In Dublin

Shamrock Rovers  7  University College Dublin  0

League of Ireland – Premier Division

It was to be a diplomatic exercise of the highest order.

You see, I had a feeling a couple of League of Ireland games would get moved to the Sunday while we were over the water having our mini break.

It happens every season, the LOI issue a fixture list without the foresight that in the month of July four clubs will be competing in Europe, and this season that was to be Dundalk, Cork City, St Patricks Athletic and Shamrock Rovers.

The Europa League games take place on a Thursday night, so quite clearly, the traditional Friday night league fixture is simply not going to happen, and more often than not it gets moved to the Sunday as long as both clubs are happy with the arrangement.

So, as I suspected, a couple of games did land on the Sunday, so my next task was to convince the wider Hatt population that their Sunday in Dublin would be merely enhanced by a trip on the Luas tram to Tallaght to watch the might Shams take on UCD.

I dropped the initial suggestion in during a family meal at the lovely Tiger Inn at Turnditch one Sunday lunchtime, the initial response was a flat ‘No’, but within minutes after further discussions the idea was kind of half sold. However, it would hinge on whether Junior Hatt was buying it or not, and that would probably all depend on what side of bed he got out of on the Sunday morning!

Out of bed we climbed on Sunday morning and after a superb breakfast at the Seagoe Hotel in Portadown, it was down to the station for the return train trip to Dublin. Dublin was reached by mid-morning and soon we were dropping our bags at the Hilton Garden on the banks of the Liffey, and heading into the action areas.

Temple Bar, Grafton Street, O’Connell Bridge were explored as the crowds built on a busy old day in the fair city. With kick off time approaching, and Master H non-committal (it’s as good as it gets when we suggest football), we made our way over the river to Abbey Street to take the Red Line Luas to it’s final stop in Tallaght.

I’ve been to Tallaght once before, about ten years ago with my old pal Jamesie, on a Saturday afternoon to watch Rovers ‘A’ team take on Cobh Ramblers in the ill-fated third tier of Irish football. The game preceded a trip to Kildare County, and from memory it was a boiling hot day, and the game was literally watched by three men and a dog.

So, it felt like a bit of unfinished business as I’d not seen a ‘proper’ first team game at the stadium, so it was something of a tidying up job.

Shamrock Rovers are probably the most famous name in Irish football, I’ll not give a potted history as it would take too long, but they were a very successful side in the early Eighties winning four successive league titles, this after six successive Irish Cup’s in the Sixties. Also strong in Europe, the club went into decline in 1987 when they left their iconic Glenmalure Park ground in Milltown.

Ground shares took place, fortunes on the field went South and the club, in it’s nomadic state found themselves in the second tier of football. However, it all started to change when the club finally took up residence at the much maligned Tallaght Stadium in the South West of the City.

This happened in 2009, some twenty years after they were granted the land (politics etc), and from that point the club has hardly looked back. The League of Ireland was won in successive years in 2010 and 2011, while Europe sat up and took notice.

Juventus came to town in 2010 and the Shams lost 3-0 on aggregate, but it was the 2011-12 season where things really took off. A defeat in the Third Qualifying Round of the Champions League to FC Copenhagen saw them qualify for a Play-Off game in the Europa League, which they won following a fantastic 3-2 aggregate victory over Partizan Belgrade. This meant they were in the Group Stages of the Europa League, the first Irish side ever to do this.

Rubin Kazan, PAOK and Tottenham Hotspur were to be the opponents, and granted, they lost all six games, but they were never disgraced. The games against Spurs finished 1-3 and 0-4, and clearly the whole experience was fantastic, and indeed money-spinning.

There is much excitement around Tallaght at the minute because the previous Thursday they knocked SK Brann out of Europe and now face a tie against Apollon Limassol from Cyprus. So to be fair, with the rain hammering it down as the tram pulled in, it was no great surprise that the crowd of just over 1500 was the lowest of the season, with over 5000 being present three days earlier, and the next home leg in just four days time set to be a sell out also.

The tram journey takes about forty minutes, and in all honesty, we cut it very fine. After buying tickets, we went through the turnstiles just as the game was kicking off, and by the time we got to our seats, the electronic scoreboard showed we were a minute in!

It’s a lovely ground, with almost identical stands on either sides with multi-coloured seats, while a further stand of a similar but smaller variety has just recently been added behind the South goal. The area behind the North goal is inaccessible.

Tallaght is a modern, up and coming area of Dublin, with lots of new build homes and commercial developments going on. It makes sense why Rovers chose to locate their. The pitch was superb by the way, and the surface itself was huge, suggesting, as was the case, that it may have been originally designed for both football and GAA.

With the wind and rain now swirling around the ground, it quickly became clear that this was going to be very much one way traffic on the field.

Rovers took a 13^th minute lead through Graham Cummins, and then scored three times in four minutes to record a commanding 4-0 half time lead. Daniel Carr scored twice while the hugely impressive Jack Byrne scored a brilliant individual effort.

Aaron McEneff got the fifth just after the break while Aaron Greene claimed the sixth and seventh goals. It had been a landslide victory against an abject UCD side who fell to the bottom of the table, and on this performance, they are only going one way.

The rain was still battering down as we jogged back to the tram stop and made our way into Dublin, it had been a damp, but very enjoyable afternoon. Master Hatt did not complain once and Mrs Hatt did claim to enjoy herself.

A meal and some beers later and it was time for bed, the Irish venture still had a day to go though, and that was spent in glorious sunshine lay on the beach in Bray, on what was a complete contrast of a day to the Sunday.

Finally of course, it wouldn’t be the same without paying seven quid a pint in Temple Bar would it? No, of course it wouldn’t, but when in Dublin….do as the tourists do, not the Irish, they aren’t that stupid!