National Treasure

It’s been an interesting few days.   Bohs draw at Tallaght makes the two games Shamrock Rovers have in hand over Sligo an even more important factor in deciding who ultimately tops the table.   UCD’s defeat of Bohemians, Dundalk and St Patrick’s Athletic within seven days may not be headline material but is certainly worth a double take.

UCD is a development squad and as such is used to losing the cream of its crop to rival clubs on an annual basis.   But at the beginning of this season, faced with the need for further economies to its minimal budget, the Students also lost players whose services they might normally hope to have retained for a further year.   With no resources to import a few senior players to coach the kids on the pitch UCD’s lack of maturity made their young players look even more vulnerable than usual.

Sure enough there have been occasions when the wheels have come off.   Robert Goggins, the Shamrock Rovers scribe, was not the first or last to tell me that the Students had played the best pure football he had seen this season.   Nevertheless the records show that UCD have conceded six against the Hoops on three occasions.   And seven in Derry.   Perhaps more style than substance then, although it’s only fair to add that these kids also showed the necessary resilience to come from two-nil down to earn an FAI Cup replay against the champions.

At the outset I was told that, under this season’s format, the Football Club had only to avoid bottom place to retain Premier Division status.   At the time I thought that a disappointing lack of ambition but, in retrospect, and even before last week’s results, it now seems a shrewd plan.  

View it in the context of those results.   First Bohemian F.C., ironically once Ireland’s blue riband amateur club but in recent times at the forefront of the push towards the holy grail of full time professionalism.   Now semi-professional and burdened with financial problems.  UCD 2 Bohemians 0.

Now Dundalk, a club with tremendous potential and a current  cash crisis that has impinged on dressing room confidence.   UCD 3 Dundalk 0.

Finally St Patrick’s Athletic, UCD’s finest performance for this is a club which has consistently out performed its reduced resources and came to the Bowl with everything still to play for.    UCD 2 St Patrick’s Athletic 1.

Against Pats the Students played outstanding passing football and if they win another match they will equal the number achieved by last season’s squad, something I would not have thought possible when the current term started.   In the process UCD has brought through an array of bright new talent and consolidated the star status of others.   I will not identify individuals because this is a truly a squad achievement and the credit is as much due to Martin Russell and his coaching staff.

And, of course, the officials of the Club who have guided it, successfully it seems, through these difficult times.   I have listened to those who say UCD have no place in the national league, that they are “state subsidised”, have no real fan base, and do not operate from a level playing pitch.   Whilst the Club does benefit from the association, mostly in terms of facilities, it is for the university simply one of many sporting facilities offered to students.   Such privileges as it does receive simply reflect its status in Irish sport.   For its part UCD AFC is a high profile asset and provides degree students with the opportunity of participating in the sport of their choice at the highest level.   It’s the equivalent of students on an acting course being automatically made members of the Abbey company!

The policy of the university as a seat of learning is to incorporate the football club into its structure.   When UCD ran Everton close in European competition in 1984, for instance, the College did not invest in the marketing potential this offered.   Indeed, the squad was disbanded at the end of that season because there wasn’t enough money in the kitty.   This is a perfectly legitimate stance for the seat of learning to assume but it is important to recognise the football club’s place in the hierarchy.   The scholarships it offers to its young players are entirely financed by the football club’s own activities.   In my view, UCD AFC is a peculiarly Irish national treasure and if more locals came to sample the football it serves up it might soon have a decent fan base too.