Supporters Club Notes

Supporters’ Club Notes (19/03/2018)

Sat Mar 24th 2018

HAT TRICKED

Our Friday night game against Shels was always going to be interesting. With our former goal scoring hero, David O’Sullivan now lining out against us, we wondered how he’d perform. The answer was clear early on – he was really up for the game and headed home with the match ball following his hat trick on a 3-2 scoreline. His post goal celebrations ensured that his red and black days are truly over but such is sport and such is life. We played some lovely football especially in the first half and despite the disappointing loss, heads aren’t dropping. The 2 sending offs however didn’t help our cause and certainly, Sam Verdon‘s opposite player made a three course meal of their clash.

With many sports people heading to London on Friday, Padraig Stapleton was making the journey in the opposite direction to be among the thousand or so in Tolka Park. Just back from Oman, Padraig is some man for one man. Section O certainly helped create an excellent atmosphere and hopefully they’ll continue to grow and expand during the season.

Three games played and so far, we’ve tasted one of each offering available, a win, a draw and a loss. Already, our league is shaping up to be a real dog fight judging by the other results to date. But we’re up for it – bring in on. C’mon de Town.

ATHLONE AT HOME

This Saturday night, we host our closest neighbours Athlone Town at the City Calling Stadium, with a 7.30pm kick off. While the other Town have had a poor start, word has it that they have targeted us for their first haul of points. As a result of our two red cards at Tolka Park, our starting eleven will have to be rejigged but we do have strength on the bench. That strength will be tested on Saturday night but hopefully we’ll pass the test with flying colours. By the way, put your clocks back an hour after the game. It may not feel like it but summer time kicks off.

PLAYER OF THE MONTH

As usual, the Supporters’ Club will be awarding the coveted Player of the Month. The trophy will be presented each month by a different Supporters’ Club member. To be in with a chance of making the presentation, make sure you’re a paid up member. A draw will be held each month to pick the presenter. And to avoid red faces this season, if you are making the presentation, make sure you’re at the players entrance tunnel about 20 minutes before kick off.

CAR BOOT SALE

Our first car boot sale of the season on the St Patrick’s Bank Holiday Monday, was held in pretty cold conditions but once it dry, that’s the main thing. Every now and then we get calls as to when we’re having our car boot sales; the answer remains the same – each Bank Holiday Monday. Kick off is at 4am when stall holders can enter on paying our nominal fee. We finish up at 3pm. As it happens, Channel 4 have a programme on Mondays at 5.30pm called Star Boot Sale. The series is based on a so called star being given a van and asked to make a profit with his various bric-a-brac.

Rumour had it that Liam Healion was a consultant for the series but wasn’t contactable for a comment. Seemingly he was in bed early in preparation for a 3am call.

BIRTHDAY BOY

Congratulations to Ian Maher who celebrated an other birthday recently. Maybe there’s something in the water out in Drumlish, but Ian seems to be getting younger with each passing year. Either that or he’s being so well looked after by herself!


Supporters’ Club Notes (11/03/2018)

Sun Mar 11th 2018

FINE HOME WIN

De Town had a good 3-0 home win against Wexford FC last Saturday. A heavy drizzle before kick off made for some slippery conditions but at least we didn’t let our lead slip this time. While, once again we played some lovely passing football, we still weren’t secured of all three points until the closing stages when our superiority and class showed with two more goals. It was a game we could have scored more but while we hit the woodwork twice, Wexford FC cracked it once..surely an unusual statistic.

What was particularly pleasing was the fact that we kept a clean sheet. So after our two opening home games, we’ve scored five and conceded two with four points on the board. It’s early days yet obviously but this time last season, alarm bells were beginning to tinkle. With results elsewhere favouring us,our win puts us level at the top with Galway,Cobh and UCD. It appears that we’re going to have a tight season ahead. Brace yourself.

SHELBOURNE AWAY

This Friday night, March 16th we travel to take on Shelbourne at Tolka Park with a 7.45pm kick off. The hosts have a single point to their name and despite having our former goal machine Sully, we hope their point tally will remain at just one. It’s hoped that Section O will be running a bus to add to the noise level. In past years, Longford people exiled in the capital city used to turn up in large numbers at Tolka. We’d love to see this continue. A win on Friday night would be the perfect start to a great Bank Holiday and sporting weekend.

