Flying solo

A couple of weeks ago I attended a game between Ballyfermot United and CYM Terenure. It took place just off the Coldcut Road, in the shadows of Wheatfield prison, on a morning cold enough to put goosebumps on your goosebumps. But there were still about a dozen or so hardy souls present to shout for the home side and, crucially, about five or six bodies on the sidelines cheering on Terenure. Who would have thought this showing would outstrip the away support of a leading Serie A side by five or six hundred percent.

When Udinese fan Arrigo Brovedani recently showed up at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris for an away game against Genoa he found himself in the unsettling situation of being the only Udinese fan to show up. Needless to say this made him a rather obvious target for the home support. But the jeers soon turned to empathy, and then respect. Before long the home stewards had provided Mr Brovedani with complimentary coffee while the home fans invited him for post match drinks.

The story has made international headlines as football fans the world over wonder how it can be that a senior football team can attract just one away fan. As a League of Ireland fan this gladdens my heart. For goodness sake, we’ve been at that kind of craic for years. In fact, I’d say there are a good few Irish clubs that can reasonably claim to have outdone Udinese on that score by at least one.

Athlone may have lost out to AC Milan in the mid seventies, Torino might have left Limerick for dead a few years before that, and Juve may have dumped Shamrock Rovers out of Europe on 2011, but when it comes to travelling fans we appear to be on something of a par. So hats off to the lonely few who travel the length and breadth of Ireland for a League Cup tie on a freezing night in March, only to find themselves with the weight of their club squeezed upon their slim shoulders. We are not alone.

And while the league at large can console itself that the wider football world sometimes shares our pain, the good folk of Terenure can allow themselves a moment of pride to have so comprehensively outperformed a leading Serie A side. Bravo.