volume 3 / issue 04
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june 2016
INSIDE: MARTIN O’NEILL “ONE OR TWO MORE LOI PLAYERS COMING THROUGH NEXT YEAR” THE LOST MUNSTER LEAGUE
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Editor: Kevin Galvin
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Designer: Kevin Galvin Social Media: David Downey Thomas Aaron Cawley Photography: localstudies.wordpress.com limerickfc.ie Comeragh Photo rte.ie kicker.de Contributors / David Kent Mícheál Ó hUanacháin Dave Galvin Colm Cuddihy Cover Page / STANDING TALL: The Republic of Ireland finished their preparations for the upcoming European Championship, playing their final game against Belarus at Turner’s Cross Source: @RichardKeogh_6 The use or redistribution of any part of this magazine is strictly prohibited unless explicitly authorised by LOI Monthly
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THE GREEN SCENE LOIMothly gets inside the Irish camp and says how the League of Irelad’s stock may be growing on the back of recent Irish success
THE LOST MUNSTER LEAGUE: PART I
Mícheál Ó hUanacháin regails us with the story of the ‘lost’ Munster League that took place between 1901 and 1904
ALL A BIT ODD!
Dave Galvin recounts more bizarre stories from the League of Ireland, including the crumbling of Jacobs Factory team in the LOI
LOI ABROAD: FAHRUDIN KUDUZOVIC Colm Cuddihy remembers former Sligo Rovers, Cork City, and Dundalk striker Fahrudin Kuduzovic who, despite his lack of silverware, holds plenty of records!
@kjgalvin93
generally show the good bits while giving a good outlook on the bad bits. The article the other day, titled ‘Turner’s Cross Is A Completely Shambolic Venue for Tonight’s Ireland Friendly’ however really was pitiful. The piece, written by Gavin Cooney bemoaned the lack of plugs and wifi around the ground on Tuesday, and seemed like a bit of a feeble attempt to but a damper on the fantastic occasion, whilst also buying the site some cheap clicks by those who might bite on the bate.
Hello all once again and welcome to the June 2016 issue of LOIMonthly, Volume 3 Issue 04. We’ve had some mixed feedback to last month’s magazine, which, as I’ll freely admit, was short on content. May is obviously the month where exams take place and with many of our writers involved with exams in some form or another it’s understandably difficult to find the time. I was forced to postpone last month’s magazine as week due to my own final exams, and again this month we haven’t received as much as we usually would. We are always looking for writers, so if you’re interested in the League of Ireland and would like to pen something for the July issue do get in touch! You can message us on our facebook page, get us on twitter, or send us a plain old-fashioned email at loimonthly@gmail.com There has also been some backlash regarding Dave Kent’s piece on the situation at Waterford United. Dave has been a good friend of mine for a number of years, and while his opinions aren’t always popular he does write from the heart. Many people mistook what he wrote as a vendetta against the Blues, but it was simply frustration at yet another LOI club in financial difficulty.
While the games were both disappointing, there was plenty of talking points, some of which that will be included in our feature piece about the Irish team and the League of Ireland later on. The LOI has contributed over a dozen players to the Irish ranks in recent years, showing its fundamental position in the foundation of future Irish stars, and with more and more positive signs, like the game on Tuesday and Gary Rogers inclusion to the squad, emanating from the Irish camp towards the LOI, it’s only a matter of time before our league is taken seriously by the FAI in its role towards the national team. The sun is shining and once again the sporting summer becomes part of the agenda. It’s a really fantastic time to be involved in Irish football with the Euro’s around the corner, and our own League of Ireland clubs set to enter the European stage once again at the end of the month. European competition is extremely exciting, and gives us an opportunity to rate the best of our country with the rest of the continent, with the opportunity for games against Europe’s biggest superpowers always a wish, even as part of the qualifying stages should clubs get a run together. The draws will take place soon and the usual mad scramble for planes, trains, tickets, and automobiles takes place as we diehard League of Ireland fans take ourselves off to the most remote destinations, coming away delighted after a 1-0 win (hopefully).
