[frosty1930]

Last night I finally got around to doing something I should have done a long time ago – get in to see the Blues at the RSC. It was a visit that did me absolutely no credit, neither filling the Blues’ coffers with my own money (the person who was meant to go cried off at the last minute) and in a non-competitive fixture against the latest British club to buy in to the cult of Roy Keane. The redoubtable FootballPress will be all over me like a rash.

So not having been to the RSC in the best part of a decade, how was it? The new stand is a pleasant addition to the experience. It may seem trivial, but it’s easier to take the Blues seriously now have twice as many Subbuteo stands as before. Credit is due to the ticket office as well. We ended up with a spare and they would have been quite within their rights to have insisted on a policy of no refunds, money being too tight to mention at this level at the best of times (and these aren’t the best of times). But the man at the booth handed over €15 without batting an eyelid. If he was trying to make us feel guilty, it worked.

It was a recurring theme in the early part of the evening. Walking in to the rather optimistically titled East Stand, you felt like the stewards were giving you evils at coming to such a beano while ignoring the grind of playing the likes of Finn Harps. When I wasn’t feeling bad for that, the sense of plaintiveness was almost heartbreaking, whether it be the PA – who sounded suspiciously like a friend of the family – begging us to come to the next home match against Limerick or the programme notes lauding the loyal 500 who regularly defend the pass of Thermopylae / Tramore against the alien hordes. Patriotism may be the last refuge of a scoundrel, but that’s because a scoundrel knows what works.

You can only push guilt so far though and any sense of it quickly evaporated once the match started. Quite simply, the Blues were awful. Stephen Henderson said in the programme notes that when he had been manager of Cobh Ramblers a few years back when Roy Keane’s Sunderland™ rolled into town, he had made the mistake of gutting the team at half-time in Sven-Goran Eriksson-style and that he would not repeat this error. Yet come the start of the second half no fewer than five players made way. Perhaps the players had moaned about not getting a game – when the Blues played Man U in 1990 it was as if everyone in Waterford was allowed a game. But that was Manchester United and this was Ipswich Town, a distinction that shouldn’t require any further explanation. The likelihood is that Henderson decided there was nothing to be learned from getting the runaround from Kevin Lisbie (a man who once scored a hat-trick against Liverpool) and they’d be better off keeping the leg’s fresh for the much more important game against the mighty Monaghan United on Sunday.

I hope the money makes a difference to the Blues’ season / existence because none of the 2,500+ people there to see Roy Keane’s Ipswich Town™ last night would be enticed back by a match that managed to have all the bloodlessness of a Harlem Globetrotter’s game with none of the silky skills. My wife and I entertained ourselves for the 85-odd minutes we were there with constant lame quips about how different it was to what we are used to at Anfield – an aside to my father-in-law about how it was “not exactly St Etienne” was typical of the ‘wit’ on display. With that in mind, I might make my way back next week when my brother-in-law is in town so he can see how the other half live and I can see if a competitive fixture watched only by enthusiastic Ultras is any better. It would be cruelly ironic if what finally kills any affection I have for Waterford United were to be too much exposure to them.

Update: did I say I’d be going to the Limerick game? The only Limerick team I’ll be seeing will be their hurlers if they play in a double header next week. Sorry Blues, got to get my priorities right.

Update II: at the risk of this becoming a circular series of references, FootballPress didn’t let me down with his take on my visit to the RSC. The ‘pressing GAA fixture’ is going to be on Sunday, so the Blues may yet have the pleasure of my company this weekend . . .


Feeling the need for a reply?? http://deiseach.word...3-ipswich-town/ comment below

[Mental-Man]

frosty1930, on 22 August 2009 - 01:52 AM, said:

Last night I finally got around to doing something I should have done a long time ago – get in to see the Blues at the RSC. It was a visit that did me absolutely no credit, neither filling the Blues’ coffers with my own money (the person who was meant to go cried off at the last minute) and in a non-competitive fixture against the latest British club to buy in to the cult of Roy Keane. The redoubtable FootballPress will be all over me like a rash.

