Section O Says Hello (04/03/15)

Good evening ladies and gentlemen and a big hello from all of us over on the other side of the ground. Four weeks into our first season back in the Premier and it’s fair to say that things are starting to look alright! After an incredibly difficult start against last year’s champions and the Tallaght Galacticos, most Town fans accepted that our season was really only due to start away to Limerick two weeks ago! Now sitting comfortably in 7th place (at time of writing) it’s finally starting to feel like we’re back in the big time! Our first win in the Premier division didn’t exactly felt like a classic.

A bitterly cold midweek game played in front of a poor crowd, far from what we dreamed of over the last 7 years. However, a win is a win and those 3 points could prove vital by the end of the season and for anyone lucky enough to have experienced Eamon Deacy park last Friday night, it more than made up for it! So far this season our crowds have been disappointing, considering the huge crowds we drew in at the end of last season as well as the playoff games the years before. Games, the whole point of which was to get where we are now, in the Premier competing against the best sides in Ireland. Tonight on a bank holiday weekend with a team that all of us are more than familiar with in Town, wouldn’t it be great to see fans from the past and present back out in the CCS as we try and get a scalp from one of the big boys! MON DE TOWN

Galway SD United FC

This week, the Ireland-Poland match took up the majority of headlines in the Irish media. An amazing atmosphere in the Aviva, mainly created by the Poles, together with a last minute equaliser gave the Irish public something to hang onto in the hope that the national team will make France next year. In Galway, two days before, there was an amazing atmosphere created by two sets of passionate fans and a last minute winner which made the celebrations in the Aviva look tame by comparison. The match may not have been top of the bill for matches that night but with both teams recently promoted and still trying to find their feet, it had added significance for both sets of players and fans. Visits to Galway have been good to us recently and this one certainly didn’t disappoint. Both sets of fans were in the ground early and making their presence felt 15 minutes before kick-off. Galway (insert latest entity here), started off the better side with our defence again looking very shaky in the early minutes. Six minutes in, a shot from the right was badly parried allowing Jake Keegan to nip in and put “them” ahead, silencing the away fans momentarily. For the next 20 minutes or so, we didn’t look like we had an answer to their equaliser, preferring to play the ball up into the air on most occasions which suited a blustery night in Galway perfectly. Then with just under half an hour gone, we were handed a lifeline as the increasingly impressive Gary Shaw seemed to be dragged down when through on goal. The Galway man was sent packing amid complaints from fans and players from the west. Some critics/keyboard warriors have since suggested that he may have went down too easily but considering his options were to be one on one with the keeper or take a free outside of the box, it was clear as day that he was fouled. This lifted the away fans’ spirits and with the noise levels again increasing, Town were urged on to claim an equaliser. Their wishes were granted just before the stroke of halftime when an in-swinging cross from Conor Powell was glanced towards goal by Gary Shaw and seemed to actually go through the home keeper. Despite it only being an equaliser with a whole half of football still to go, it was clear how much it meant to the away fans. One fan even decided it was as good an opportunity as any to strip semi naked, as seen on Soccer Republic (still available on RTE Player).

It’s an old cliché to say that conceding just before halftime is a particularly bad time for a team but Galway certainly seemed affected as they sat back for the entire second half, allowing Town to pile on the pressure. Don Cowan again was incredible on the right wing, skipping past two players at times with ease and knocking ball after ball into the opposition’s box. After about 50 million shouts for handball from blocked shots and scramble after scramble inside the box, it just didn’t look like it was going to be our day. After 5 minutes of stoppage time was announced, their keeper decided to hit the ground for a quick break as we waited to take a corner, the game looking ever increasingly like it was slipping away from us. The corner was finally delivered and after another quick scramble around the box, Don managed to control it and fire it through what looked like a wall off Galway players. In the midst of all this, no one seemed to notice a bit of a fracas taking place on the pitch. Most of us looked up to see both Pat Flynn and Galway’s Oji walking down the tunnel. No one managed to catch what exactly happened but rumours at the time suggested that both men took the opportunity to be removed from the action, so Flynner could teach Oji his celebration technique from the Bray game the week before. Whatever happened at the end, as the final whistle no one really cared. The fans stayed back to sing the team off as they finished their warm up. 7 points in the past 6 days had made us all feel like the Town were really back where they belong!

Away Days

While some of us have been looking forward to the trip back to Dalymount for quite some time. Faith has it that we will be visiting the home of Irish football twice in the next week and Section O hope to run a bus to both. The last time we played Bohs twice in such a short space of time was the week Stephen Kenny left us for them in 2001. In that week we beat them in the league before losing to them in the Fai cup. We’ll take two wins this time. If interested text Kieran on 0831670304 as soon as possible and keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter pages for more updates.