Shelbourne 0 v 2 Sligo Rovers

Friday 28th June 2013
League of Ireland Premier Division
Tolka Park, Drumcondra (Dublin)
Admission: €15.00
Programme: €3.00
Attendance: 1250
Match Rating: 3

After just over a month since my last game, and a similar length of time to go until my next competitive football game, I headed over to Ireland for my first game of the 2013/14 season - although as football is a summer sport in Ireland, this was a fixture about half way through their season.

Based in Dublin, I had the choices of visiting Drogheda, UCD or Shelbourne to visit a new ground for me. I opted for a visit to Tolka Park, a ground that I had heard was full of character, and which tonight would see the reigning Champions visit a club cut adrift at the bottom of this season's table. Tolka Park is located about a half hour walk northwards from the city centre towards the airport, in the suburb of Drumcondra, and it was indeed a ground which oozed character and history. Entering the ground in one corner, to the left, along the length is an all-seater stand which has lots of narrow pillars along the front and a bar inside. Along the other length is a large terrace with seats bolted on to it, with only the middle section having an old fashioned stand for cover, and this is where away fans were housed this evening. Behind one of the goals was another larger former terrace, uncovered and now with seats bolted on, whilst behind the remaining goal a tall modern stand is placed between the goal and corner flag. Between the entrance and this stand were small buildings housing a club shop, refreshments and sweets, and it is also permissible to stand along this goalline in an otherwise all-seater stadium. The programme was attractive, in colour throughout, and gave a good background to tonight's fixture.

Shelbourne have had a disastrous season so far, five points adrift at the foot of the table with just two wins and three draws from their 17 games so far. One of those wins was last time out, away at very local rivals Bohemians in the last game before the short summer break. Before that, they had lost five league games straight, a run that contained a change of manager. Reigning champions Sligo had a fabulous start to this season too, winning their first eight games straight, although have hit the buffers somewhat since then, winning only once in their eight subsequent games before winning 5-2 last time out at home to strugglers UCD. They also had not won away from home for two months. They are still right in there challenging at the top of the table though, in third place, four points behind leaders St Patrick's Athletic with a game in hand.

On a pleasantly sunny evening, the game had an explosive introduction as the teams walked out of the tunnel, with the some fans in the stand behind the goal setting off many flares and waving flags to mark the ten year anniversary of the Ultras fans. The first half was low on quality and entertainment in truth, but Shelbourne looked a surprisingly decent team. Whilst they rarely looked like scoring, nor did Sligo, as the game developed into a midfield scrap

.

The second half continued much as the first, although on 58 minutes Sligo took the lead, when a corner wasn't dealt with at all by the Shelbourne defence and Seamus Conneely turned the ball in with his knee at the far post. One usually fears for a plucky but struggling team once they fell behind and indeed that proved to be the case as Sligo started to dominate the game. Shelbourne still were competitive, they just never looked like they could score now. The game was put to bed once and for all on 78 minutes when the ball was driven in from the right wing, which drew the keeper out, and Kieran Djilali ran onto the ball to stroke it home. Shelbourne did actually have their best chance of the night in the last few minutes when the ball was headed over the bar by Graham Gartland from a central position. Sligo saw the game out comfortably though to keep right in contention at the top, whilst for Shelbourne the picture looks ever bleaker. If they can carry tonight's first half performance through to future games against more limited opponents, survival may still not be beyond them, with only the bottom team being automatically relegated.

Non matchday visit of Aviva Stadium, home of Ireland

With a visit to the new stadium at Lansdowne Road to watch a game not looking imminently likely, I decided to do the next best thing and go on a stadium tour.

There is a train station adjacent to the stadium - indeed, the train line actually passes under the West Stand - although I decided to walk from Dublin City Centre, a couple of miles which took about 45 minutes.

Paying a reasonable €10.00 admission, the tour took in the press conference room - where we were shown an interesting film showing action from the old Lansdowne Road, its demolition and the construction of the new stadium, changing rooms, warm up area and player's entrance and tunnel, before walking out of the tunnel and to the pitch. Which today was actually in the process of being ploughed before being relaid, as the previous pitch was deemed not satisfactory after just a year's use. This certainly isn't the average bland identikit stadium, with a really imaginative design that is very easy on the eye, featuring a curved design the slopes very low at the northern end of the stadium, to ensure that surrounding houses do not have their sunlight blocked. Another very nice feature is the glass, see through panes which allows plenty of natural light inside the ground, and has also been designed to collect rainwater to be reused. I was able to climb to the very top of the West stand -not recommended for those who suffer from vertigo - which offered lovely views of Dublin's dockyards.

I was left with a very favourable impression of the Aviva Stadium, architecturally very impressive, has a very distinct design, and boasts all of the modern facilities to be expected in recently built stadia.

Non matchday visit of UCD Bowl, home of UCD

With a few hours to spare before my flight home, I decided to see if I would have as much luck in gaining access to a League of Ireland stadium as I had had at Dalymount Park yesterday. And so I headed southwards on the Dart train from central Dublin to Sydney Parade, from which the UCD Bowl was about a 20 minute walk. Good fortune struck for me again, as the ground was open while a caretaker was clearing away the rubbish after yesterday evening's game at home to Cork City, which they won 3-0.