So not having been to the RSC in the best part of a decade, how was it? The new stand is a pleasant addition to the experience. It may seem trivial, but it’s easier to take the Blues seriously now have twice as many Subbuteo stands as before. Credit is due to the ticket office as well. We ended up with a spare and they would have been quite within their rights to have insisted on a policy of no refunds, money being too tight to mention at this level at the best of times (and these aren’t the best of times). But the man at the booth handed over €15 without batting an eyelid. If he was trying to make us feel guilty, it worked.

It was a recurring theme in the early part of the evening. Walking in to the rather optimistically titled East Stand, you felt like the stewards were giving you evils at coming to such a beano while ignoring the grind of playing the likes of Finn Harps. When I wasn’t feeling bad for that, the sense of plaintiveness was almost heartbreaking, whether it be the PA – who sounded suspiciously like a friend of the family – begging us to come to the next home match against Limerick or the programme notes lauding the loyal 500 who regularly defend the pass of Thermopylae / Tramore against the alien hordes. Patriotism may be the last refuge of a scoundrel, but that’s because a scoundrel knows what works.

You can only push guilt so far though and any sense of it quickly evaporated once the match started. Quite simply, the Blues were awful. Stephen Henderson said in the programme notes that when he had been manager of Cobh Ramblers a few years back when Roy Keane’s Sunderland™ rolled into town, he had made the mistake of gutting the team at half-time in Sven-Goran Eriksson-style and that he would not repeat this error. Yet come the start of the second half no fewer than five players made way. Perhaps the players had moaned about not getting a game – when the Blues played Man U in 1990 it was as if everyone in Waterford was allowed a game. But that was Manchester United and this was Ipswich Town, a distinction that shouldn’t require any further explanation. The likelihood is that Henderson decided there was nothing to be learned from getting the runaround from Kevin Lisbie (a man who once scored a hat-trick against Liverpool) and they’d be better off keeping the leg’s fresh for the much more important game against the mighty Monaghan United on Sunday.

I hope the money makes a difference to the Blues’ season / existence because none of the 2,500+ people there to see Roy Keane’s Ipswich Town™ last night would be enticed back by a match that managed to have all the bloodlessness of a Harlem Globetrotter’s game with none of the silky skills. My wife and I entertained ourselves for the 85-odd minutes we were there with constant lame quips about how different it was to what we are used to at Anfield – an aside to my father-in-law about how it was “not exactly St Etienne” was typical of the ‘wit’ on display. With that in mind, I might make my way back next week when my brother-in-law is in town so he can see how the other half live and I can see if a competitive fixture watched only by enthusiastic Ultras is any better. It would be cruelly ironic if what finally kills any affection I have for Waterford United were to be too much exposure to them.

Update: did I say I’d be going to the Limerick game? The only Limerick team I’ll be seeing will be their hurlers if they play in a double header next week. Sorry Blues, got to get my priorities right.

Update II: at the risk of this becoming a circular series of references, FootballPress didn’t let me down with his take on my visit to the RSC. The ‘pressing GAA fixture’ is going to be on Sunday, so the Blues may yet have the pleasure of my company this weekend . . .


Feeling the need for a reply?? http://deiseach.word...3-ipswich-town/ comment below

This person should be strung up by the balls, another fine example of the knuckle dragging inbreds we have that follow the GAA and then swear their other allegiance to the Queen
This should be forwarded to Matt Keane and put up on Waterford Today as Hypocrisy at its highest for all to see!!

[i hate billy cleary..]

What a fucking moron of the highest order,he is reviewing how our team played....in a friendly!
The mighty monaghan,he says it with such sarcasm.Does he not realise that if someone mutters the words kilkenny and football to a LOI supporter we laugh our bollocks off?He goes on about how much the media have bought into ipswich because of keane and yet it got him down to watch the real waterford team for the first time in a decade!
Notice how he was delighted to get the ticket money back,that's becuase most GAA fans are stingy morons who make a pot of ribs,wrap them in tinfoil,then sit in the stand and eat them during the stick fighting(a burger just costs too much).He is actually comparing the RSC to anfield as well,I mean it really shows the intellectual level of this clown if he went with the notion of comparing these too stadia.

