Measuring the Divide
Credit:
BRIAN de SALVO visits an English seat of learning to study how the Conference compares with the Airtricity League.
It’s been awhile since I watched a football match that had no Irish players involved. Last time I was in sunny Malta so was “Fabio” O’Brien, strutting his stuff for Valletta. But an inspection of Saturday’s match programme reveals that the injured Keiran Murtagh is an Antigua and Barbuda international and that the stadium’s Dublin suite is dedicated to Dion not the Irish capital. There is Conal Platt, who gets on for an impressive 17 minutes. He is the possessor of the invaluable Irish grandfather but is keeping his options regarding allegiance open at the moment. I am watching Cambridge United play Kidderminster Harriers in the Premier Division of the Blue Square Conference, on a fact finding mission to see how the game at this level compares to our own Airtricity League in match day experience and playing standards.
There has long been a debate as to what cross channel level Irish domestic soccer equates. In the past I have heard it argued that our top clubs could compete successfully in the Championship but that was in Celtic Tiger times and, with most Irish clubs reverting to semi-professional status, I doubt whether even the most fervent fan of the Airtricity League would make such a claim today. The gulf in what you can achieve with full time pros compared with part timers is considerable. Ask any manager.
My own interest was prompted by watching a match in Waterford last season billed as between the Irish and English U23 sides. The teams competing were actually the Airtricity League under 23s and the Conference Under 23s masquerading as international selections. The RSC is a fine arena but not really suitable for the presentation of professional soccer since the pitch is surrounded by a running track, isolating it from the spectator. Needs must in but I am not one of those who believe multi purpose stadia are the way ahead.
The Abbey Stadium, by contrast, is a dedicated soccer venue with a capacity of 10,000 and covered stands on all four sides of the ground, two all seated, the others terraced. For the visit of Kidderminster the attendance was 2,171. Elsewhere the highest gate in the division was over 5,000 at Luton, the lowest 661 at Gateshead.
It is perhaps more relevant to point out that when Bray Wanderers entertained Liverpool Reserves in a friendly recently they installed extra seating and were rewarded with a full house, estimated as between five and six and a half thousand. Three days earlier less than 1,500 were in the ground to watch a vital league match against current leaders Derry City. No need for extra seating for that and a clear indication that the vast majority of Irish football fans don’t watch domestic soccer.
Foolish recent attempts to pit League Representative XIs against the might of top foreign club sides haven’t helped enhance the image of the product on the pitch – a club side, managed by its regular manager and perhaps including a couple of guests would have represented the quality of Airtricity soccer better – but what about the quality of the match day experience in Cambridge?
It is, of course, invidious to nominate one match, picked at random, as a barometer for the whole Conference experience. United has enjoyed Football League status in the not too distant past, but then thirteen other members of the Conference top division include former League membership on their cvs. Not many will boast a match day programme to challenge the 68 page glossy edition sold by Cambridge United for £3. It’s packed with useful and entertaining information and would be good value for a match in the English Premier League. Not surprisingly it won the award as the best in the Conference. It also encloses the Supporters Club Amber News which again is better than your average publication of that ilk and free to boot.
The programme bears a number that brings with it the chance of winning a free Nokia handset. There is also the ubiquitous half time draw. Fans in the Bray “permanent temporary” stand tell me they no longer purchase tickets for the Wicklow club’s version of this since they cannot hear the winning number when it is called out on the unintelligible public address system. No danger of that in Cambridge where the amplification is fashionably too loud but certainly audible.
Other cultural differences are that the programme still refers to the referee as “Mr” Ford, a formality we have done away with in Ireland, that, in this match at least, both teams lined up in front of the main stand and ran the handshaking gauntlet I thought reserved for games with an international context. The most surprising was the behaviour of the crowd; there were no obscene chants and even when their team gifted two goals within two minutes just before half time not even a murmur of censure when United left the field at the break. Of course it’s early in the Conference season but the second half United revival was enthusiastically endorsed from the stands too. Since obscene chants came to Ireland via UK tv match coverage it’s clear Cambridge aren’t the norm – it’s a middle class university city and there was a strong family presence but nevertheless, to this cynical old hack, the atmosphere in the stadium was a pleasant surprise.