This month also saw a major first milestone for the magazine as we covered our first international matches. Yours truly headed up to the Aviva for the Netherlands game a week ago, before taking in Ireland v Belarus at Turner’s Cross. As an avid Cork City fan and League of Ireland promoter, it gave me huge pride to see our boys in green stride out onto an immaculate pitch under a blazing Cork sun at the old venue.
With the prize money on offer also so lucrative it’s a huge incentive for clubs on our shores to really have a go off it, and while recent results have been largely disappointing, it only takes one good result to turn things around.
I would like to take this opportunity also to express my extreme disappointment at balls.ie for their destructive article slating the use of Turner’s Cross for Tuesday’s international. The lads there are usually extremely positive towards the League of Ireland and
Kevin Galvin
I really hope those of you who can will make it out to a European game, regardless of whether your team is involved or not, and support our lads in the League of Ireland. Other than that, enjoy the magazine!
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opinion | david kent
GHOST ’TOWN Is the League of Ireland dying? Another month and another depressing stat about the League of Ireland. 15 FAI Cup games over a weekend and only one of them broke the four figure attendance mark and even then that was an estimate. This was despite Cork City, Dundalk, St.Patrick’s Athletic and Shamrock Rovers all being at home. Admittedly they were against weaker opposition, but this is the FAI Cup, it’s one of only three domestic trophies available to clubs. The former I can let get away with considering it was in a run of 6 straight home games. But for the likes of Athlone Town, who drew 57 people to their tie, I’m not giving any exception. Fifty seven. FIFTY SEVEN PEOPLE. There were probably more people at Mass on that Saturday night in Athlone than there was at Lissywoolen. Yes, there was a group of fans protesting but they number maybe a hundred and fifty or so. So Athlone’s core base of supporters is around 200. Clubs simply cannot survive on those kind of numbers, as proved by another first division club. I gave my tuppence on Waterford United’s struggles last month, so you’d imagine that during their time of desperate need and with an €80,000 euro target that there’d be an outpouring of support. So let’s take a look at their attendances during May… 268 v UCD. 303 v Cabinteely 268 again v Longford Town. When your own town gives up on you, it’s time to take Old Yeller out the back. The fans saved Cork City, the fans saved Dundalk, the fans saved Rovers. Waterford have none to save them And then we turn to last weekend’s
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games on Sunday. As always, an Irish international scheduled on the Friday evening disrupted plans slightly, but Sunday afternoon is always better than a Tuesday evening to reschedule a game. And this particular Sunday was a gloriously bright, crisp day across most areas. There was nothing interesting on the television unless you were a staunch supporter of Armagh, Cavan, Barnsley or Millwall. People simply don’t care about the League of Ireland anymore. The figures make for grim reading. Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians are two of the top three biggest clubs in the country and both couldn’t get over 2,000, one for a significant Dublin derby. Cork City are again leading the way for average attendances but even their figures are dropping. They’ll rise after Friday’s expected sell out against Dundalk. What’s going wrong? What can we do to fix it? Absolutely nothing, because the controllers of Irish football would seemingly rather see the domestic league die than try to fix it. Dermot Keely in one of the papers called for the clubs to vote out of the FAI ownership of the League of Ireland. It’s necessary, but every man and his dog knows it won’t happen. It’s fine though. We’ve got the ‘Greatest Fans in The World’ again now that the Euros coming up. The same ‘Greatest Fans in the World’ who let Monaghan United die the same week as they were singing against Spain in Euro 2012. The Greatest Fans in The World who’ll jump up and down and sign about how much they hate the Queen and slag off the Royal Family,
Cobh’s 251 against Waterford United was one of the lowest seen across the divisions
conveniently ignoring of course that six weeks earlier these same people probably cheered Marcus Rashford in the FA Cup final, or proclaimed their amazement at how Jamie Vardy won Leicester City the title. The Greatest Fans in the World that’ll no doubt support a Scottish club over an Irish one should Dundalk be paired with Celtic in the Champions League in a month’s time. There’s plenty of hilarious ‘banter’ fuelled banners that will be heading to France. Whatever happened to a simple Irish flag that wasn’t desperately trying to make itself go viral so you can show off to the lads? One did catch my eye though - Hoolahan, Coleman, Long, Ward and McClean with the words – League of Ireland: fuelling the Boys in Green. If only the rest of them could realise that. And here’s the best news. We think it’s bad now? Just wait for August, when Sky Sports start showing Premier League games on Friday night. Is it any wonder that players try and get away from this league the first opportunity they can? Rats, sinking ship. You do the rest.
