Wheres me jumpa

Last night I went to my first ever Eircom League game. It only took me 25 years to do it! Its an embarrassing fact but I plan to make amends for it for the remainder of this season and into next. While I play and watch a lot of football in Carlow, I just never got round to an Eircom League game before.

Tolka Park is just around the corner from me, so I had no excuse for not going to see Shamrock Rovers take on Bray Wanderers. I was accompanied by born again Irish football fan, Trilla. The first half was a drab affair but the second half more than made up for it.

Rovers took a 2-0 lead through two goals from the excellent Padraig Ammond. Then it was Brays turn to bag the goals. Substitute Gareth Coughlan scored a fine individual goal before Alan Cawley scored a cracking free kick late on to steal a point.

A good nights entertainment for the money. Apart from my absenteeism from Eircom League games all my life, the reason I considered last night significant was a recent argument on Waffle.ie. Trilla has been living in Dublin for some time now and has taken to supporting Bohemians. He has been doing his best to get others to follow Irish football. The argument revolved around me thinking he was looking down on those of us who do not attend Eircom League games.

Anyway the point is that it was very easy for me to attend the game last night as I am now based in Dublin. There is an element to some Eircom League supporters that you are not a football fan if you don’t support an Eircom League team. Having been to a game now, I don’t feel anymore knowledgeable about football than I did before hand. The fact of the matter is that for some people it is hard to support an Eircom League team.

This same attitude makes the league very unattractive for those on the outside. I would also point out that for all the fans I see posting on various sites, there was a very poor turn out at the game last night. This attitude is very much a minority, but it is an annoying minority.

Regardless, I plan on attending further games this season and savouring what is left of this season and I reckon I can drag some others along. If I get two people to go, and then they get two each and then…..I’ll think to myself, I should have monetised this pyramid scheme!