The Abbey stadium is fifty years old although only the press box gives a clue to its longevity. It bears a notice “Please keep this press office clean and tidy and use the bin provided”. It is spotless and the bin empty. Like press boxes across the world it offers its occupants cramped conditions. I am seated in the overflow section outside the box which is simply a stand seat designated for press usage. That’s fine for my purposes although it would have been helpful to have a writing surface on which to complete my match stats sheet. On the subject of stats there is a man in the row behind me giving what at first seems a most laconic account of the game though a mobile phone. “Defensive throw to Cambridge on the right, ten yards from the corner flag, taken by number two, Kevin Roberts”. When I interrogate him at half time it turns out he’s the Press Association statistician filing a complete record of match stats as they happen. And I thought I was obsessive compulsive!
My colleagues in the press area studiously avoid eye contact but when I introduce myself to the man commentating for BBC Radio Cambridge he couldn’t be more helpful and the Kidderminster radio reporter studiously researches the visiting squad for Irish players when I ask him. These people are not unfriendly, just reserved. Another cultural difference. But the choice of “man of the match” inexplicably goes to the player who was supposed to be marking the scorer of both Kidderminster goals, which rings a bell with Irish practice.
The whole experience in Cambridge was delightful and the match entertaining. How high were the standards? I was reminded of that so-called Under 23 international in Waterford. The English won comfortably enough that evening, largely because they were physically more mature than their Irish opponents. That maturity was a feature of the match at Cambridge too. Of course there are Irish players who will continue to make their mark in the higher divisions of English soccer but in terms of general standards I think the likes of Shamrock Rovers, Sligo Rovers, Derry City and St Pats could compete at Conference level but that this fifth level of the English game is as high as our best clubs can hope to emulate in these recessionary times.
It’s been awhile since I watched a football match that had no Irish players involved. Last time I was in sunny Malta so was “Fabio” O’Brien, strutting his stuff for Valletta. But an inspection of Saturday’s match programme reveals that the injured Keiran Murtagh is an Antigua and Barbuda international and that the stadium’s Dublin suite is dedicated to Dion not the Irish capital. There is Conal Platt, who gets on for an impressive 17 minutes. He is the possessor of the invaluable Irish grandfather but is keeping his options regarding allegiance open at the moment. I am watching Cambridge United play Kidderminster Harriers in the Premier Division of the Blue Square Conference, on a fact finding mission to see how the game at this level compares to our own Airtricity League in match day experience and playing standards.
There has long been a debate as to what cross channel level Irish domestic soccer equates. In the past I have heard it argued that our top clubs could compete successfully in the Championship but that was in Celtic Tiger times and, with most Irish clubs reverting to semi-professional status, I doubt whether even the most fervent fan of the Airtricity League would make such a claim today. The gulf in what you can achieve with full time pros compared with part timers is considerable. Ask any manager.
My own interest was prompted by watching a match in Waterford last season billed as between the Irish and English U23 sides. The teams competing were actually the Airtricity League under 23s and the Conference Under 23s masquerading as international selections. The RSC is a fine arena but not really suitable for the presentation of professional soccer since the pitch is surrounded by a running track, isolating it from the spectator. Needs must in but I am not one of those who believe multi purpose stadia are the way ahead.
The Abbey Stadium, by contrast, is a dedicated soccer venue with a capacity of 10,000 and covered stands on all four sides of the ground, two all seated, the others terraced. For the visit of Kidderminster the attendance was 2,171. Elsewhere the highest gate in the division was over 5,000 at Luton, the lowest 661 at Gateshead.
