Seagulls soar to triumphant victory in 1990
ON November 4, 2018, Dundalk dethroned defending champions Cork City to win their 11th FAI Cup, in front of over 30,000 people at the Aviva Stadium. Patrick McEleney was the hero of the hour for Stephen Kenny’s charges, as they secured a League and Cup double in their manager’s final season before departing to take charge of one of the most exciting Irish under-21 squads in recent memory.
The 30,000 people who travelled to the capital to witness the cup decider was a record-breaking attendance; a record that had held for almost 30 years, since May 13, 1990. The game it beat did not feature either of those two clubs, nor any other top-tier club. Instead, it was the unlikely meeting of the First Division’s Bray Wanderers and St. Francis’ of the Leinster Senior League.
It was the culmination of an unlikely, romantic story involving a club that had no perceived right to be where they were, against a Bray team that had been knocking on the door of the FAI Cup elite. This rich, absorbing narrative paid-off with 29,000 people turning out to watch Wanderers sweep to a 3-0 win in the very first final to be held at the old Lansdowne Road: John Ryan scoring a trophy-winning hat-trick.
‘A lot of the reason that there were that many at the game was the fairy-tale situation of a nonleague team getting to the final. One of the main reasons that there were that many people there, would have been because it was St. Francis in the final; everybody loves an underdog,’ said Dermot Judge – father of Ipswich Town midfielder and Irish international, Alan Judge – who captained the Seagulls on that day in 1990.
‘I remember Pat Devlin saying to us, when we were going out to do our warm-ups: ‘it is a big crowd here today, you are going to see them once because you’re going to do your warm-up, go over and acknowledge the supporters on all sides, and then you won’t see them until after the game.’ We were blinkered and focused on winning the game.’
The element of stubborn resilience and determination was the hallmark of that Bray team which was managed by the great Pat Devlin, who would return to the club in time to lead them to another FAI Cup win in 1998/99. According to Judge, there was a certain essence of external pressure on the County Wicklow club to dispatch their non-league opponents.
On the way to the final, Bray had run through the likes of Shelbourne – who were coming to an end of a difficult period in the 1970s and 80s, and would go on to rediscover success in the decade ahead with their first Premier Division title for 30 years in 1991/92 – on penalties, before knocking out Derry City in the final four. St. Francis’, meanwhile, had captured the imagination of the masses that season. Not only had they beaten
Cobh Ramblers on their way to the final, in what proved to be Roy Keane’s last-ever game in Ireland, but they had claimed the scalp of Bohemians in the semi-finals.
Between the clubs that St. Francis’ had beaten and their status as non-league, Judge claimed that a number of club managers had approached Bray with one simple message: ‘we need you to win’. While this gave the game an added sense of gravitas, to hear Judge talk about it, it did not play on the minds of the players.
‘Getting to the final is the hardest part, I think. The final takes care of itself but getting to the final – and beating Shelbourne and Derry along the way – was phenomenal.
‘I had managers from other teams coming up to me, saying that St. Francis’ can’t be allowed to win this because you can’t let a non-league team win it; it would show the League of Ireland in a bad light. I can honestly say that we knew that we wouldn’t be beaten.
‘We were a group of fellas – and a lot of it was down to Pat Devlin – who trained hard together, played hard together, and drank hard together after the games. It was more like a group of friends, even though there were big characters within the team, as well.
‘We had a certain amount of respect for the teams we were playing against, but the bigger the team, the more determined we were to win. We never felt like we were going to brushed aside. The year before, we played Cork three times in the semi-final, so we seemed destined to win it.
‘On that particular day, at no time did I feel like we were going to lose that game.’
Their trio of games against Cork City in the semi-final of the 88/89 cup campaign was the first time that the penultimate round of the competition was played over the course of two legs. Having won 1-0 in Turners Cross in the first, Bray lost 1-0 at home in the second, before losing out 4-0 in the replay, once again in Turners Cross.
That season was a dramatic one for Judge, personally. He was forced to miss a tie against Cobh Ramblers due to work commitments, despite being offered a lift to the game via helicopter. Missing that third-round tie, as well as being dumped out in the semis, spurred Judge and co. on to go one step further the year later.
Listening to Dermot recount the memories that he has of that 1989/90 season gives an insight into how much winning the cup meant to him and the players. One of the highlights during the build-up to the game was his appearance on the Late Late Show a short time beforehand. His appearance - alongside the St. Francis’ captain, Martin Kerr – was highlighted by him walking on stage in a tracksuit, backwards in order to fulfil sponsorship commitments.
On that same episode was an appearance from the great Sir Stanley Matthews. Oft-heralded as one of the finest British players ever to take to the pitch, getting the opportunity to interact with Matthews was something that Judge has never forgotten, nor has he ever let slip how important and noteworthy it was for his family.
‘That was a great experience. He was on The Late Late Show that night, as well, and we got to meet him before he went out and he had a good chat to us. He said: ‘it doesn’t matter what country you play in, this is the blue-ribbon event in your country, and you got to the final of it, so take it all on board and enjoy it.’