[_AlcoholicA_]

Couldn't resist leaving him a message.

[Partizan]

frosty1930, on 22 August 2009 - 03:52 AM, said:

Last night I finally got around to doing something I should have done a long time ago – get in to see the Blues at the RSC. It was a visit that did me absolutely no credit, neither filling the Blues’ coffers with my own money (the person who was meant to go cried off at the last minute) and in a non-competitive fixture against the latest British club to buy in to the cult of Roy Keane. The redoubtable FootballPress will be all over me like a rash.

So not having been to the RSC in the best part of a decade, how was it? The new stand is a pleasant addition to the experience. It may seem trivial, but it’s easier to take the Blues seriously now have twice as many Subbuteo stands as before. Credit is due to the ticket office as well. We ended up with a spare and they would have been quite within their rights to have insisted on a policy of no refunds, money being too tight to mention at this level at the best of times (and these aren’t the best of times). But the man at the booth handed over €15 without batting an eyelid. If he was trying to make us feel guilty, it worked.

It was a recurring theme in the early part of the evening. Walking in to the rather optimistically titled East Stand, you felt like the stewards were giving you evils at coming to such a beano while ignoring the grind of playing the likes of Finn Harps. When I wasn’t feeling bad for that, the sense of plaintiveness was almost heartbreaking, whether it be the PA – who sounded suspiciously like a friend of the family – begging us to come to the next home match against Limerick or the programme notes lauding the loyal 500 who regularly defend the pass of Thermopylae / Tramore against the alien hordes. Patriotism may be the last refuge of a scoundrel, but that’s because a scoundrel knows what works.

You can only push guilt so far though and any sense of it quickly evaporated once the match started. Quite simply, the Blues were awful. Stephen Henderson said in the programme notes that when he had been manager of Cobh Ramblers a few years back when Roy Keane’s Sunderland™ rolled into town, he had made the mistake of gutting the team at half-time in Sven-Goran Eriksson-style and that he would not repeat this error. Yet come the start of the second half no fewer than five players made way. Perhaps the players had moaned about not getting a game – when the Blues played Man U in 1990 it was as if everyone in Waterford was allowed a game. But that was Manchester United and this was Ipswich Town, a distinction that shouldn’t require any further explanation. The likelihood is that Henderson decided there was nothing to be learned from getting the runaround from Kevin Lisbie (a man who once scored a hat-trick against Liverpool) and they’d be better off keeping the leg’s fresh for the much more important game against the mighty Monaghan United on Sunday.

I hope the money makes a difference to the Blues’ season / existence because none of the 2,500+ people there to see Roy Keane’s Ipswich Town™ last night would be enticed back by a match that managed to have all the bloodlessness of a Harlem Globetrotter’s game with none of the silky skills. My wife and I entertained ourselves for the 85-odd minutes we were there with constant lame quips about how different it was to what we are used to at Anfield – an aside to my father-in-law about how it was “not exactly St Etienne” was typical of the ‘wit’ on display. With that in mind, I might make my way back next week when my brother-in-law is in town so he can see how the other half live and I can see if a competitive fixture watched only by enthusiastic Ultras is any better. It would be cruelly ironic if what finally kills any affection I have for Waterford United were to be too much exposure to them.

Update: did I say I’d be going to the Limerick game? The only Limerick team I’ll be seeing will be their hurlers if they play in a double header next week. Sorry Blues, got to get my priorities right.

Update II: at the risk of this becoming a circular series of references, FootballPress didn’t let me down with his take on my visit to the RSC. The ‘pressing GAA fixture’ is going to be on Sunday, so the Blues may yet have the pleasure of my company this weekend . . .


Feeling the need for a reply?? http://deiseach.word...3-ipswich-town/ comment below

and where are the hurlers?

Bombard this larry with the vitriol that he deserves.

[frosty1930]

BUT WAIT!!!! THERES MORE.