It is perhaps more relevant to point out that when Bray Wanderers entertained Liverpool Reserves in a friendly recently they installed extra seating and were rewarded with a full house, estimated as between five and six and a half thousand. Three days earlier less than 1,500 were in the ground to watch a vital league match against current leaders Derry City. No need for extra seating for that and a clear indication that the vast majority of Irish football fans don’t watch domestic soccer.
Foolish recent attempts to pit League Representative XIs against the might of top foreign club sides haven’t helped enhance the image of the product on the pitch – a club side, managed by its regular manager and perhaps including a couple of guests would have represented the quality of Airtricity soccer better – but what about the quality of the match day experience in Cambridge?
It is, of course, invidious to nominate one match, picked at random, as a barometer for the whole Conference experience. United has enjoyed Football League status in the not too distant past, but then thirteen other members of the Conference top division include former League membership on their cvs. Not many will boast a match day programme to challenge the 68 page glossy edition sold by Cambridge United for £3. It’s packed with useful and entertaining information and would be good value for a match in the English Premier League. Not surprisingly it won the award as the best in the Conference. It also encloses the Supporters Club Amber News which again is better than your average publication of that ilk and free to boot.
The programme bears a number that brings with it the chance of winning a free Nokia handset. There is also the ubiquitous half time draw. Fans in the Bray “permanent temporary” stand tell me they no longer purchase tickets for the Wicklow club’s version of this since they cannot hear the winning number when it is called out on the unintelligible public address system. No danger of that in Cambridge where the amplification is fashionably too loud but certainly audible.
Other cultural differences are that the programme still refers to the referee as “Mr” Ford, a formality we have done away with in Ireland, that, in this match at least, both teams lined up in front of the main stand and ran the handshaking gauntlet I thought reserved for games with an international context. The most surprising was the behaviour of the crowd; there were no obscene chants and even when their team gifted two goals within two minutes just before half time not even a murmur of censure when United left the field at the break. Of course it’s early in the Conference season but the second half United revival was enthusiastically endorsed from the stands too. Since obscene chants came to Ireland via UK tv match coverage it’s clear Cambridge aren’t the norm – it’s a middle class university city and there was a strong family presence but nevertheless, to this cynical old hack, the atmosphere in the stadium was a pleasant surprise.
The Abbey stadium is fifty years old although only the press box gives a clue to its longevity. It bears a notice “Please keep this press office clean and tidy and use the bin provided”. It is spotless and the bin empty. Like press boxes across the world it offers its occupants cramped conditions. I am seated in the overflow section outside the box which is simply a stand seat designated for press usage. That’s fine for my purposes although it would have been helpful to have a writing surface on which to complete my match stats sheet. On the subject of stats there is a man in the row behind me giving what at first seems a most laconic account of the game though a mobile phone. “Defensive throw to Cambridge on the right, ten yards from the corner flag, taken by number two, Kevin Roberts”. When I interrogate him at half time it turns out he’s the Press Association statistician filing a complete record of match stats as they happen. And I thought I was obsessive compulsive!
My colleagues in the press area studiously avoid eye contact but when I introduce myself to the man commentating for BBC Radio Cambridge he couldn’t be more helpful and the Kidderminster radio reporter studiously researches the visiting squad for Irish players when I ask him. These people are not unfriendly, just reserved. Another cultural difference. But the choice of “man of the match” inexplicably goes to the player who was supposed to be marking the scorer of both Kidderminster goals, which rings a bell with Irish practice.
The whole experience in Cambridge was delightful and the match entertaining. How high were the standards? I was reminded of that so-called Under 23 international in Waterford. The English won comfortably enough that evening, largely because they were physically more mature than their Irish opponents. That maturity was a feature of the match at Cambridge too. Of course there are Irish players who will continue to make their mark in the higher divisions of English soccer but in terms of general standards I think the likes of Shamrock Rovers, Sligo Rovers, Derry City and St Pats could compete at Conference level but that this fifth level of the English game is as high as our best clubs can hope to emulate in these recessionary times.
