (see here)

 

Finn was careful not to stoke the fires too much and the words “bigger” or “big club” appeared nowhere in the article. However, the Artane boy struck a more strident chord when pushed by the Dundalk Democrat (see here) in the aftermath of Sunday’s tempestuous Cup tie: “I had a magical two-years, but when I was at Dundalk I would have said that Shamrock Rovers were a bigger club”.

 

In case there was any confusion Finn continued “I think historically they’re a bigger club. I think their infrastructure says they’re a bigger club. Their stadium is better. Their training ground is better.” 

 

Naturally enough these comments are unlikely to have gone down too well in El Paso but, to get back to crowds, its worth noting that Stephen O’Donnell candidly admitted to Jamie Moore that there was a ceiling on Dundalk’s attendances because of the population of “the town” when compared to Cork’s (or Dublin’s, presumably).

 

The 1-1 draw in the recent Cork City v Dundalk league clash meant that, by the end of the week certainly, both O’Donnell and his manager Stephen Kenny were all but conceding the league title.

 

For his part City manager Caulfield seemed more than little defensive, preferring to blame fixture scheduling rather than his team’s results for the fact that Cork’s coronation has dragged on like a depressing story-line in a north of England soap opera.

 

Speaking to the Sun (see here), Caulfield stated that the delay is “because of the way the Cup is this year, it’s every two weekends and because games have been called off”.

 

There are at least two problems with this statement. Firstly, the FAI Cup semi-finals have been on this weekend in October for the last few years, and the league started a week earlier this season, so that aspect of fixture scheduling has not held Cork up at all.

 

Secondly, Cork were happy to call off games when Seanie Maguire was involved with the u21 international side.

 

It was interesting to note that Caulfield’s dissembling involved taking aim at the administration of the game as a whole rather than the match officiating on the night of his team’s latest dropped points.

 

Watching the game back last weekend I could only agree with presenters on LOI Weekly that both Dane Massey and Sean Hoare could easily have received their marching orders. Both men were booked but both could have received additional yellow cards for some fairly robust tackling.

 

This fact was ignored by the television summarisers with Brian Kerr unfairly criticising Karl Sheppard when the Portmarnock native called for Hoare to be sanctioned in the second-half. Sheppard was, as Kerr noted subsequently, fouled numerous times during the game. Are creative players supposed to just accept being kicked?

 

Extratime.ie caught up with Karl Sheppard in our latest Sportscast.

 

 

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