Supporters’ Club Notes (10/09/2017)

DIFFERENT CLASS

All week, hopes of causing a Cup upset ran high among the loyal Town supporters. Cork City had been stuttering and spluttering and we had hope for a continuation. At five o clock their kit van arrived, something seldom, if ever seen at the City Calling Stadium. Later, when the squad arrived, you'd swear they were an international set, such was its size swollen by a team of physios and various footballing consultants. Their subsequent warm up was even of an intensity seldom seen locally. Practically each player was given a talking to by Caulfield as they headed back down the tunnel before kick off. It was obvious that this Cork City team had been earlier humiliated by Shamrock Rovers and even Sligo Rovers and were now on a mission of redemption. And that was unfortunate for us.

While two of their four goals had a whiff of luck about them, there was no denying the gulf in class between the runaway League leaders and current Cup holders who were on a mission to achieve the double this season. By half time, our Cairn Hill had morphed into an Everest. But in fairness, our second half performance was much better. But a four two scoreline was about the best we could have hoped for and at the final whistle had to settle for 1-4 with the visitors scoring all five.

Cork City might have been a different class on the field of play but sadly, they didn't display any class in the disgraceful way they left the dressing rooms. When their full professional players were turning over for a Sunday morning sleep in, our volunteers were out in the City Calling Stadium tidying up their unwanted mess.

STUDENTS AT HOME

And so it's on to our penultimate home game this Saturday when we host UCD. Kick off is at 7.30pm when there will be hardly the same crowd present at the City Calling Stadium. For the Cork City game. we had about 1,000 present with a large travelling contingent. Much is made of separating supporters at other grounds but on Saturday night, all supporters intermingled with no problems at all. We certainly won't have to worry about the UCD supporters, if any at all travel. At the moment UCD are ahead of us by 6 points so, even if we win, we won't be leapfrogging like we did in our last two games. However, we really want to finish the league on a high and would seven points from our last three games be acceptable? Cobh, with our help can still catch Waterford and the final game of the season between those two Munster sides could seal the deal. But for us, we simply want to finish as high and as well as possible and start planning for the season ahead.

JACK'S THE LAD

Heartiest congratulations to Jack Brady on his Player of the Month award for August. He was clearly both surprised and delighted to his receive the award before Saturday night's game. Although, Saturday night's result didn't go the way we'd have liked, Jack still managed to bring off a couple of fine saves from a fairly lethal visiting strike-force.

PREDICTION WINNER

In the week leading up to the Cup game, we ran a score prediction on our own Facebook page. Although the Supporters' Club Facebook page is only up and running a short while, it received a huge response, way ahead of anything we could have predicted. Anyway, congrats to Shane Marron who was one of those who got the score correct and was then drawn by lottery. The prize is free membership for next season. Already plans are being hatched for another prediction competition before the season's end.

SOUTHERN PRAISE

Many Cork City supporters were once again loud in the praise for our set-up at the City Calling Stadium. One middle aged man was particularly loud in his praise. He added that he has travelled with Cork all over Ireland and to a few venues in Europe as well . There wasn't a thing he could fault us with he said. From friendly, efficient officials to toilets, clubhouse and car parking, he said we're the best in the land. He couldn't get over how well the pitch looked despite all the recent downpours. There was only one thing he couldn't understand and that was why we didn't get to host internationals and some level, even under age. And so say all of us.

LOST WALLET

One Cork City fan who travelled with a number of children lost his wallet in the stand on Saturday night. A search was carried out , early on Sunday morning after he reported it missing but alas, nothing was found. Hopefully someone found it and will hand it in early in the week. You can imagine how much it would mean to the unfortunate man.