The Decider

gimmick

Well, its only 5 days away, the biggest game in domestic Irish football history, a straight shoot out to see who wins the league.

All Derry need is a draw, while Cork City, who have led the table for almost the entire season, are now in the position where only a win will do.

Will Derry come and play for a draw? God knows, I hope not.

I think Cork City will win this game 3-1.

On a side note, Derry got an allocation of 500 tickets, which went straight to sponsors etc. Not even season ticket holders and/or members could buy any today. The only Derry fans who will be in the ground are those that bought direct from CCFC. Thats kinda shíte.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

pp_me129

Its going to be a grat game

cant wait never seen this happen before

that there is prety much a final to win the el

7000 tickets sold already and they will not leave anymore to be bought what a crowd so derry fans and cork fans if ypou dont have your ticket your not going it's that simple good luck both teams for what will be a very captiveating match

MrJoeSoap

gimmick wrote:

On a side note, Derry got an allocation of 500 tickets, which went straight to sponsors etc. Not even season ticket holders and/or members could buy any today. The only Derry fans who will be in the ground are those that bought direct from CCFC. Thats kinda shíte.

Thats awful altogether. I can't see the sponsors singing tbh...

I'm hoping for a Derry win or a draw, purely for selfish reasons.

blu_sonic

i think cork deserve it been 2nd best for as long as i remember

MrJoeSoap

Gripping tale of two cities

The friendly rivalry between Cork City and Derry City has framed the summer football season. On Friday night the teams go head to head in a final showdown that will decide the Eircom League title. Michael Foley traces the stories that link two communities steeped in football tradition and with everything to play for.

A Friday night three weeks ago in the Horseshoe Inn on the Curragh Road in Cork city, and the bar is crammed with beery, happy locals. Across the road in Turner’s Cross Cork City have just clinched a breathlessly dramatic place in the FAI Cup final with a penalty deep into injury-time to beat Derry City. Stephen O’Flynn was born up the road in Mallow and transferred from Cork to Derry early in the season, but on his return he upended Neale Fenn inside the box. His form for Derry had been superb. The irony was too cruel, too heartless to dwell on.

Instead, inside the Horseshoe, the locals are taking in the magnitude of it all. Shelbourne are charging up behind Cork in the league and Derry remain on their tail, but the Double is still on.

In another corner of the bar, the last Derry supporters are supping up before their 11-hour journey home commences. So much of their season was now being shaped around Cork. In May they lost to Cork in Turner’s Cross in the league. This latest defeat in Cork was their first in 25 games. Somewhere in between their season had taken an epic turn. At the beginning of the summer, a quiet mid-table life would have done. Nothing fancy. Now, somehow, they were the last ones left chasing Cork.

The Derry supporters gathered themselves to leave, but the locals were ready for them. As they filed out those in the pub stood, shook their hands, clapped and wished them well. A bus carrying the elderly members of the Northside Derry City Supporters Club pulled out of Turner’s Cross, prompting the crowds along the roads to cheer them all the way to the top of the Douglas Road. When he returned home its chairman, Michael Kerrigan, sent Cork City a letter that glowed with gratitude.

Since the 1980s Derry and Cork had always seen something of themselves in each other, far removed from the Eircom League’s heartlands around Dublin but still capable of dictating its pulse. This season they have owned the league. Next Friday Derry City return to Turner’s Cross for one game to decide everything. As they finished their pints in the Horseshoe, everybody already sensed it would come to this. The pleasure of these final five days is theirs to share.

IT’S a few years since Gerry Houston from the Creggan first met Lisa Lynch from Knocknaheeny. Nearly 300 miles separated them, one overlooking the Brandywell from his mother’s house, the other locked into the northside of Cork city. Football brought them together and over time, romance blossomed. Eight years ago Gerry helped start the Brandywell Pride Derry City Supporters Club and now, as they exchanged messages across its website, Lisa got hooked on Gerry, and Derry.

Football and the Brandywell has been at the centre of Houston’s life. When Derry City entered the League of Ireland in the mid-1980s Gerry was entranced. He stood on the terraces and found himself in the same company as the years went on. There was Adrian and Brian ‘Bru’ Martyn. His own brother Frankie. Gary Barnfield. Tommy Gallagher with his mouth organ. They travelled the country together following Derry, first as friends, then as a supporters’ club.

“From around 1985,” he says, “everybody was down because of the Troubles and that. Kids were out there burning out cars, but we wanted football. There was 25 members in the club there from the start. We sent away to Germany one year for a few snare drums. They cost a couple of hundred pounds, but wait and see the reaction when we brought them down to a few games. Now you go to St Pat’s and Bohs and you see them everywhere.”

The Brandywell has always formed part of Derry’s soul. Effigies of Elvis Presley were burned there in the 1950s. John Hume addressed one of his first major rallies there, having been a ball boy years before. Supporters from the Protestant Waterside always supported Derry City, but as the differences between the two communities began to widen, football fell between the cracks.

