Top 20 extratime.ie articles for 2019 (Part 2: 10 to 1)

We continue our countdown of the Top 20 articles published on extratime.ie for 2019.

 

Here is the top 10:

 

10: Dalymount Park development programme details (Macdara Ferris)

Back in March further details of the redevelopment programme for Dalymount Park were announced by Dublin City Council. The schedule set out a 12 month design programme, including a Part 8 planning application, beginning in June 2019. 

However the following month news emerged of a delay due to access issues around the Phibsborough Shopping Centre with Bohs noting that “a rights-of-way dispute between Tesco and MM Capital puts the redevelopment of the shopping centre at risk.”

With the shopping centre redevelopment a key part of the project, this has prevented the scheme from moving ahead at this point.



 

9: Amber Barrett swaps Peamount United for the German Bundesliga (Gareth Cloono and Andrew Dempsey)

Peamount striker Amber Barrett was the latest Ireland international to move from the Women’s National League overseas to further her playing career.

Barrett had scored 13 goals for the Peas before her move to Cologne and she got the winner when her former teammates travelled over to watch her play last month.

 



8: FAI CEO John Delaney provided the Association with six-figure 'bridging loan' in 2017 (Dave Donnelly)

For a number of months during the year, it seemed to be a countdown to midnight so that you’d get the very latest on the FAI and John Delaney as it hit the Sunday Times Ireland edition website.

The start of the fall of John Delaney and the news of fiasco with the FAI’s finances began with Mark Tighe breaking the story in the newspaper on St. Patrick’s Day of Delaney’s bridging loan.

This article on extratime.ie documented the first of what would be many statements from the FAI about their finances during 2019 – the fallout of which is still unclear with the sporting organisation's crisis ongoing.

If it is wasn’t so serious it would be funny but we still went with one of our favourite images of John Delaney to accompany this story.

 

7: UCD boss Collie O'Neill confirms Liam Scales bound for Bristol Rovers (Dave Donnelly)

We don’t tend to deal in idle transfer speculation but we went with this story on Liam Scales impending departure to Bristol Rovers. Don’t blame our reporter Dave Donnelly as he just asked the questions of Students boss Collie O’Neill and noted the response. 

“It’s one of the Bristol clubs,” said O’Neill, later clarifying that Bristol Rovers are the team set to confirm Scales’ arrival, though he has had more than one offer. “There’s a few in for him but, as to which one exactly he’s going to, it’s up to him to make his decision.”

Last we checked Tallaght wasn’t a suburb of Bristol:

 

6: Depression stole me of confidence and self-belief - I was a waste of a tracksuit (Davy O'Connor)

Ahead of running 247km in 72 hours back in April, Davy O’Connor - who works as part of the coaching team with Shelbourne - penned this article on his marathon endeavor with the distance chosen to represent the 24/7 challenge mental health issues and mental illness can pose.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

DOWN, BUT NEVER OUT. - Sticking with it for this week cos I'll keep trying & keeping standing tall. - A very tough year mentally; the full picture is never shown to the world. Everyone has issues & difficulties to face into each day. Some are trivial, some are much more than that & as hard as it can be, gotta keep going - I always try to be honest & sincere about where my head is at when posting on social media & share my experiences. I try very hard to stay strong & to better myself through different mediums, whether its running, reading, writing or connecting with people. If I can lift others up along the way it's an added bonus. - Despite the blues in my head throughout 2019, I'm proud of what I've achieved & grateful for those closest to me who always always support me. - Hope you've all had a great year with lessons & accomplishments you hold close to your hearts. - MORE TO COME - Mind yourselves - - - - #isprainedmymentalhealth #alwaystrying #personaldevelopment

A post shared by David O'Connor (@performance_doc) on

 

5: Bazunu to Man City - A transfer that could change Irish football? (Ryan Kilbane)

The 2018 transfer of Shamrock Rovers’ 16-year-old goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu to Manchester City was described at the time by Rovers “the biggest transfer by an Irish club in the professional era”. Bazunu, who began playing at Rovers as a six-year-old, joined Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City for a fee believed to be €500,000.