€15,000 worth of prune juice

How long before a bandwagon becomes a bandwagon can you jump on the bandwagon to avoid being labelled a bandwagon jumper? While recently attending the RSC for the first time in literally a decade, it never entered my head that the Blues might be involved in a final there only a few weeks later. Yet victory over UCD in the League Cup semi-final and the latest gimmick from the FAI to try and get some razzmatazz going means the final against Bohemians will be in the RSC.

Tickets will probably be like hens teeth, and I’m not going to bust my hump trying to acquire them even though that fleeting appearance at the RSC probably puts me in the top 50% of entitlement. What struck me about the media coverage of the final is how the prize fund is so prominent. Even the Blues’ website, surely run by people who are not in it for the money, couldn’t resist salivating over the €15,000.

Imagine what a team like Waterford United could do with that money! I was reminded of my (ahem) obligations as a Waterford man by an appeal on WLR in May of last year. The gist of what was being said was that if Waterford folk turned out in suhttp://deiseach.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/e15000-worth-of-prune-juice/fficient numbers the club would have the money to buy better players which would lead to more success and better players and so on in a virtuous cycle. That €15,000, allied with the full house that will be in the RSC next month, will certainly go a long way, right?

The problem is that there is only one place such money would go, and that is on players wages. Alan Sugar referred to it as the ‘prune juice effect‘. Any success on the part of the Blues would be the ruination of someone else. It should be a salutory lesson for those who want the GAA to renumerate the players in some fashion. The logic that assumes that the GAA can just lob each of the players a few bob and nothing else will change is plain wrong. If there is any differentiation between wages, and I don’t think anyone is seriously suggesting Colm Cooper should get the same amount of cash as a Kilkenny footballer, then you are leaving yourself open to the prune juice effect. There are ways around this – the franchise system they have in the United States springs to mind, or some variant on the IRFU’s central contracts – but these are revolutionary changes in the association. Better those though than the free-for-all that is soccer.

Surely this is some sort of pisstake? Can somebody seriously be this stupid?

http://deiseach.word...of-prune-juice/

[Bluebeard]

While I would be of the opinion that thoguhtless morons are that, and should be treated as such, I am inclined to say that this is not as bad as some, and there is an effort to see things clearly. He is threatening to come to a game again, which he might.

He should be asked though, would he go to see Waterford hurlers play a friendly against a Lemybrien selection in a game to raise funds the weekend before a league game against Antrim? Of course he wouldn't - a friendly has two purposes in mind: to try out players and to raise a few quid. No thinking manager of a team challenging for honours would select a full team to play if there was a competitive match following hard upon. He'd not even think to go to the game on the basis of it not mattering a curse. Indeed, how many fans go to the national hurling league games? Most eschew them on the basis of "They're not the real deal / It isn't hurling weather / Sure that was in Dungarvan / 'Tis only trying out players he is / what good are Clare at all any more / I'll save me powder for the championship".

And it is a lot easier to be a big man fan if you only have to go to six games a year or less. Let's bring the figures up and include all of the league, home and away, and that takes it to 13, most of which are in Munster, I think all on Sundays or Saturdays and the furthest trips they had were Dublin twice, Ennis once, Limerick twice. No Tuesday evening trips to Dublin, or randomly shuffling home fixtures, dependent it seems at times on the births deaths and marriages register.

I have no gripe with the man who enjoys his trip out once in a while and that is enough of it, and makes no allusions to being a huge fan or kicking the other Waterford sides. Nor have I a problem, per se, with the man who does not get football as a game - I myself see no purpose in rugby, but good luck to the local sides. And I certainly have respect for the man who goes to all the Waterford Crystal games, and follows the GAA footballers as loyally as the hurlers and so forth - that too is a big commitment.

