The Cedar Lounge Revolution

Milltown 25 years February 21, 2012

Its 25 years since Shamrock Rovers left Milltown.
Below a compilation of of images and interviews from 25 years ago, along with some more recent ones.

Oh and don’t worry there’s a season preview in the pipeline 🙂

Shamrock Rovers V Tottenham Hotspur December 14, 2011

So this is it, mid December (The 2012 Season Tickets on order from Santa) and the final match of a fantastic season as Tottenham Hotspur visit Tallaght in Shamrock Rovers final Europa League game. It is though overshadowed by the news that manager Michael O’Neill will be departing the club at the end of December when his contract runs out.
It’s an awful pity as he is a good manager but the board failed to reach agreement with him over a new deal. Presumably money is at the heart of it and Rovers having gone close to going out of existence before, the board presumably were unwilling to match his demands.

The windfall from the Europa League is , wisely, to be invested in the schoolboy facilities in Kiltipper as that is where the long term future of the club lies. Already Enda Stevens has agreed to join Aston Villa for a decent fee in January.

The fear is that other players will be lost too. Such are the finances of League of Ireland clubs most players have 40 week contracts. When the Spurs game finishes a number of the Rovers players will be free agents. The managerial situation makes it even more fluid. With the recent impact made at Sunderland by former Derry winger James McClean fresh in the minds of many in the UK its highly likely that the likes of Karl Sheppard and others will be plying their trade in the UK next year. The only pity being that Rovers won’t get a fee for them.

As to who will replace O’Neill? Brian Kerr, Kenny Cunningham, Jim Magilton and many more are being lined up by the press. More than likely the appointment will be some young aspiring manager but given the current profile of Rovers you’d never know who would have their application in. As long as its not Roddy Collins 🙂

When Pat Sullivan and Stephen O’Donnell scored those goals in Belgrade I had high hopes of Rovers getting a few points during the Europa League campaign. To date we’ve lost all our games. Early goals costing us dearly in all but one of the matches. There was also the hectic league schedule which meant the team were not always 100% fit. Whilst in the qualifiers we had the advantage of being in season, by the time the group stages came along we were up against teams already in their stride. The team though has done well considering the resources of the teams we have been up against, indeed we were unlucky not to get a draw away to PAOK.

So as for the match itself. This could be the one where Rovers eventually get a point (and the money that goes with it). Tallaght Stadium will be packed and it will be an emotional send off for O’Neill and Enda Stevens. The weather is also meant to be shocking with gale force winds and rain or sleet forecast. Tallaght stadium is to put it mildly, fairly exposed.
Spurs are resting a number of big names and are relying on PAOK beating Rubin Kazan and overturning a goal difference of five goals. As they chase a Champions League spot Harry Redknapp is hopefully not too bothered about the game. Still as we know from their exploits in White Hart lane, Spurs shorn of a few players aren’t too bad either.
Rovers will be missing at least two influential players. Central defender Craig Sives is out, as is defensive midfielder Conor McCormack. Will O’Neill go with the trusted 4-5-1 or try something a bit more adventurous starting two up front? Who will start in goal? Richard Brush, who did very well against Spurs in White Hart Lane or Ryan Thompson who is a fantastic shot stopper but prone to moments that make the fans a little nervous.
At the back its probably going to be Pat Sullivan , Enda Stevens, Ken Oman and Dan Murray. A probable midfield of Jim Patterson, Billy Dennehy, Stephen Rice, Ronan Finn and Chris Turner with either Karl Sheppard or Gary Twigg up front. Despite all his goals domestically Twigg has yet to score for Rovers in European competition. Hopefully he’ll break his duck as Rovers go on to win!
Anyway here’s hoping to finish with at least a point from the group but a win would be out of this world and finish the season to beat all seasons with a bang!

Shamrock Rovers Vs Rubin Kazan – Europa League Preview September 13, 2011

So the Group stages of the Europa League kick off in Tallaght on Thursday evening at 6 against Rubin Kazan (live on TV3). Its been a hectic few weeks since Rovers made history in Belgrade both on and off the field. On the field we’ve had wins against Dundalk and UCD. Then last Friday night a loss against Sligo Rovers, where Rovers took the lead, had 2 players sent off , a blatant handball by Sligos Matthew Blinkhorn in the build up to their winning goal and one of the worst refereeing performances I’ve seen in all my years following the Hoops from Damien Hancock. Then on Monday Rovers were in action against St Pats , they again took the lead, dominated for long periods but just couldn’t put Pats away. In the end Danny North equalized for Pats and it ended up a one all draw.