In 1971 Derry left the Irish League and went into hibernation. When they were accepted into the League of Ireland in 1985, public enthusiasm swept every other barrier away.

Attendances soared to 10,000. The away support travelled in mighty numbers into the south. Players from France, South Africa and Brazil filled out the team, and they swept all before them in winning a Premier Division title in 1989.

The club shone as a vivid emblem of what even the most embattled community was capable of. Parents were happy to send their kids to the Brandywell to watch football. Derry City offered hope, another way.

Great read.

KdjaCL

the last Derry supporters are supping up before their 11-hour journey home commences.

Did they walk home


kdjac

blu_sonic

not at all they cycled

applehunter

I am really nervous. My stomach is in knots and it is only Sunday.


This Cork City team has been building for 4 years.

It is OUR TIME TO SHINE. :cool:

blu_sonic

and should you loose it can be your time to whine, sorry i'm joking i'm really hoping for a cork win

KdjaCL

Its like xmas come early , on friday @9.35pm the camera will pan to a large group of fans all solemn, some crying, some with heads in hands, all totally gutted that their whole season is gone in just one game. Some other fans will laugh and snigger, some bastards like me will actually watch out for it.

Then we get the same thing but with added Roverness in 2 weeks time

Ahh gotta love end of season...


kdjac

blu_sonic

says the chap who's team just escaped, it was a great year for the EL

KdjaCL

blu_sonic wrote:

says the chap who's team just escaped, it was a great year for the EL

By beating the champions elect with 9 men then Rovers, great isnt the end of season ;0


kdjac

blu_sonic

i'm not having a go, i do mean it was a great year for the EL, who's the champ elect?

KdjaCL

Cork, excellent EL season but the horrible reality for Cork fans is if they lose they have had one of the most successful seasons in Europe and the league but may have nothing to show for it. Derry on the other hand just avoided the play off spot last year so they have less pressure and have already won something and acheived their priority of getting into the Setanta cup.

The corkeenies posts this week will soon end in sheer terror come friday , the oul butterfly effect


kdjac

MrJoeSoap

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect

If Cork win I won't expect to see many Derry fans crying if what Gimmick said is true. Most of the Derry "fans" there will be sponsors with little or no interest in whats happening. I'd love to ask some of them how many players they could name.

KdjaCL

MrJoeSoap wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect

If Cork win I won't expect to see many Derry fans crying if what Gimmick said is true. Most of the Derry "fans" there will be sponsors with little or no interest in whats happening. I'd love to ask some of them how many players they could name.

Few Derry fans i know got tickets for other parts of the ground, as is the way.

kdjac

Pigman II

Why did the away allocation end up with sponsors? Seems like a very bad move on DCFCs part considering the magnitude of this game. Surely there'll be a supporter backlash no matter what the result at full time?

blu_sonic

its typicial of irish football, you support a team in the lower leagues and the year you come good you can't support the club horrible

_blank_

gimmick wrote:

I think Cork City will win this game 3-1.

You said you'd make no predictions

It'll be some game alright, but it is very bad that there won't be many real Derry fans at the game, that will be surreal if they do win the league.

I'm hoping for a Cork City win ( I can't believe I typed that, I'm breaking my fingers after this post ) simply because I think they'll fare better in the CL next season than DCFC.

mchurl

cant wait for this game tbh should be a belter

Poor from the way the derry tickets have been dished out:mad:

Lets just hope that if they do win the league that the cork fans will stay behind and give them the congrats that they would deserve

MrJoeSoap

seansouth wrote:

I'm hoping for a Cork City win ( I can't believe I typed that, I'm breaking my fingers after this post ) simply because I think they'll fare better in the CL next season than DCFC.

:eek: What about Shels???

Slash/ED

C'mon Derry. Cork would be alot better in the CL though, no doubt, but still and all, C'MON DERRY!

Kingp35

Thats a bit ridiculous the way the Derry ticket allocation has gone. Surely the club should look after the fans first after all they are who make the team.

This should be a great game in that I dont think I have ever seen a league decided like this with the top 2 playing each other on the final day. i still think home advantage will tell in Corks favour and they will win by one goal. I just hope Derry dont come and defend and ruin the game as a spectacle. Im hoping this turns into a memorable match

KdjaCL

Slash/ED wrote:

C'mon Derry. Cork would be alot better in the CL though, no doubt, but still and all, C'MON DERRY!

heh heh


kdjac

_blank_

MrJoeSoap wrote:

:eek: What about Shels???

We won't be in the CL next season?

MrJoeSoap

seansouth wrote:

We won't be in the CL next season?