Unsurprisingly, the UCD Bowl, set at the edge of the Belfield campus of the University College Dublin, is the complete opposite of what I had experienced at Dalymount Park and Tolka Park. The UCD Bowl, whilst limited in facilities, has a very modern feel and is immaculately kept. Trees lining the ground and grass banks lining two sides give a pleasant, peaceful feel to the place. There is just one stand straddling the half way line with the seats stretching beyond each side of the cover. Only hard standing is available around the rest of the ground.

As mentioned above, although the UCD Bowl lacks the character of many grounds in the League of Ireland, I imagine that this would still be a very pleasant venue to watch football on a summer's evening, despite the notoriously low crowds attracted to UCD matches - only around 100 spectators were present last night.

Non matchday visit of Dalymount Park, home of Bohemians

With a few hours to spare ahead of my game this evening, I went along to Dalymount Park, home of Bohemians, to see what I could see of a historic ground that I had really wanted to visit, one that historically was the home of Irish football. To my good fortune, the ground was open as there was a junior cup final being played between Limerick and Carrigaline. I only saw the last few minutes though, which saw Limerick get an equaliser after an awful mix up between defender and keeper and then won the penalty shoot out.

Dalymount Park was a really fascinating ground to witness. In the distant past,it has hosted many big matches, regularly hosting full Ireland internationals before Lansdowne Road became the permanent home for Ireland matches, but much of it has little development in recent years and only two sides of the ground are in use now. A modern, uninteresting all seater stand runs along one length of the pitch, whilst behind one of the goals, seats have been bolted onto a former terrace, with a stand covering the area between the goal and far corner flag. Behind the other goal is a large crumbling open terrace which is no longer in use - it was sold off some years ago and is pending redevelopment. From the corner of the terrace round to about the half way line is a rather tall and imposing open stand with seats bolted on part of it, but health and safety has condemned to it being put out of use a couple of years ago. This stand used to continue through to the other corner, but half of it was demolished to create space for a surface car park.

In some ways it was a little sad to see a grand old stadium in such poor, crumbling condition, but in the main it was great to see such an old fashioned stadium, a real dying breed these days.

England 1 v 1 Spain

Tuesday 25th June 2013
Women’s Hockey World League Semi-Finals Pool B
Quintin Hogg Memorial Sports Ground, Chiswick
Admission: £15.00
Programme: £3.00
Attendance: ??
Match Rating: 3

For the home crowd’s point of view, the best game of the day was saved until last, with England taking on Spain. England would certainly be the favourites for this game, ranked fourth in the World Rankings against opposition ranked 15th, and although England have suffered several retirements from their squad, they still retained a fair number of the squad who picked up bronze medals for Great Britain at the London 2012 Olympics. In their matches so far in Pool B, England beat South Africa 4-1 on Saturday and then drew 1-1 against Australia, whilst Spain lost 0-5 to Australia before drawing 2-2 with South Africa.

Unsurprisingly, a crowd that was rather sparse earlier in the day had filled up considerably now with school children and people coming in after work. The opening stages of the first half were even, as England struggled to impose themselves, however as half time approached, England had more and more possession, forcing several penalty corners and creating some presentable chances although their attacking play seemed to lack conviction and indeed the scoreline remained goalless at the interval.

Nine minutes into the second half and England did finally take the lead. A penalty corner was played to England and Great Britain skipper Kate Walsh, and her powerful shot took a deflection off a defender’s stick and Sophie Bray deflected the ball at head height into the net. England’s lead was to last just five minutes though. A low goal bound shot goal was stopped by the foot of Alex Danson and the resultant penalty stroke was hit home beyond the keeper’s dive by Reira Zuzarregui, despite the keeper getting a stick on the ball. Neither team really threatened to win the game in the remaining minutes, and so England failing to win meant that Australia won Pool B with 7 points and will face the USA in the quarter finals. Second placed England, with five points, will face Italy. Spain claimed third place with their two points and will face China, whilst South Africa have the toughest assignment of all, facing Argentina, with all four matches to be played on Thursday.

South Africa 0 v 1 Australia

Tuesday 25th June 2013
Women’s Hockey World League Semi-Finals Pool B
Quintin Hogg Memorial Sports Ground, Chiswick
Admission: £15.00
Programme: £3.00
Attendance: ??
Match Rating: 2

After a further break of just under an hour, the action switched to Pool B for the 5.30, with South Africa, eleventh in the World Rankings, taking on sixth ranked Australia. Australia led Pool B going into today’s final round of fixtures, beating Spain 5-0 on Saturday before drawing 1-1 with hosts England on Sunday, whilst South Africa suffered a 1-4 defeat to England before drawing coming from behind twice to draw 2-2 with Spain.

After two enjoyable games earlier in the day contested by attack minded teams, this encounter was much more defensive, with clear cut scoring opportunities at a premium and very little to separate the teams. The only opportunity of real note saw the South African keeper making an excellent save to her right to deny a powerful high drive.

Eight minutes after the break though and Australia drew first blood. Before the game, Anna Flanagan was presented with the FIH Young Player of the Year award, and it was she who scored when a simple penalty corner routine was fired high into the net on the left hand side. South Africa has good chances to get back on level terms, Pietie Coetzee having the two best chances, first firing an aerial shot just wide of the goal from the edge of the D and then saw a shot hit the bottom of the post.

But in the end, Australia held on for the victory and are guaranteed a top two finish in Pool B and would finish top if England do not beat Spain by three goals in the next game, whilst South Africa would finish in the bottom two and would have to hope that Spain would be beaten to avoid the wooden spoon.