TALK OF THE TOWN

The match programme for the Wexford game was another excellent production. Fair play to Kieran Burke and Marty Stapleton for their terrific contributions. If you failed to pick up a copy you’ll have missed the fact that our match sponsor was King Wing Foods (Hong Kong) Ltd. Who says we don’t have far away appeal? On a different note, nice to see Marty togged out in his hi-vis gear as he cycled home after the match.

CAR BOOT SALE

This Monday, 19th March sees our first car boot sale. Gates will open at 4am – yes, 4am and fees will be taken then from the stall holders. In the old days, we used to start much later but according as the car boot sales grew in success, the arrival times grew ever earlier. And of course we could do with some volunteers, maybe not the early shift but to help with traffic management and clean up afterwards.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Those long serving volunteers are all looking for some extra volunteers. Andy is searching for some more to help sell the 50/50 tickets and Tom could do with a pair of extra hands with the half time raffle. And as stated we could do with extra help at the car boot sales. Well, will you help us?

THANKS FOR NOTHING – AGAIN

One supporter who was on a bit of a long road trip on Saturday night tuned into RTE’s Sport results after the 11pm news. He was driving and couldn’t check his phone. Like all Town supporters, he’s a law abiding citizen. He heard all about the rugby and plenty about English soccer, a little bit of golf and interestingly a report on cricket. But zilch, zero, nada about our game against Wexford.


Supporters’ Club Notes (04/03/2018)

Mon Mar 5th 2018

SNOW SHOW

Our first game v Cobh was played in freezing conditions and then our second game v Finn Harps was postponed because of heavy nationwide snow falls. At least we have one game under our belts, Finn Harps opening two have yet to be played. So far, there’s no new date for our trip to Finn Park. It’s turning out to be some start to this season of summer soccer. In fairness to the powers that be in the FAI, they had the sense to make their announcement early on and were proved right.

WEXFORD AT HOME

This Saturday, March 10th we welcome Wexford FC to the City Calling Stadium with the usual kick off at 7.30pm. Wexford have started well with three points on the board following their excellent away win against Cabinteely. The recent snow problems were particularly bad down in the sunny south east but all of that will be forgotten by kick off on Saturday. We have three hopes for the game – that we play as well as we did against Cobh – that we take all three points this time – and finally that an other big crowd comes out to support De Town. The attendance two weeks ago was really encouraging and if it can be maintained, it should be enough to encourage an other excellent performance but with a win this time. Wexford have been buoyed by their good start and will be all out to maintain it. We’ll put a stop to their early gallop hopefully.

AGM

The Supporters’ Club AGM is being held on Monday, March 5th at 8pm in the Clubhouse. Some of the committee are nearing free travel age and would dearly love to hand over the reins to younger, enthusiastic, hard working, dedicated, loyal, imaginative supporters. So if you think you can fill that role, we’d love to see you out there at 8pm. The heating will be on, don’t worry.

JOIN US NOW

If you can’t join the Supporters’ Club committee, then do please join the Supporters’ Club itself. By joining you simply help to keep the entire show on the road as well as keeping our Clubhouse open. We had a decent membership last season but we’d like to add to it this year. Drop in to the Clubhouse at any home game and the smiling, helpful staff behind the counter won’t see you stuck. But try to call before the game, half time, as you know can be quite hectic in there.

CAR BOOT SALE

Our big fundraisers, the car boot sales start on the St Patrick’s Bank Holiday which falls on the Monday after St Patrick’s day. To date, our car boot sales have been hugely successful with people travelling from the four corners of Ireland. For us, it’s just out the road and if you’ve never experienced it, then this is the one for you. It opens very early in the morning and keeps going till 3pm.

