The First Experience

I am reliably informed this site was set up to avoid anxious nights spent staring in front of a suspiciously underactive Teletext screen bearing ten scoreless draws with over an hour played.

As a relative newco­­mer to the wonders that the League of Ireland has to offer, thankfully this is an anguish I have managed to avoid. But having spoken to the more ardent and battle hardened supporters of Irish soccer – people who remember the likes of the Baker brothers and a time when our current Premier Division Champions were homeless  – I am told this was a weekly Friday night ritual where they were unable to attend ga­mes.

I came on-board the Extratime team at the start of last season as a journalism student eager to cut my teeth in the competitive and often intimidating world of sports reporting. The idea of covering League of Ireland games was sold to me on the basis that I would gain first-hand experience of covering Irish soccer at the top level - and the promise of a cup of tea at half-time. The latter has proved true only in Hunky Dorys Park where the good people at Drogheda United provide those of us in the press area with hot tea and biscuits every game without fail.

The idea of a fancy press card with my name, picture and title finally won me over.

By the time it dawned on me that the press card would never arrive (it seems the FAI only issue cards once a year, and I had missed the deadline), I was already hooked.  The game itself became the reason I reported and supported the on goings of the league. Indeed in the past twelve months Irish soccer has become my main sporting interest, replacing the English Premier League and GAA as my staple sporting sustenance.

In my first official outing with Extratime, I was sent to Tallaght Stadium where the home side overcame St Pat’s 2-0. I was on live updating duty that night and would like to take this opportunity to apologise to Pats fans for any false hope I may have given them as I battled with the many complexities of the update system.

Although that phantom goal I accidentally awarded the visitors just before the break was only ‘live’ for a minute, I’m sure some faithful Saints’ supporter out there saw it and rejoiced. Again, I apologise sincerely.

Incidents like this one continued for some time but as the league progressed I began to get the hang of live updating and realised it wasn’t the complex machine I had thought. Furthermore, I think the live updates are the most important aspect of the site and hope this remains true this season, despite new competitors in this area.

Last season was an historic season for obvious reasons, but outside of the Hoops’ hugely successful European run, there were plenty of high points. Perhaps the most notable of these was the return to a more grounded approach to club management and ownership after some truly crazy years.

The breakthroughs made by James McClean, Enda Stevens and Daniel Kearns to England, Shane McFaul to Finland and Eamon Zayed to Iran of all places, show the quality the League of Ireland can produce and I am sure this is something that will continue.

I feel privileged to have played a very small role in bringing the League of Ireland into peoples’ lives which, in my view, should be the number one prerogative for Irish soccer journalists working in this country today.

Whatever about the half-time tea, they certainly weren’t lying about the experience and in the past 12 months I have witnessed the much fabled highs and lows this league has to offer.  I was lucky enough to attend more than 25 league games last season and hope I get the opportunity to cover even more this season.

In this column, I don’t mean to create a rose-tinted view of the League of Ireland (and I promise this is the only one in which I will talk about myself. It will be all football talk from here on!).

I am aware both the Premier and First Division have their problems and they are well known, and well reported on. But I think if we spent as much time reporting on the success stories from the league, as we did the negative, Irish domestic football would be in a much healthier place.

That is something that this site strives for and I hope this continues into the foreseeable future. It is not perfect but nothing is, and I think it is important to remember it is run entirely by volunteers. Like the league, Extratime has its fans, and its detractors and both are crucial in improving and expanding on what we have.

I hope you are looking forward to the 2012 season like I am. Strap yourselves in. It’s sure to be another exciting and eventful ride.