Photo: Comeragh Photo
LOI ATTENDENCES SUNDAY MAY 29TH 2016 Derry City vs Bray – 1,000 (estimate) Dundalk vs Wexford – 2,371 Cabinteely vs Drogheda- 225 (estimate) Bohemians vs Pats – 1,515 Shelbourne vs Limerick – 632 Cobh vs Waterford – 251 Rovers vs Harps – 1,000 (estimate) Longford vs Cork – 450 All attendances sourced from extratime.ie
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Photo: twitter.com
THE GREEN SCENE League of Ireland fans have it tough; the travelling around the country to follow your team week in-week out, the battling with fans of other, ‘superior’ leagues from our own country who would rather fly to London or Manchester to see one game than spend the same on a season ticket for a side on their doorstep, the chortling and teasing by those same fans, at your stupidity for following ‘that sh*te’ which has only produced over half of the current Irish side, and the feeling that everyone, even your own football association, is working against you. The Football Association of Ireland fit the perfect bill for the league’s pantomime villain. The money and political struggle within the association is well documented, and their relationship with the league dubbed a ‘Problem Child’ by its own Chief Executive John Delaney can be described as tense at best. The general feeling amongst LOI supporters is that the vast majority of those involved in the Association see the league as nothing but a necessary evil, a waste of valuable resources, a source of endless difficulties. To that extend not only are league fans not far from the truth, neither are the FAI. A long history of financial mismanagement
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has plagued this league since its creation, and little has improved under the new era of FAI ownership and licencing ‘requirements’, which often fluctuate depending on the shortage of teams in the lower division. Betting scandals, fraud, even hooliganism have all been seen even just over the past few years, and anyone who reads Dave Galvin’s excellent recurring series in this magazine know that many of these issues are no stranger to the national league. Moreover in the face of such fierce competition like the Premier League, the GAA, Irish Rugby and our own International side, the space for financial expansion is extremely slim, making the league a rather unattractive product for a business perspective. Are these factors common across much of European domestic football outside of the ‘Top Five’? Absolutely. Should these influence a National Association’s interest in its own domestic competition? Absolutely not. What’s more confusing is the FAI, despite their apparent unease about the organisation, continue an insistence to retain absolute control over this ‘problem child’, running the league in an authoritarian manner and dictating absolutely everything.