But the boy who sneers, because the team in the city of Waterford (pop 101,000, normally a city of net emigration, with 4 major traditional sports and bugger all facilities, club financed by attendances and a small number of small businessmen who also run it, with possibly the fourth biggest budget in the second tier of the Irish leagues) is not as good as Liverpool (pop 816,000, normally a city of net immigration, only two major sports teams (unless you count Aintree), fabulous facilities and opportunities thanks to some investment by successive govts in the 1960s and 1970s, club financed by transfers, merchandise and American millionaires and rated fourth most financially valuable club in the world). He I have no time for. I would agree that we could be in a better position, and should strive to get a better bang for our buck, but I'm a big man for reality, and comparing us with Liverpool would be like comparing the GAA footballers with Dublin or the Irish basketball team with that of Spain.

EDIT: I had a skim read of his post on the Limerick game - there is a lad there to be converted folks, thoug it will take some time. Perhaps those of you who have been corresponding with him about it, could be the good Samaritan and babysit him at the Cup final (he might enjoy that), and again at say the game with Shels - he'd enjoy and understand the idea that the Blues are "us" and the Dublin teams are a "them" that truly personify the bad things of moneyed football (his true bete noir, I suspect) and not being Waterford. When he sees the contrast over the two games, regardless of result, he could well be hooked.

[_AlcoholicA_]

This guy is actually retarded

[deiseach]

Bluebeard, on 22 August 2009 - 12:19 PM, said:

While I would be of the opinion that thoguhtless morons are that, and should be treated as such, I am inclined to say that this is not as bad as some, and there is an effort to see things clearly. He is threatening to come to a game again, which he might.

He should be asked though, would he go to see Waterford hurlers play a friendly against a Lemybrien selection in a game to raise funds the weekend before a league game against Antrim? Of course he wouldn't - a friendly has two purposes in mind: to try out players and to raise a few quid. No thinking manager of a team challenging for honours would select a full team to play if there was a competitive match following hard upon. He'd not even think to go to the game on the basis of it not mattering a curse. Indeed, how many fans go to the national hurling league games? Most eschew them on the basis of "They're not the real deal / It isn't hurling weather / Sure that was in Dungarvan / 'Tis only trying out players he is / what good are Clare at all any more / I'll save me powder for the championship".

And it is a lot easier to be a big man fan if you only have to go to six games a year or less. Let's bring the figures up and include all of the league, home and away, and that takes it to 13, most of which are in Munster, I think all on Sundays or Saturdays and the furthest trips they had were Dublin twice, Ennis once, Limerick twice. No Tuesday evening trips to Dublin, or randomly shuffling home fixtures, dependent it seems at times on the births deaths and marriages register.

I have no gripe with the man who enjoys his trip out once in a while and that is enough of it, and makes no allusions to being a huge fan or kicking the other Waterford sides. Nor have I a problem, per se, with the man who does not get football as a game - I myself see no purpose in rugby, but good luck to the local sides. And I certainly have respect for the man who goes to all the Waterford Crystal games, and follows the GAA footballers as loyally as the hurlers and so forth - that too is a big commitment.

But the boy who sneers, because the team in the city of Waterford (pop 101,000, normally a city of net emigration, with 4 major traditional sports and bugger all facilities, club financed by attendances and a small number of small businessmen who also run it, with possibly the fourth biggest budget in the second tier of the Irish leagues) is not as good as Liverpool (pop 816,000, normally a city of net immigration, only two major sports teams (unless you count Aintree), fabulous facilities and opportunities thanks to some investment by successive govts in the 1960s and 1970s, club financed by transfers, merchandise and American millionaires and rated fourth most financially valuable club in the world). He I have no time for. I would agree that we could be in a better position, and should strive to get a better bang for our buck, but I'm a big man for reality, and comparing us with Liverpool would be like comparing the GAA footballers with Dublin or the Irish basketball team with that of Spain.

Fair comment, Bluebeard. My point about using the Ipswich match as a training session was that Stephen Henderson said quite specifically in the programme that he wouldn't be doing that ("we [Cobh] made a lots of substitutions that day which had a negative impact on our team so while we will make changes tonight they won't be wholesale because Roy and his team deserve a competitive 90 mins and it is our intention to give them just that"). As for comparing Liverpool with Waterford, at the moment that's my only point of reference having spent the best part of five years in Liverpool. I was at the Limerick game and am planning to go to the UCD game tonight. I hope an alarm doesn't sound as I walk through the turnstiles!

