Section O Says Hello (04/07/13)

Good evening Ladies and Gentleman once again from the other side of the ground. We are coming to you for the first time in over a month after a mixture of away games and of course the midseason break. Despite the break coming at what seemed like the perfect time for us, our results either side of it have seen us slip into a far less comfortable position then we were after our last home game against Wexford. With the memory of our collapse after the break last season still fresh in our minds, along with our rivals below us starting to really pick up pace, tonight’s game against our old friends from the South is vital if we are to stay on track. Let’s hope the lads can come out tonight and show that they have no intention of letting their lead slip!

El Clasico & SD

As mentioned above our last two games have seen us hit a little rough patch, starting with our much anticipated trip over to Athlone for El Clasico. There is no point on dwelling on the loss as it is old news at this stage. After such a big build up to the match, to say the result was disappointing does not do it jutice. We can make no excuses, Athlone were just simply better in all aspects and much hungrier then we were. We went down early and never once looked like we had any new ideas to get back into it while the Athlone lads played good passing football and ran rings around us sending us into the midseason break with a lot to think about.

A disappointing result on the pitch, however it has to be said that the goings on off the pitch so far this season between the two clubs is where all the entertainment has been. The mind games were in full flow between Tony and Roddy in the lead up to the game in various media outlets. Thankfully Tony seems to have the sense not to take the Rodster seriously, as do most sane people with any kind of knowledge of League of Ireland football.

The atmosphere at both derbies so far this season has also been fantastic and has a real “Premier Division feel to it” as the LOI Blog commented. Some Town fans seemed a tad upset as the Athlone fans unveiled their new altered Stan James banner in tribute to our recent controversial departee. Perhaps the professionalism of the stewards was questionable letting them parade it right in front of us, not just once but quite a few times. However it would be hypocritical of us to criticise it and pretend that had the shoe been on the other foot we would have been anything other than delighted with ourselves for coming up with it, so credit where credit’s due....ye scumbags!

After the midseason break, it was back to business as we made the reasonably short but certainly scenic trip to Drom to face bottom of the league Salthill Devon. As one Town fan put it on Twitter “Lovely trip later to the top of a hill in the arsehole of nowhere to hopefully get us back on track. #Town”. Much has been made of the referee’s performance in Salthill but as far as I am concerned if you are going to allow the opportunity for a referee's decision, correct or not to cost you points when you are top of the league playing the basement side then there is something wrong. All in all it was a terrible performance that we were quite lucky to come away with 1 point from, never mind 3. The only real positive to come out of our trip west was seeing Salthill’s usual right back in behind the pizza counter at half time. Eugene Greaney, only ever really notable for looking the spit of Eddie Durkin, seems to have given up on both a promising career as a lookalike for the Hardy Bucks and a not so promising football career to pursue what I can only assume was a lifelong dream to serve overpriced tiny pizzas out of a van, in the middle of nowhere, every two weeks to crowds of less than 100 people....we wish him the very best of luck!

Waterford

Tonight’s opponents are on a very good run of form after their usual poor start and are closing the gap on us a lot faster than we would like. They’ve been the subject of some bad press of late in the media with upcoming legal proceedings in the form of a Winding up petition to be put in front of the High Court in the next few weeks regarding their ongoing disagreement with former manager Stephen Henderson. The Blues it would seem are feeling confident of their prospects in Court as even being faced with the possibility of a winding up order hasn’t stopped them from going out and signing some new players in the last week, including the much sought after Conor Meade from Cobh. Joking aside, we hope that everything goes well for them as the last thing the league needs is another club winding up, particularly one with such history as Waterford.

Away Days

Many thanks to everyone who came on the Section O bus to El Clasico a few weeks ago and thanks to Foxes bar who not only opened up early to accommodate us but also provided us with a few boxes of cans for the trip. Section O are looking into the possibility of running a bus to Cobh on the 20th of July as we did earlier in the season. If we do it will probably be like last time, leaving around midday and heading down to Cobh for the day, we are currently looking to see if there is enough interest so please get in contact with us on Facebook or Twitter if interested.

Before that, we have a very important away match next week in Ballybofey, the Supporters club will be running a bus so if interested please text Liam on 0876141926 before this Wednesday. Harps are the only team to have taken maximum points from us this season so we would encourage as many people as possible to make the trip up north to support the lads.

FIFA Tournament

After the success of our last tournament, we are holding another one in Foxes bar this Friday, the 5th of July. Anyone that is interested in taking part is asked to be there at 7.30 to register and we hope to get started by 8.00. Entry is €10 and there will be cash prizes for top 3 as well as a smaller prize for those knocked out in the earlier rounds (Wykes). After paying off our player sponsorship with the last tournament, money raised for this one will go towards new flags, future buses and other ideas we may have up our sleeves to improve the atmosphere.

Bon Voyage!

We’ve used these notes in the past to welcome some of the older Section O heads back from living abroad but today we are saying farewell to one of the main Section O men, Kevin Carberry! Cabs, who is of course a teacher by profession, usually holidays several times a year, in fact he was in England when we played Waterford in our first game of the season and was in Portugal for our away trip to the RSC, or was it Amsterdam? Anyway, regardless he is off on his travels inter-railing around Europe for the next month or so. Some rumours are going around that he’s on a scouting trip for new chants to bring home; some say he’s planning on bringing himself home an Eastern European wife, whereas others reckon his main plan is to find more exotic locations to stick Section O stickers. Whatever his intentions, enjoy it Cabs!

Chant of the Week

Before Cabs left us all in the lurch to arse around Europe, he was kind enough to leave us with a parting gift. It had been noted by a few of us that of all the players, Brian McCarthy seemed to make a particular effort to come over to Section O to applaud us after each game. With this in mind it was only fair that he had his own song.

“He’s big, he’s bad, he’s McCarthy,
Born and raised by the Lee,
He’s Longford now beware,
Come and have a go if you dare”

Section O Membership

This year the Supporters club are offering a new “Section O” membership to attract younger supporters who wish to get involved. Membership costs the same as the Supporters Club, €10 or €5 for students. We at Section O intend to hold regular meetings where younger fans can ask questions and express their views which can then be brought forward to the Supporters Club.

Keep updated

If getting a hold of the match programme every fortnight to get your fix of these brilliantly put together notes just isn’t enough for you, make sure to keep up to date with all Section O news by liking our page on Facebook or following us on Twitter at @section_o_ltfc! There is also a new Section O….eh “section” on the official Club site www.ltfc.ltfc.ovh, where we will be hoping to add weekly news as well as any fan pictures we can get our hands on.