Off the field the workload has been huge. The club handled the post Belgrade publicity and attention well. Chairman Jonathan Roche and others have , as usual, come across well on both the airwaves and in print. The determination to have the games played in Tallaght (all home games have to be played in the one venue) paid off last week when UEFA gave the club to go ahead to stage our home games there. It was fantastic news for the club as well as for the Tallaght area in general. Through the games, money will be brought into the local economy and Rovers will bond and embed themselves to the community even further. It will of course also benefit some of the local businesses who have sponsored Rovers in good times and bad. (Included amongst them are the Maldron hotel which this week hosts the Fianna Fail think in … hopefully FF will be gone by Thursday)
From a financial point of view it also makes sense, it was going to cost 200,000 euro a pop to hire the Aviva and despite the calibre of opposition (more of that later) its unlikely that Rovers would have made a profit from at least the Rubin Kazan and PAOK games. In previous times Shels held games in Lansdowne, whilst the Deportivo game had a healthy 24,000 their following game against Lille attracted only 7,500. There’s also the fact that Tallaght is Rovers home ground, so for practical reasons (the team knows it well) and emotional reasons (we waited so long to have a home of our own) it made sense.

From talking to people at the last few matches and in the queue for tickets on Saturday, It looks too that there is going to be a mass exodus of Hoops to White Hart Lane for the game against Spurs on the 29th of September. There’s charters doing day trips, people traveling by boats, buses and trains (including a number of buses leave Tallaght on the Wednesday at midnight arriving back on the Friday night) and of course Ryanair and Aer Lingus. I’ve flights and accommodation booked for myself and my young lad and am waiting on tickets for the game and my sons passport to arrive!
Indeed there appears to be a huge amount of interest from ex pats in London, so much so that for the first time ever Spurs will have a ‘neutral’ area of the ground.

For this fixture we will be opening an allocation in the South Upper as a neutral area. This area is for UK based Shamrock fans or groups of supporters that wish to sit with fans of both teams

So to Thursdays game. Rubin Kazan are a wealthy club from the oil rich city of Kazan. Its a mid Russian Dubai with lots of fantastic buildings and wealth. Their European pedigree is good. They’ve beaten FC Barcelona, who have subsequently only beat Kazan once in four meetings over two seasons. They’ve gotten results against pedigree sides such as Olympique Lyon and Internazionale in the same period. They were Russian Champions in 2008 and 2009.
Other than Rovers ( 🙂 ) and Real Madrid they are probably the best team to be seen in Tallaght yet , possibly better than Juve were as Rubin are mid season. They are expected to play 4-5-1 (not unlike Rovers)….

Their Manager, Kurban Berdyev, is widely experienced and has built up a quality side through ruthlessness and with a regime of strict discipline. He does not tolerate anyone letting his team down. He’s taken Rubin from the second division to champions in just under a decade. Their danger men include strikers Aleksei Medvedev and Alan Kasaev. They are both ably backed up in midfield by Ecuadorian star, Christian Noboa, who plays alongside Bibras Natkho from Israel. Noboa is probably their talisman, and is central to everything, dictating pace and play with a quality eye for a dead-ball. Natkho sits well alongside and is not shy in getting forward either.

The Rubin Squad includes a host of Internationals Giedrius Arlauskis (Lithuania), Roman Eremenko(Finland) ,Alexei Eremenko (Finland), Bibras Natkho (Israel), Gökdeniz Karadeniz (Turkey), Salvatore Bocchetti (ItalY), Carlos Eduardo (Brazil), Roman Sharonov (Russia), Nelson Haedo Valdez (Paraguay), Christian Noboa (Ecuador), Syarhey Kislyak (Belarus), Aleksandr Ryazantsev (Russia), Pyotr Bystrov (Russia), Cristian Ansaldi (Argentina), Sergey Ryzhikov (Russia) and possibly the most familiar name in the squad to some the ex Newcastle and Inter Milan striker Obafemi Martins (Nigeria).

As for Rovers …. Goalkeeper Ryan Thompson won a cap for Jamaica in 2004. 🙂

The Rubin manager , Kurban Berdyev, is also noted for holding and using rosary beads for the duration of the game.

Its a huge test for Rovers but the rewards are relatively huge too with each point secured worth more (€70,000) than a club receives for winning the FAI Cup (€50,000). With a number of players out injured, a fixture pile up and a number such as Dan Murray and Craig Sives through necessity playing in almost every game its going to be very tough. I’m hoping against hope for at least an unlikely draw on Thursday.
As I write the three games are almost all sold out (although its rumoured an extra stand may be put in for the Spurs game on December 15th). Its great times to be a Hoop at the minute …