Former Cork City player Shane Long sports a smile before the Republic of Ireland play Belarus at Turner’s Cross, his former home ground. Photo: @AVIVAIRELAND
If rumours are to be believed the agenda for the club meetings must be approved by the league, who frequently take out any issue which may put their authority at risk (evidently therefore the most important ones). The prize money offered meanwhile is far below-par, and continues to be a merited gripe amongst league fans, especially considering competition costs. The Associations handling of TV money too, including it within ‘prize money’ (despite not seeing any real increase in same), makes many in the league wonder where that money has truly gone. Overbearing fines and inconsistent disciplinary decisions (take for example the recent crucifixion of fellow LOI villain Roddy Collins for seemingly harmless comments made in his Daily Star column) only add to the general air of distrust between associations, clubs, officials, and supporters, which only adds to the continuing frustration growing amongst League of Ireland fans. It seems however that perhaps attitudes are slowly beginning to change towards the
League of Ireland amongst the ranks of the national team; whether that be through the appointment of former Cobh Ramblers player Roy Keane as Assistant-Manager or the realisation of the amount of Senior Ireland stars who started (and in the case of David Forde spent a sizeable part of) their careers playing within the domestic competition. We have seen Dundalk goalkeeper Gary Rogers called up to Ireland training on several occasions, and was named in the squad during last Friday’s friendly against the Netherlands, joining fellow league compatriots Kevin O’Connor, Sean Maguire and Brandon Miele (all U21 internationals) in putting on the green jersey in 2016 at a high level. While the league hasn’t yet seen a capped player since Joe Gamble donned the Irish jersey during the United States tour of 2007, it is moving closer back to that point. “When I came into the the squad a couple of years ago” said Irish manager Martin O’Neill following the Netherlands draw “people were telling me there was, I think, nine in the squad at the time who’d come through the
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League of Ireland, that’s not bad at all. I think it’s very important, for example Gary Rogers came in and he has had a great couple of days for us.
tickets through the club’s trust fund FORAS it showed a clear appreciation by the FAI of the work being done in the League both on and off the pitch in recent years.
“We had a training session yesterday where we really worked the goalkeepers and he did really well, I think he’ll be disappointed he didn’t get on tonight. I think that the League itself is very important, and there’s always the possibility of people being able to come through. If some of the League of Ireland managers say to me about looking at a certain player I’ll be the first one over to have a look at him, and I’m sure there’ll be one or two more come through in the next year.”
“It’s great to come home” said ex-Cork City player and one of the 23 heading to France David Meyler before the game on Tuesday against Belarus “Obviously I’ve been over in England quite a while now, seven years, but it’s always great to come back and see the same friendly faces around the ground. I had a great time at Cork City and it’s a special club.”
Not only now are LOI players on the fringes of the squad, but this week also saw an Airtricity League ground used for an Irish International for the first time in living memory (we’re not counting Thomond Park if you’re asking!). The Cross has been the site of many memorable days for long-term tenants Cork City and other teams around Munster. Perhaps its finest day came on May 31st 2016 however, when it staged only the third full Irish international to be played on Leeside (The other two being in 1939 against Hungary at the Mardyke (2-2) and in 1985 at Flower Lodge against Spain (0-0), and with many genuine Cork City fans getting
While there was disappointment for exDerry City and Galway United goalkeeper Forde in the final inclusions, there are no less than eight players who have played in the League of Ireland (see table below) that will take part in Ireland’s latest European Championship campaign, which is a testament to the quality of our league. If some of these players perform in France we may hear even more about the League of Ireland’s connection with the National Team, and as it seems clearly the FAI’s emphasis is on the ‘boys in green’s chances rather than the health of our own national league, perhaps this is the perfect opportunity for the league to show the world how much it has contributed to what will hopefully be another memorable campaign. K.G
EX-LOI PLAYERS GOING TO FRANCE
SÉAMUS COLEMAN
STEPHEN WARD
WES HOOLIHAN
JAMES MCCLEAN
SLIGO ROVERS BOHEMIANS SHELBOURNE DERRY CITY 26A/1G 93A/26G 133A/11G 79A/16G IRELAND 34A/0G
IRELAND 32A/2G
IRELAND 29A/2G
IRELAND 37A/5G
DAVID MYLER
STEPHEN QUINN
SHANE LONG
DARYL MURPHY
CORK CITY 2A/0G
ST PAT’S 1A/0G
CORK CITY 2A/0G
WATERFORD 100+A/14G
IRELAND 15A/0G
IRELAND 15A/0G
IRELAND 62A/16G
IRELAND 20A/0G
‘Victoria’ Barracks (Now Collins’ Barracks), Cork City
THE LOST MUNSTER LEAGUE 1901-1904 Part 1: The irreversable rise of the Munster game Mícheál Ó hUanacháin In May 1901, a correspondent in the Cork Examiner, using the pen-name “Dribbling Code”, asked “could not something be done to ensure the success the socker game in Cork has made being maintained? Of the teams in the district we have the KRRs, Cork Celtic, Cork Constitution, RA Spike, Passage, Black Prince, Fermoy Swifts, and I believe clubs exist in Crosshaven, Queenstown and also Camden.”
later, a meeting of the Munster Football Association is reported in the same paper.
