Shelbourne

In the early 2000’s a friend and long time Shelbourne supporter suggested I attend a LOI game with him considering neither of us had any real affection for British soccer.

Drogheda United were the visiting team to Tolka Park early in the 2003 season and as soon as I took up my seat in the newly developed Drumcondra end stand, I was hooked. I was in total awe of the whole occasion, from the colour and passion of your average LOI fan, to the drumbeats and focal roars from the stands.

Shelburne F.C. has historically been a successful club; their past laden with countless trophies and European tales. However it was through the nineties and up until the mid 2000’s that some of the most glorious occasions in Shelbourne Football Club’s proud 117 year history occurred.

If 2002 was the summer of the Irish soccer side, 2004 was definitely the summer of Shelbourne F.C. with domestic fans gripped in Champions League fever. The Dublin outfit only missed out on the group stage after a heroic two-leg fixture in which they lost out to Spanish heavyweights Deportivo La Coruna. The highlight being the scoreless draw played out in front of over 20,000 at Lansdowne Road.

A starting eleven down the years boasting such talents like Geoghegan, Byrne, Hoolahan, Heary, Harris, Crawford and Fitzpatrick to name some, saw many memorable domestic battles with the likes of the ‘Drogs’,  ‘Saints’, ‘Bohs’ and City. However, somewhat coinciding with a worldwide recession the Reds suffered their own financial meltdown in late 2006.

Demoted from the Premier Division, the club spent 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 slumming it in the First Division. Narrowly missing out on promotion on three heart breaking occasions in particular the club has experienced vast changes from management, squads and backroom staff.

Former manager Dermot Keely valiantly tried to manage the club back to the Premier Division on a shoestring budget. Controversial playoffs, last minute equalisers and sub standard players made the managers un-enviable job even harder.

It was another former Shelbourne great in Alan Mathews, who in his first full season has seen the club back to the Premier Division with an FAI Cup final appearance to boot. Through the influential captaincy of both David Gill and David Cassidy, the defensive rocks of Paiso and Lorcan Fitzgerald along with goals from Philly Hughes, Shels breezed through the initial rounds of the 2011 campaign at times running with a 10 point lead.

However in true Reds fashion, late summer and early Autumn saw some cracks appearing, the 4-1 thrashing handed down by Cork in Turners Cross, the last minute home defeats by Roddy Collins’ Monaghan and our old friends from Limerick, not to forget that mind boggling defeat down in Waterford.

Our dominance was fading but the lads turned it around in Galway and promotion was officially achieved after a home victory over Finn Harps in which chants of ‘Ollie Byrne’s Reds Army’ could be heard in recognition of the late Chairman’s affection for his beloved reds.

Shelbourne took St. Pats to a replay in the Semi-Final of the Cup, which saw a Barcelona-worthy performance from the real Reds setting up a final with Sligo Rovers. Shelbourne F.C will be back in the Premier Division for the current campaign and a lot of credit will go to the 2011 squad, however a few other players are worth mentioning from down the years, some new and some returning hero’s like Mark Rutherford, Dean Delaney, Bisto Flood, and David McAllister and of course former manager Dermot Keely.

2012 will be for the fans though; those hard and loyal souls who still came to Tolka Park and followed the lads around the country, taking in more humbling venues such as Gortakeegan, St Colman’s Park and Fahey’s Field. Shelbourne F.C are going back to where we belong and no one deserves this more that the loyal supporters.

 - Jason O’Callaghan, Shelbourne Fan.