PAUL DOOLIN WITH THE DROGS
In the second instalment of a three-part series about the greatest years in Drogheda United’s history, Paul Doolin tells Marcus Cavaroli about the joys of winning his first trophy and leading the team into Europe.
STARVED of success for decades, the Drogheda United supporters of 2005 were crying out for memories they could cherish and look back on in years to come - and their wish was about to come true.
A sole League Cup triumph back in the early 1980s and a handful of First Division titles were good to have, but if Paul Doolin was to achieve his aim of making the Boynesiders a major force in Irish soccer, then they had to win one of the major trophies.
They had established themselves as a force in the Dubliner’s first full season in charge, 2004, by finishing fourth in the top flight and reaching the FAI Cup semi-finals - Longford Town knocked them out after a replay at a packed United Park. Now it was time to go one step further.
In the league Drogheda were going well enough, fighting it out with Bohemians and Longford for the final European place which in those days meant entry to the unloved Intertoto Cup. However, with Cork, Derry and Shelbourne setting a hot pace there was no chance of a top-three finish and instead the FAI Cup became the chief target.
After 2-0 wins in the early rounds over Limerick at home and Dundalk away, Bohemians came to town and this was an opportunity for revenge after the Drogs conceded a late equaliser in Doolin’s first game in charge two years earlier and went out of the competition in a replay.
Paul Keegan and Damian Lynch scored early and despite a second-half Aidan O’Keeffe goal in reply Drogheda hung on to take their place in the semi-finals.
Bray Wanderers, then an established top-flight club, provided the opposition and again the Drogs conceded late on, but not before Declan O’Brien and Jermaine Sandvliet had netted. Doolin’s team were bound for Lansdowne Road - and they weren’t about to let the opportunity pass by.
At least 10,000 Drogheda fans made the trip to Dublin 4 by road or rail - a third of the town’s population - but the big day certainly wasn’t going to faze Doolin, who had won the FAI Cup seven times as a player. The big question was, would the less experienced members of his squad be able to handle the occasion against the newly crowned league champions Cork City in front of a crowd of more than 24,000?
‘We had done everything right,’ Doolin recalled. ‘We had stayed in the d Hotel and then we travelled down to Lansdowne Road, now the Aviva Stadium. It would have been better if it had been the Aviva.
‘The day itself, Cork had the better chances early on and then we sort of got going. You must remember that Damian Lynch, Simon Webb, Steven Gray and Graham Gartland had a few cup finals under their belts, but after that I don’t think too many others had - the likes of Dan Connor, Shane Robinson, Gavin Whelan, Jermaine Sandvliet, Stephen Bradley, ‘Fabio’ and Paul Bernard, the Scottish lad we had at the time.’
After a goal-less first half the final came alive in the second, helped by Gavin Whelan’s crisp close-range strike which forced the shell-shocked Leesiders to chase the game. While the score remained 1-0 the atmosphere was tense, but then enter captain fantastic Declan O’Brien with a delicate chip in the last 10 minutes to put the result beyond doubt.
Drogheda United had arrived. ‘I don’t know what happened with Cork that day,’ Doolin mused. ‘They had some great players at the time like Joe Gamble, George O’Callaghan, Dan Murray and Danny Murphy, they had just won the league and they were a strong team, but we weren’t really successful and so you had that added bonus that players were hungry to do something.
‘Overall, I don’t think you could say we didn’t deserve to win. In the heat of it managers say things and I thought it was poor that Damien [Richardson] said afterwards that the final was left too late, the pitch was horrendous and it was a terrible day - it was the same for us.
‘We were very good. Defensively we were good and no matter what, if you can’t defend you find it very difficult to win games. People say just keep attacking and scoring goals.... well I don’t think so.
‘It was great for the supporters, and the amount of Drogheda jerseys - you would have said where did all those people come from.
‘It was a great occasion, a great atmosphere - a brilliant time.’
The consolation for Cork City, of course, was that they already had the Premier Division title in the bag, but Doolin insisted that the Leesiders’ failure to complete the double would have hurt badly.
‘If you asked any Cork City player, they missed out on something that’s not always easy to do - the double,’ he countered.
‘Down through the years I’ve heard managers say ‘we’ve got bigger fish to fry’ when they’re knocked out of the FAI Cup, but I would never belittle the FAI Cup. The first two finals I was in I lost, and if I hadn’t lost those two I would have nine [winner’s medals]. It’s a fantastic competition.
‘Look at the final now. Supporters always like the day out and getting dressed up and going to the Aviva and winning.
‘I was upset when Limerick knocked us out the following season [in the first round]. We were at home and I think Stephen Bradley made the mistake in the middle of the pitch that caused the goal. We lost 1-0.
‘It was disappointing, of course it was. You would have liked to go again if you could, but that’s the cup. You could play brutal, hit the post 10 times and somebody else would go down and score one, or you could play really great and not win.’
In the overall scheme of things, the gamble that the club’s directors had made in backing Doolin to the hilt was starting to pay off.
‘It all started with the FAI Cup, the first year we were full-time,’ he
IF YOU CANT DEFEND YOU FIND IT VERY DIFFICULT TO WIN GAMES. PEOPLE SAY JUST KEEP ATTACKING AND SCORING GOALS . . . WELL, I DON’T THINK SO.
pointed out. ‘If you are full-time, if you’ve got good budgets and good facilities and you are doing your job right you should be successful. Apart from the [lack of] history, it’s the Wee County and it’s more like a town, and for Drogheda to have that success from nothing...