He concluded by “Trusting some of our socker enthusiasts will endevour [sic] to establish the game on a sound basis before the commencement of the next season ...”
Having elected “Sir A Dobbyn and Mr Chas Chirnside ... President and VicePresident respectively”, the meeting heard that both gentlemen had offered trophies for competition, and indeed those competitions became staples of the Munster season quite soon.
He was quickly answered by F Scannell, Secretary of Cork Rangers AFC, effectively calling for a meeting of those clubs (and others), and barely four months
“The Secretary read letters of congratulation from the Irish Football Association and the Leinster Association on the success of the Association, which is now the governing body for fourteen clubs, whose grounds are situated in the province of Munster” (Cork Examiner 07 Oct 1901).
“Mr Judge” (no first name given) was 11 9
elected Chairman for 1901-2, but cannot have lasted the full season, as the next annual meeting of the MFA less than a year later was presided over by Mr Henry Vincent, outgoing Chairman. Chairman of the Association was a shortlived job, it seems. That first meeting in October 1901 also featured a vote of thanks to Mr J Butler for giving the use of his ground for the match on Saturday last. His ground was better known as Turner’s Cross, which was a frequent venue for Munster Association matches thereafter. Somehow, this first Munster Football Association, and its Leagues and competitions, have been airbrushed out of the history of soccer here, with listings in relatively prestigious and comprehensive sources claiming there is no record of winners of the Munster League prior to the First World War. The Munster FA’s own website doesn’t even include the pre-1922 Munster Senior Cup winners, which are relatively easy to locate. On the contrary, the fact is that there was no Munster League to have a history from the outbreak of that War on, until a new Munster Association was formed under the auspices of the new, separate, Football Association of Ireland in Dublin. The seeds of the death of that first MFA were present in its first membership. As the letter-writer said, there were clubs already in existence in Munster, and there had been a steady trickle of matches over the preceding years. But what was striking, even during a period when military teams were playing in most football leagues in Europe, was the local dominance of teams 12
from Army and Navy units. In the list given by “Dribbling Code”, at least four are military-based: the King’s Royal Rifles, the Royal Artillery in Spike Island, the training ship HMS Black Prince, and the Royal Engineers at Fort Camden. And when they launched their Munster League Championship that autumn, it consisted of six civilian and seven military teams. Then, as now, media attention was vital to create a sense of occasion for matches, and frequently the media are less helpful than they might be – though of course that is not their priority. The Cork Examiner was the most consistent supporter of Association Football in Munster – and even there, Senior League results often had to make way for lengthy reports of international or Inter-Provincial Rugby matches. They didn’t usually find their space invaded by national or Dublin-based soccer, though. The Examiner was nothing if not Munsterbiassed. Sadly, however, with all that consistency, the Examiner failed frequently to follow through on its own listings of weekend matches, and a game touted as being of great interest or significance on the Saturday often vanished without trace in the Monday edition. Saturday matches outside Cork city (even as close as Queenstown) were sometimes reported on the following Tuesday, or Wednesday in the case of matches in Kerry. And the paper often relied on the reader himself (or herself, though there’s little indication of ladies’ interest in the game) to join the dots and figure out what the result means.