[Bluebeard]

deiseach, on 22 August 2009 - 01:59 PM, said:

Fair comment, Bluebeard. My point about using the Ipswich match as a training session was that Stephen Henderson said quite specifically in the programme that he wouldn't be doing that ("we [Cobh] made a lots of substitutions that day which had a negative impact on our team so while we will make changes tonight they won't be wholesale because Roy and his team deserve a competitive 90 mins and it is our intention to give them just that"). As for comparing Liverpool with Waterford, at the moment that's my only point of reference having spent the best part of five years in Liverpool. I was at the Limerick game and am planning to go to the UCD game tonight. I hope an alarm doesn't sound as I walk through the turnstiles!

Credit due, Deiseach, there's many wouldn't come on here after the anger some had, but, having skimmed (sorry busy morning) your post on the Limerick game, I do think you are a genuine man on the matter, and you have cleared up the matter of your Liverpool thing. Currently I am living in London, and I have had a look at what is around football and other sport wise, and it still finds me watching more LOI than English, and when one factors in travel, that makes the LOI dearer, and me possibly the stupider for it - I was un/lucky enough to get the Blue fix early in life, in the same way that you got the GAA one, I am guessing.

Anyway, I'm back for the game myself tonight, and I'll have a word with the lads to make sure to ID folk before setting the dogs on them - We'll let you past for another game or two

[deiseach]

Bluebeard, on 22 August 2009 - 01:08 PM, said:

Anyway, I'm back for the game myself tonight, and I'll have a word with the lads to make sure to ID folk before setting the dogs on them - We'll let you past for another game or two

Just so they know, I'm the one with the Ireland International Rules jersey and the Liverpool jester hat.

[Bluebeard]

deiseach, on 22 August 2009 - 02:21 PM, said:

Just so they know, I'm the one with the Ireland International Rules jersey and the Liverpool jester hat.

So that means anyone who had him dressed like this in the pool, loses out this week.

I hope you enjoy this week's game and are starting to figure out who is making a hames of a perfectly simple pass (Hint: it will probably be Muddy), and who really looks a little bit too good in defence for this level (probably Fletch), and what players these bloody nicknames are attatched to. Hopefully you'll see a few goals too, ideally all scored against the UCD keeper.

[deiseach]

Bluebeard, on 22 August 2009 - 01:26 PM, said:

I hope you enjoy this week's game and are starting to figure out who is making a hames of a perfectly simple pass (Hint: it will probably be Muddy), and who really looks a little bit too good in defence for this level (probably Fletch), and what players these bloody nicknames are attatched to. Hopefully you'll see a few goals too, ideally all scored against the UCD keeper.

'Muddy' would be Kevin Waters, I presume. At the risk of inviting another river of flame, it's important in terms of stoking interest to know the characters - watching the scores on Aertel recently have been more meaningful when you can put a first name to 'Cummins' - so any morsels are appreciated

[Bluebeard]

deiseach, on 22 August 2009 - 02:34 PM, said:

'Muddy' would be Kevin Waters, I presume. At the risk of inviting another river of flame, it's important in terms of stoking interest to know the characters - watching the scores on Aertel recently have been more meaningful when you can put a first name to 'Cummins' - so any morsels are appreciated

Errortel you mean?

Correct on Muddy.

And Cummins is not as some earlier tried "Cummy" fortunately, but "Biggles" - watch for when he scores!

[i hate billy cleary..]

What a plonker.

[waterfordbhoy]

Im blaming tonights performance on Deiseach

[_AlcoholicA_]

waterfordbhoy, on 22 August 2009 - 09:20 PM, said:

Im blaming tonights performance on Deiseach

Agreed

[Daniels]

UCD deserved their win in fairness.
I blame Deiseach for the result in Tallaght

[deiseach]

waterfordbhoy, on 22 August 2009 - 08:20 PM, said:

Im blaming tonights performance on Deiseach

Harsh, but fair