Ryan Kilbane in this article noted with Rovers’ academy structure and financial stability at the club, why they were able to command such a large fee. The Hoops supported the player on a scholarship for his Leaving Cert, and by giving him a bigger platform to perform on compared with underage football they could command a larger fee – money that can now be re-invested in the club. 

 

4: Pat Flynn: 'Now that I see what Cristiano Ronaldo has done, it's nice for me to say to my kids that I kept him quiet. That tackle is something to own' (Dan Lucey)

Dan Lucey caught up with Pat Flynn, a coach at Shamrock Rovers’ Academy, and a former player who is one of the great characters from recent years in the League of Ireland. Flynn, who was part of two title winning teams with the Hoops, unsurprisingly had a couple of cracking stories in this interview with extratime.ie. 

 

3: Meet the Ireland under-21 squad for the Toulon Tournament (Tom O’Connor)

Stephen Kenny earmarked early on in his tenure as Republic of Ireland under-21 manager the importance of the Toulon Tournament. His team were the first Irish team to enter the prestigious competition for two decades and would go on to be the first to make the semi-final.

Ahead of the tournament Tom O’Connor set out the pen pics for each player in the squad and the team did superbly at the event missing out on third place only after losing a penalty shootout to Mexico.

 

2: UCD's Conor Kearns and Bohs captain Derek Pender banned for five and four games respectively for post-match fracas (Dave Donnelly)

The Dublin derby between UCD and Bohemians doesn’t tend to be the derby that has the most drama in the capital but the game in Belfield back in July was quite the match and had repercussions for both teams. 

The game resulted in a 1-0 win on the pitch for the Students that would later turn into a 3-0 win after it emerged that Bohs played the suspended Danny Mandroiu in the match. UCD scored after eight minutes and while Bohs dominated possession for most of the match they couldn’t find a way past UCD ‘keeper Conor Kearns.

Bohs supporters weren’t happy with what they saw as time wasting by UCD and eventually Kearns would pick up a yellow card for that offence in the eighth minute of injury time. However, Kearns’ celebration in front of the away support at full time, caused a melee on the pitch involving players and club officials with plenty of invective thrown Kearns’ way by the away supporters when he went off the pitch.

There were long suspensions handed out to Kearns and Bohs captain Derek Pender with UCD suffering most as they went on to lose each game during Kearns’ absence including a couple by heavy scorelines (7-0 in Tallaght and 10-1 in Dalymount). Manager Collie O’Neill was soon relieved of his duties with the Students relegated by seasons end.

Kearns moved to St. Pat’s in the off-season and so the 3 April clash at Dalymount between the Gypsies and the Saints might be one to keep an eye on!

 

1: extratime.ie League of Ireland Attendance Report 2019 (Gareth Penrose)

There is one article that always makes our top 10 list for the year and that is our attendance report card for the League of Ireland. It is also the article that requires the most amount of work – on match night our reporters note down the attendance and Gareth Penrose then compiles all the available figures and chases down any missing numbers from club in the league.

This year’s figures have official attendances for 295 of the 315 games played across the Premier Division and First Division. We missed out on two official Dundalk attendances for Oriel Park while Derry City do not publish their crowd figures.

388,693 supporters attended matches in the Premier Division with an average attendance in the top tier of 2,159 - a 23% increase on 2018 with Shamrock Rovers dethroning Cork City to become the most popular team in terms of attracting fans into their stadium.

The Hoops' average attendance this year was 3,445, an increase of 588 but across the Liffey Bohemians showed an even larger increase in their crowds. Their average of 2,878 (an increase of 742) saw them finish second in the attendance table with Dundalk in third (2,753).

 

 

    About Macdara Ferris

    Macdara Ferris is a contributor since 2007 to Hoops Scene (Shamrock Rovers' match day programme) and is the co-author of two books on Shamrock Rovers - 'Tallaght Time: Shamrock Rovers 2009 to 2012' (with Karl … View Full Profile