Towards the end of the first season, 1901/02, the League table published in the Examiner showed the following situation at the top end: P W R Artillery, Spike 17 13 6th Pro Bat (Fermoy)15 12 Haulbowline 17 8 Cork Celtic 15 8
D L F A Pts 3 1 65 20 29 2 1 44 10 26 4 5 26 21 20 3 4 24 14 19
Eleven teams remained in the competition, Details Wiltshire Regiment having dropped out early on and the King’s Royal Rifles in the New Year. And neither results nor reports for the outstanding fixtures surfaced in the paper until the beginning of May, when Celtic are listed hosting 6th Provisional Battalion on 03 May at Turner’s Cross, in a match the paper says “will probably decide” the outcome of the league. The army side won, goals by Douglas and Kerley defeating the sole home effort of Riordan, and it appears the Fermoy team thus took the first Munster League title – and thereby the double, having lifted the first ever Munster Challenge Cup the previous week by defeating the Royal Engineers, Camden, in the Final. Matches at the Cross were frequently described as starting “down the incline”, a well-known property of many pitches at that time.
premises. Ballintemple would years later become Flower Lodge, home ground for AOH, and subsequently Páirc Uí Rinn. The precise location of Victoria Cross Grounds is doubtful, but it seems also to have been just south of the River Lee. The Camp Field was in the vicinity of what was then Victoria Barracks, on the Old Youghal Road. Haulbowline later used a home base at Carrignafoy, east of the town, while the authorities of the Black Prince leased a field in Ringaskiddy where crew and trainees alike could exercise and play games ón land. In 1902/03, the Association divided its teams in two, forming the Munster Senior and Junior Football Leagues. In 1903/4, they first used the term “Munster Senior League”, and by 1905/6 there were nine teams in each of the two Divisions. The Association continued to expand, running three leagues in 1907/8: the Senior, Divisions One and Two, and a Combination, or reserve league, for a total of 25 teams in all. To the Munster Challenge Cup (Sir Alfred Dobbin’s donation) were added the Chirnside Shield and the Burkley Cup, and the Tyler Cup would soon be added, for the Junior sides.
Other grounds in the city would also be used in the coming seasons: Camp Field, Victoria Cross, Ballintemple and Cork Park in particular.
All those trophies were named for their donors, but there doesn’t seem to have been room for an Elvery Cup, as had been offered by “Elvery and Co, Cork and Dublin etc” back in 1901. The thriving Munster soccer scene didn’t need – or more particularly, want – Dublin-based support.
Cork Park was the city’s racecourse, and stood where Páirc Uí Chaoimh now stands, as well as the former Ford and Dunlop
PART II IN NEXT MONTH’S MAGAZINE! 13
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ALL A BIT ODD!
Getting crowds in the game is the League of Ireland’s major problem
SOURCE: @
Source: Comeragh Photo
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Biscuits anyone? DAVE GALVIN again takes us on a history tour through a league that’s seen it’s fair share of tasty tales in its time! 15
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER The 1950 FAI Cup final between Transport and Cork Athletic is one of only three occasions on which a Blue Riband decider has needed a second replay to decide the outcome. It’s also the only occasion on which Transport, who were effectively the works team of the state transportation company, Coras Iompar Eireann (CIE), and were League of Ireland members for some fourteen seasons between 1948 and 1962, secured a major trophy win. Following successive 2-2 draws at Dalymount Park, the tie was finally settled by Transport winning 3-1 at the same venue on 5th May 1950 with a brace of goals from Barney Lester and another from Jimmy Duggan. Within those bare statistics however, lurks a rather intriguing story. Believe it or not, Transport’s centre-half in that deciding second replay, Mick Collins, was not even a registered player for the club at the time of the original game at Dalymount, nor indeed for the first replay! In fact, Collins actually paid in at the turnstiles for both of those games! At the same time, for some strange reason or other, no one, least of all Cork Athletic would appear to have had any concerns, either pre or post the deciding game, as to the circumstances surrounding Collins’s re-registration. Mick Collins himself explained the events in Sean Ryan’s ‘The Official Book of the FAI Cup’: ‘I was released by Transport two weeks before the final in a dispute over money. I paid into the first two games at the stiles and after the first replay I was approached and trained with them from Monday to Friday as by then I had gotten the terms I wanted. I could have been the subject of a protest, but that never happened, and after the cup win, I was captain for three 16