‘People talk about things now as if there was no league before the Airtricity League. Nobody did anything, but we did and it was no coincidence and I have to thank the people who were with me - Tommy Dunne, Tony Cousins, Jody Byrne, Lockie the kit man and everyone else, right through to when John Carroll and Tim Dalton came in.’
More silverware wasn’t long arriving as Drogheda went all the way at the first attempt in the Setanta Sports Cup of 2006.
They qualified for the semi-finals along with Cork City from a group that also included Dungannon Swifts and Portadown, before James Keddy scored the winner against Linfield in Windsor Park to set up a final against Cork in Tolka Park. Mark Leech netted in extra time to settle a tense decider, and so 21 years after their last major trophy - the League Cup - the Drogs had now won two in less than five months.
That FAI Cup triumph the previous December had seen Drogheda bumped up from the Intertoto to the Uefa Cup and they could now look forward to a first European tie since 1983 when they down 14-0 on aggregate to a Tottenham side featuring the likes of Garth Crooks, Mark Falco, Steve Perryman, Gary Mabbutt and Ray Clemence.
By June 2016 the draw for the first qualifying round was imminent and the sense of anticipation among players and staff, club officials, volunteers, supporters and, yes, the local media was palpable.
‘Drogheda’s last European game was against Tottenham, so this was a new adventure,’ said Doolin. ‘We were waiting on the draw, including myself, because
WE WEREN’T SUCCESSFUL, SO YOU HAD THAT BONUS THAT THEY WERE HUNGRY TO DO SOMETHING.
you want to see what you’re like. Make no mistake, European football is totally different to the Airtricity League.
‘We were travelling away on the bus [to a league match] and it came out that we got HJK Helsinki. People said ‘oh, they’re a Finnish team’, but they had great history. They were in the Champions League group stages and their history in domestic football was absolutely top-notch. They’d won so many titles and cups.’
Drogheda, though, had one notable ace up their sleeve in Sami Ristila, the Finnish-born striker who Drogheda had signed the year before - although it was pure luck that Doolin discovered him.
Recalling the circumstances, Doolin said: ‘It was great from one side [to get HJK] because we had Sami and he could organise us, so he and myself travelled to Finland to watch them play in a league game.
‘I think I had been over there before with [then chairman] Vincent
Hoey actually. We were looking to sign a player and somebody had recommended this player and Vincent and myself went over after one of the Friday night games.
‘We weren’t too impressed with the centre-back we were looking at, but Sami was playing for the other team Haka and I said ‘What’s the story with that lad there?’.
‘At the time Sami wouldn’t have been a younger player, but he was a technically very good player who had a brain. He reminded me of players like Liam Coyle and Stephen Geoghegan who could see certain things in games. We ended up signing him and he was great.’
As for the match itself, played on a high-quality Astro pitch in the impressive Finnair Stadium, Drogheda were not found wanting.
‘They were a strong team,’ said Doolin. They had a top player who played for the national team, and I still remember the big Algerian [Farid] Ghazi.
‘Shane Robinson scored a brilliant goal for us, cutting in from the left on the edge of the 18-yard box, and it finished 1-1.
‘In the second leg in Dalymount they had the big fella up front and he scored and we were 1-0 down, so for us to to beat them 3-1 on the night was absolutely brilliant.
‘When I played in Europe to go the full 90 minutes was always tough for Irish teams and sometimes they fell by the wayside, so to go to extra time and finish out stronger was unbelievable.’
Drogheda were paired in the next round with IK Start, managed by Stig Inge Bjornebye, the former Liverpool defender who had since gone on to manage Norway for more than a decade.
Again, the Boynesiders gave as good as they got, culminating in one of the longest - and best - penalty shootouts in history as 21 kicks out of 24 taken were converted, many of them venomous shots that gave the respective keepers no chance. Poor Graham Gartland, though, missed twice and that meant Drogheda’s European odyssey was over.
Recalling the two games, Doolin said: ‘The away leg finished 1-0, which was not the worst score, although we should have had a draw because James Keddy missed a chance towards the end of the game.
‘But in my opinion we were the better team in Dalymount and probably should have beaten them over the 90 minutes. Eamon Zayed scored from a header from a Shane Barrett cross to the back post, but it ended up with that penalty shootout. Even the keepers had to take one and Dan Connor nearly burst the net with his.
‘I didn’t really know at the time that you didn’t have to go in the same order again [if all 11 players have taken a penalty]. I probably wouldn’t have done anything anyway, but maybe going forward - for anyone else - when it gets to that stage you need to start with your best taker.
‘Obviously I felt for Graham, but he took the disappointment very well afterwards.’
It was back to the bread and butter of the league after that memorable summer of European football, and buoyed by the experience the Drogs lost only four Premier games all season and finished just four points behind the top two Shelbourne and Cork City.
‘In the league we were up there that year, but I didn’t think we were ready,’ said Doolin.
‘I would have said all along that even if you have money it’s not that easy, whether it’s Real Madrid or Manchester United, and there’s people with money who don’t do anything.
‘We had improved every year, we got third and qualified for Europe again, which was great.’
Next week: League glory - and then the sudden implosion