BREXIT AND DERRY CITY FC

There have been lorry loads written about Brexit and how it’ll impact on Ireland north and south. Everyone has an opinion but still no one knows what’s going to happen. All we’re certain of is that there’s no certainty and no experts. But one aspect of the whole mess hasn’t been mentioned at all, or at least this scribbler hasn’t heard anything. If there’s a so called hard border, what will happen to Derry City FC ? To date, we always have looked on our Derry City team and fans as being part of us. But post Brexit, they’ll be really different as they’ll be beyond the EU. Maybe John Delaney and Co. have the matter sorted long ago but maybe not. Just wondering.

Supporters’ Club Notes (18/02/2018)

Sun Feb 18th 2018

WE’RE BACK!

It’s been a long, dark, wet and cold winter but with the stretch in the evenings, everything is looking brighter as we kick off our 2018 season. This Saturday night, we entertain Cobh Ramblers for the first game of the season with a 7.30pm kick off. Players have come and others have gone but the show goes on regardless. Like every club in the league, we look forward with great hope and optimism. This time last year the bookies had us favourites to be at the top but a poor start soon finished that aspiration. This season, we have an extremely tough opening few games. Cobh pushed Waterford all the way until the latter stages and after Cobh we have Finn Harps away on March 2nd, many people’s favourites for automatic promotion. So yes, it’s a tough start for sure. But we’re up for the challenge.

The Premier Division kicked off last week end and there were some great crowds out enjoying the return of the beautiful game. Even Sligo Rovers managed over 3,000 at their clash with Limerick but couldn’t manage any points. RTE showed the Dublin Derby between Bohs and Shamrock Rovers which was booked out weeks in advance and the game itself turned out to be a real thriller. A photo of the Bohs players celebrating a goal with 2 girls in the chipper in the background joining in has to be one of the early contenders for sports pic of the season.

What about our own hopes for the season ahead? Hopefully we’ll be still in contention at the business end and that we’ll see some excellent football right throughout a warm, dry, sunny summer/ And of course, we’d love to see many, many more supporters making the trip out to the City Calling Stadium. Just a few days ago, we received a Premier licence which is testament to all the hard graft put in by so many behind the scenes.

There’s a new kit, the dressing rooms have been recently re-painted, the players are raring to go and it’s almost kick off time. We hope to see you there to roar them on. C’mon De Town.

JOIN US

The Supporters’ Club continue to be the backbone of the club. We set up and run the Clubhouse, organise awards like Player of the Month, raise much needed funds through Car Boot Sales and Christmas raffles and the merchandise shop, secure ball boys and girls, update our Facebook page with photos and news and generally help keep the show on the road. We’d love if you could join us either as an ordinary member or join our committee aka the working gang. We’ll be having our AGM shortly and no doubt, we’ll see you there.

MEDIA STUFF

Well done to Kieran Burke and his team on Between the Stripes which continues to make great strides in the social media world. James Donnelly, also has been working hard as photographer and Twitter expert. John Caulfield of Cork City was none too pleased with RTE’s coverage of the President’s Cup and he was right to be fed up. No TV coverage and 10 seconds on radio. RTE then made the long trip to cover Bohs v Rovers and while they got a terrific game, why do they persist with the managerial interviews during the game. Can you imagine interviewing Ryan Tubridy as he presents his Late, Late Show. On a totally different media note, 3 had a full page ad in the Leader last week. It featured well known local landmarks and it was pleasing to see the City Calling Stadium featured alongside St Mel’s Cathedral.

CAR BOOT SALE

The season hasn’t even kicked off and already we’re receiving calls nationwide about our car boot sales for 2018. Well, the good news is that our first one will be on the Bank Holiday Monday, following St Patrick’s Day. As usual it’ll be from very, very early until 3pm. Our final car boot sale last season was so successful, we simply found it difficult to accommodate all who turned up. If you’re buying or selling or just gawking, then be on time to bag the best bargains.

LONGFORD’S LORCAN

Heartiest congratulations to Lorcan Towey from the U19s who has been selected to represent the Republic of Ireland U18 squad in back to back games against Wales this week. It’s a massive honour for Lorcan and his family as well as Longford Town FC. We’re all chuffed for Longford’s Lorcan. Well done too to Town supporter Chris Walsh who gave De Town a great shout out while he was featured on the Humans of Longford Facebook page recently. And finally, safe driving to our club chairperson on his new 181 Micra!


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