‘Both of my parents are gone now, sadly, but one of the best memories I had was when the game was over, I was able to climb up the seats and give them a hug. It was a big game for them. I still have photos of them holding the cup.
‘My own son, Alan, was a mascot at the game. It was a big family thing. That was great. I remember, when we went back into Bray, the amount of people who were waiting for the bus was incredible. To be able to celebrate with them was great.’
Dermot will be the first to admit that the game itself was not for the purists. Bray Wanderers were not credited as a team that would enchant the neutrals with a heart-racing brand of football. Instead, they were tough, pragmatic, resolute, and – importantly – knew what it would take to win. Of the three goals that John Ryan scored on the day, the first and third were from the penalty spot, while the second was a well-taken shot from the edge of the area.
‘St. Francis, to be fair to them, probably played a nicer brand of football, but we were more at it. We closed down, we hit hard, we took our chances. The game could have been played for another hour, and I don’t think that they would have scored, because we defended as a team very well.
‘Bray went and won it 10 years later, with a team that you wouldn’t have considered to be one of the top teams in the league of Ireland. Pat Devlin was the manager again, so he had a knack of bringing the right group of players in that had the one ambition of winning the game, and that was what got us through.
‘The lads obviously had a lot of quality; the defenders knew how to defend, and the forwards knew how to score, but he had a knack of getting the right people on the pitch. They all had a job and if one of them messed up, there was always someone there to tidy up.
We worked hard for each other.’
The celebrations that came after lifting the FAI Cup went on for two full weeks. The team was invited to restaurants, bars, and more, as the local community basked in the success of the Seagulls. Dermot Judge, himself, claims that he did not get to see his wife during that two weeks marathon, while his work didn’t miss the chance to share in the spoils when they got Dermot to bring the trophy in for display.
In the decades that have passed since that historic afternoon in Lansdowne Road, Bray Wanderers have gone through a lion’s share of ups and downs, including winning the FAI Cup again, in 1998/99. Most recently, however, the main stories surrounding the club have circulated around off-field matters. In 2018, at the end of a year that saw the very viability of the club brought into question as a result of financial uncertainty, subsequent player strikes, and an eventual relegation from the Airtricity League Premier Division, Niall O’Driscoll took control of affairs and used the relationship with St. Joseph’s to set-up a feeder system, on which the squad will rely for the foreseeable future.
Having been there when the status of the team wasn’t so prevalent in the media sphere, Dermot has been vocal about Bray’s perceived severance from what has come before, having told the Irish Independent as such in 2015. Five more years may have lapsed, but he remains just as cynical when it comes to whether the club can ever get back to emulating the teams of 1990 and 1999.
‘What has gone on in the past, has gone on in the past. It is part of the history, but I don’t think that the club will ever get back there. I don’t think that it is all down to the club. I think that a part of it is down to how the league is run.
‘You just have to look at the attendance. When we were playing, we would be getting the second-highest attendance at home games. We were the first team to play a league match in Derry since they were reinstated in the league.
The people that were involved and the directors involved were ‘Joe-soaps’; they were butchers and other local Bray people. They used to come down and serve out the tea and all.
It was a community thing. People had pride in it.
We won the league in 1985/86 and went to America that summer, and a few of the supporters came with us.’
The immediate future of Irish football is as uncertain as that of all sport across the globe, as the world continues to try and get a grip with the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Officially, the Football Association of Ireland – which has undergone titanic changes of its own in recent times, following what could be best described as a tetchy 2019 – is hoping for the Premier and First Divisions to recommence on June 23.
Nonetheless, the current circumstances have made it necessary for clubs to make some very difficult decisions, with Drogheda United and Bray Wanderers both putting a pause on paying players and staff until the moratorium on footballing activity comes to and end, while some clubs – such as Bohemians – have been able to commit to fulfilling contracts.
Dermot has been outspoken on the problems that could plague domestic football when the current health crisis is over.
While the likes of Dundalk and, especially, Shamrock Rovers have brought a level of quality to the Premier Division that has sparked interest and optimism in what the sport in this country could be, clubs such as Bray will continue to suffer from decreasing attendance, among other issues. Ultimately, according to Judge, the future of the club scene lies in the hands of the FAI.
‘Dundalk are fantastic, Shamrock Rovers are showing what it is all about now. There is a different brand of football now. It is a lot more professional with some top coaches. That side of it is really, really, good.
‘Do we have an audience that can sustain that? I don’t know. It all depends on the people that they have (in the FAI).
‘Gary Owens is a fella I have known for years, I am sure that he will help get them into a stable position.
‘Niall Quinn is a guy that I could listen to all day because he talks sense and is an honest person. A lot of focus needs to be put into the League of Ireland, because if you don’t have a league of Ireland, you don’t have an international team.
‘I am from Dundrum, and when I was a kid, my dad would bring me down to Glenmalure Park to watch Shamrock Rovers, and there would be crowds and crowds going down. You would get 23,000 at a game.
‘To get people into the grounds, you need to go down the professional route.
‘That is something that the FAI has to focus on, rather than just the international scene.’