‘Clasico’ glory up for grabs but eyes are on title
AS TWO TRIBES GO TO WAR...
WHETHER it is Manchester, Milan or Moscow, football feeds off rivalries. They provide an edge and nothing cuts sharper in Irish club football than a duel between Shamrock Rovers against Bohemians, the top two in the SSE Airtricity League, who meet in Tallaght tomorrow at the unlikely time of 2.0.
Barring a complete loss of form one of these teams will be crowned the 100th league champions next month, which would be something to brag about. So far, Rovers have 17 titles, the last in 2011, while Bohemians have bagged 11, the most recent in 2009.
For those of a younger vintage, this is the cross-city ‘Clasico’ which, prior to Covid-19, would pull a 9,000-strong crowd to Dublin with standing room only on the Luas from noon.
Yet, while they first met in the Leinster Senior Cup in January, 1915, the Rovers-Bohs footie feud is relatively new.
It dates to 1969 and the vote by Bohemian FC members to pay players for the first time.
The timing coincided with the demise of Drumcondra, who were a far greater challenge for Rovers than the amateurs of Dalymount.
It also initiated the re-emergence of Bohs as a footballing force and, to this day, they remain the only club to have played every season in the top flight.
My first experience of this derby was a mid-winter Sunday at ‘Dalyer’ in the mid-70s.
Back then, Bohs had a very fine team including, Smudger Smyth, Eamon Gregg, Joe Burke, John McCormack, the Byrnes, Pat and Eddie, Gerry Ryan, Tommy Kelly and Turlough O’Connor.
It was the pre-Giles era at Milltown and Rovers were in one of their lulls, although FAI Cup success in 1978 would soon follow.
Later, as a reporter, one game above all the others, stands out.
What unfolded on a raw Sunday in 2001 in Morton Stadium still gives Rovers fans the heebie-jeebies. Up 4-1 at the hour mark, Rovers crash-landed like a burning Spitfire as they coughed up five goals to lose 6-4.
There hasn’t been a scoreline like it since in the Premier Division and you could get 500/1 on ten goals, or more, at Tallaght.
Ahead of battle, Rovers hold the high ground in terms of the table but the force is with Bohemians who have won five league games on the spin.
Under Keith Long (below), approaching six years as manager, Bohs have undergone a gradual overhaul, with an emphasis on young, dynamic, counter-attacking players and a secure defensive set-up.
They have only let in four goals this season, one of them in stoppage time against Rovers at stormy Dalymount in February.
Having qualified for the Europa League by finishing third in 2019, Long is aiming that bit higher in 2020. On the record, he is playing down title talk but if the table shows Bohs on top at 3.50pm tomorrow, he will be forced to acknowledge the shifting of sands. For Rovers, the progression under Stephen Bradley since he took charge in November 2016, has been that bit quicker. Bradley has overseen a huge turnover in players to shape a team, and a style of football, that he feels can lead to domestic silverware and progress in Europe. Between 2017 and 2019, he oversaw finishes of third, third and second in the SSE Airtricity League and also delivered a thrilling Extra.ie FAI Cup back to the club last November. Under Bradley, Rovers are pleasing to the eye, press forward relentlessly and score plenty of goals, although they find it difficult against teams who park the bus in front of the box. At the half-way point of the season, the two teams have pulled clear of the Premier Division peloton and are through to the quarter-finals of the Extra.ie FAI Cup, the draw for which takes place on September 18.
Curiously, for all that they have contested 48 of the 99 FAI Cup finals between them, they only met once in the final, in 1945, when Rovers won 1-0 in front of over 44,000 fans.
Were they to progress to the final on November 27, the FAI would have to reconsider switching to Aviva Stadium from Tallaght such would be the huge demand for tickets.
With Rovers also licking their lips in anticipation of the Europa League arrival of AC Milan to Tallaght on September 17, the focus in club Irish football is on these two distinguished Dublin tribes who lock antlers behind closed doors tomorrow.
‘Two teams have pulled away from the peloton’