years and later on the manager’. TAKING THE BISCUIT! Proud founding members of the original League of Ireland back in September 1921, by the end of the decade fortunes had taken a serious downturn for Jacobs FC. Trouble brewed right from the off in the 1929/30 campaign, as the first four home league outings made for some horrendous viewing for any loyal Jacobs fan: 0-8 v St James’s Gate, 2-7 v Fordsons, 1-8 v Bohemians and 2-8 v Dundalk. It represented a dispiriting sequence of results, trumped only by a 1-9 reverse at Shelbourne later in the campaign! In total, the works team from Dublin’s famous confectionary company conceded a whopping 76 league goals in just 18 outings, an average of more than 4.2 goals every game! By the season’s end, a paltry 3 points were secured on the back of just three draws. Despite such a rotten year, Jacobs again took their place for the 1930/31season and showed some improvement when actually securing 4 points this time around, again over an 18 game sequence. In fact, the club actually managed to win a game (2-1 at Bohemians), however; other away days were not quite so memorable with 0-7 humiliations suffered at both Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne. By the time the next campaign kicked-off, Jacobs’s long suffering supporters must surely have been questioning the merits of yet further agony being foisted upon them. This time around however would prove the real Annus Horibilis with the following score lines registered amongst a host of disastrous outings: 0-6 home and 1-6 away to Cork FC, 1-6 home and 0-6 away to Dolphin, 0-8 home to Shamrock Rovers, 1-9
Jacob’s Football Team, known as “The Red Necks”, probably late 1920s. Back row from l-r Jem Looney, L. Cunningham, Mick O’Brien, Jim Kelly, John Temple, Barney -. Front row l-r Paddy Courtney, Mick O’Reilly, Christy Seery, Kit Smith, Ned McNamara, Joe Ward Photo: Michael O’Reilly/ localstudies.wordpress.com
away to Waterford and finally, 0-9 away at Dundalk. Good grief-it would make you wonder what home support was actually left attending at Rutland Avenue by this point. Miraculously however, Jacobs again improved on their tally from the previous two seasons’ to finish on a whopping 5 points. By now however, all concerned really had suffered enough and the Biscuit men resigned from the senior ranks, never again to feature as a League of Ireland entity!
tish giants Celtic, who had won the European Cup just three years earlier with a side still famously dubbed the ‘Lisbon Lions’. Having suffered a crushing 0-7 home defeat at Lansdowne Road, winger Johnny Matthews relates a humorous yarn about the second leg at Parkhead a week later. ‘For the second leg one of the Scottish papers did a headline ‘Come and see the massacre of the Leprechauns!’. We led 2-0 at half time! Our trainer and kit man at the time was a big Celtic fan. He was late coming out for the second OOPS…I MISSED THAT ONE! half by which time Celtic had pulled a goal back. They got two more to beat us In Paul Keane’s excellent book ‘Gods v Mortals-Irish Clubs in Europe’, one of the 3-2 but I’ll never forget him jumping up ties that features largely is the 1968 Euro- and down at the final whistle thinking pean Cup clash between Waterford and we had got a 2-2 draw in Glasgow! All you could do was laugh. These are great Manchester United. Also referenced in the same chapter is the game two years memories, I mean; Waterford played two European Cup champions in the compelater in 1970 in the same competition, tition in just three years. Sure, we’ll never when Waterford were paired with Scot17
Al Finucne, Limerick’s everlasting legend, in action for the Shannonsiders Photo: limerickleader.ie
see the likes of that again’. AN AGE OLD ACHIEVEMENT The former Limerick, Waterford, and Newcastlewest defender, Al Finucane, holds a unique place in League of Ireland history as the record appearance maker of all-time in the senior domestic game. In a career spanning more than 27 years, Finucane amassed a total of 634 league appearances from his debut as a 16 year-old, as well as many more in Cup, European and International football. On that international stage, he won 11 caps with Ireland between 1967 and 1971, at a time when the Republic struggled to secure any positive results. These magnificent statistics aside, Al Finucane also holds another very unique record as the 18
oldest ever player to appear in a European club competition, lining out for Waterford United against Girondins de Bordeaux in September 1986 aged 43 years and 261 days! The great Italian net minder, Dino Zoff, had previously held the same record when lining out with Juventus. Such was Finucane’s longevity in the game that the Bordeaux outing came fully 21 years on from his first ever European game with Limerick against CSKA Sofia, also in the old Cup Winners Cup in 1965, at which point some of both his teammates and opponents had not yet even been born!
Photo: rt.e.ie
LOI ABROAD: Fahrudin Kuduzović COLM CUDDIHY reccounts the story of a Bosnian striker who has played all around Europe. Bosnia and Herzegovina may be known for their footballing abilities these days, with the likes of Edin Dzeko, Amser Begovic and Miralem Pjanić all hailing from the ex-Yugoslav nation, but back in 2005 it was known more for its farms than its football. Fahrudin (Faz) Kuduzović arrived in Ireland and played for then-First Division side, Sligo Rovers, but that is not where the midfielder’s career began. Kuduzovic’s family left their native Bosnia for a better life in England, Leicester to be exact, in 1994. 10 years old at the time, he was soon scouted and signed by the current Premier League champions Leicester City he only stayed with The Foxes for a year before then becoming a Ram, moving to Derby, and stayed with their academy for eight years, before being released having failed to break into the first team. It didn’t take long for him to find his next club however, Notts County decided to
take a chance on the striker but sadly for the striker it was the same old story, as he failed to break into the first team and spent a solitary season on the banks of the Trent before being released once more in 2005. It was after this set back that Faz decided to try his luck elsewhere, signing for Sligo Rovers, a team with a tradition of signing lower-league English players. During his time there, The Bit O’Red gained promotion to the Premier Division by winning the First Division in his first season in the North West. His performances improved as he moved onto the top-flight with Sligo, helping the club finish a respectable fifth place in their first season back, and the following season, they finished sixth. Following three and a half seasons with Sligo, he moved to Louth, to play for Drogheda United for an undisclosed fee and just over a fortnight after his move, 19
he scored the winner in Drogheda’s Champions League game against Estonian club Levadia. A month later, however, The Drogs entered examinership, and were deducted 10 points, finishing eighth in the final table, a year after the club
won the league. Dundalk were interested in signing Faz from their bitter rivals Drogheda, but he decided to follow former manager, Paul Doolin to Cork City in 2009. He spent one season on Leeside, scoring eight goals in 31 games, he also grabbed a goal from the penalty spot in a friendly against English side, Ipswich Town, a game which City won 2-0. 20
After the collapse of Cork City in 2010, the striker decided to move back to Louth, this time to the team he snubbed the year before, Dundalk. He scored his first goal for The Lilywhites against his former club, Drogheda United, in the first Louth Derby of the season, to snatch an equaliser in his home debut. He also became the first Dundalk player to score for the club in Europe in over 19 years, against Grevenmacher of Luxemburg. In that same tie he also became the first ever foreign player to score in both legs of a European clash for a League of Ireland side, scoring in the reverse fixture as well. In his only season with the club, he scored 12 goals in 31 games, grabbing his first career hat trick against Galway United in the process. After the Bosnians time with Dundalk, he moved from Ireland to Germany, spending three and a half years in Germany with SV Eintracht Trier and in Luxemburg with RM Hamm Benfica at the start of last season, he is currently still in Luxemburg, but has changed allegiances in the microstate to the more French influenced Mondorf-Les-Bains, he had played seven games with the club situated in the south-east, but has yet to score a goal. Faz is fondly remembered by those involved with all the clubs he played with in Ireland, putting in stellar performances week in week out wherever he played. Despite his only team honour being the First Division title he won in 2005 with Sligo, he has individually entered his name in many a record book!
Faz in action with SV Eintracht Trier Photo: kicker.de