No but the difference between Derry and Cork winning is the difference between us getting a UEFA/Intertoto Cup place. Assuming Cork beat Drogs that is.

gimmick

Im fairly certain that this match will be a huge dissapointment as a spectacle, as I can see it being a very cagey, chesslike game. That said, Cork City have to score. If they do, I hope they dont just sit back, which would be a 'easy' thing to do. But do that, and you are doomed IMO, especially in a game of this magnitude.

I really dont know whether to be looking forward to Friday, or dreading it. Its a bit of both if truth be told. It should certainly be a great athmosphere, as besides everything else, The Shed is being torn down in the close season to make way for a 2000 seater stand.

Roar

mchurl wrote:

Lets just hope that if they do win the league that the cork fans will stay behind and give them the congrats that they would deserve

Thats certainly not a doubt, if we are beaten on Friday we will be beaten by the better team and they weill have certainly deserved their league triumph. I, and i know the vast majority of true cork city fans, will be there to applaud them off the park. And we will then go drinking with their fans afterwards and have a good night.

And i'd imagine if we win Derry fans will do likewise.

Töpher

Roar wrote:

Thats certainly not a doubt, if we are beaten on Friday we will be beaten by the better team and they weill have certainly deserved their league triumph. I, and i know the vast majority of true cork city fans, will be there to applaud them off the park. And we will then go drinking with their fans afterwards and have a good night.

And i'd imagine if we win Derry fans will do likewise.

Depends how many fans actually get in

blu_sonic

MrJoeSoap wrote:

No but the difference between Derry and Cork winning is the difference between us getting a UEFA/Intertoto Cup place. Assuming Cork beat Drogs that is.

i can see shels winning a toto that would fecking rock for irish footie, so come on cork

applehunter

All I can think about all week and is the game on Friday night. At work all Im doing is picking potential teams and potential scorelines for the match.

I even wrote a script for the last 5 mins of the game.

Ive taken the day off on Friday, heading to Cork Thursday, with my City gear on.

Early day on Friday.

I need a flare, flags, scarf, bog roll, till rolls, and what am I forgetting???

Oh yeah

MY TICKET FOR THE MATCH!!!:D

gimmick

^ Prob see ya in the Horseshoe before hand so. Im hoping to get off work about 2.30, and be in the pub for 4 for a few nerve calmers.

My head is wrecked - Im dreading this game, yet at the same time looking forward to it. Im nervous, yet excited, I fear the worst, yet am quietly confident. Who would be a football fan eh?

MrJoeSoap

There'll be a play made about this some day you know?

gimmick

What? Of this season, this match, or the inane ramblings on this board???

MrJoeSoap

^ All of the above!

I meant Fridays game though.

gimmick

Since Derry have lost the semi final, people said they have done well, but who have they played?

1. Waterford which they lost 0-1
2. Bray which they won 3-0
3. UCD which they won 2-0
4. SPA which they won 2-0

Since City beat Derry in the semi, their record is
1. SPA, which was lost 0-1
2. Bohs which was won 1-2
3. Waterford, which was drawn 2-2
4. Shams which was won 0-2
5. Shels, which was drawn 0-0

Im sure you will agree that CCFCs fixtures have been alot tougher than Derrys. Waterford, away, with Dolan at the helm, was always going to be a very tough game. Admittedly, the result against SPA was unforgivable (though so was Derrys reverse to Waterford). Citys fixtures were against relegation fighters Shams, Shels in great form, Bohs with a chance of Europe and our local rivals. 4 of the last 5 were away. the fact that City have played solidly in all of them is testament to how good a team they are.

The real test is for Derry - they have played no-one of any substance (and I am aware they beat the poor SPA side which beat City), since losing to City in Turners X.

Gonna be some night.

applehunter

Judgement Day has arrived!

gimmick

Im hungover and my nerves are shot. Have a half day.

Cant bloody wait.

Töpher

Best of luck to all involved. I hope Derry win, for selfish reasons that benefit Shels, and to shut up some of the most arrogant people I have ever had to listen to (tho none of you on this board, thanks be to Jebuz!)

I'm going to miss Shels last game of the season, and the Cork/Derry game. Fuming! (Finacée's birthday, can't get her to change the date! ).

Rossonero

i have butterflies, even though i don't support either.
People in Waterford (local soccer clubs) seem to be edging for Cork. I just want to see a tense game of football. I have a feeling a last minute goal will sort this one.

Slash/ED

I'm in bed sick so may miss the match in Dalymount. At least I get to watch this one I suppose, but I'd rather be in Dalyer

gimmick

Im off now. My stomach is in knots.

COME ON CORK CITY

MrJoeSoap

Best of luck Gimmick, Roar, Applehunter et al.

Slash/ED

Yeah best of luck and may the best team draw

Roar

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Best of luck Gimmick, Roar, Applehunter et al.

Cheers fella..

My fcukin nerves are frayed and i've no fingernails left.. and its still 4 hours to go to kick off..

I bought a box of fags today by mistake and i've been off them for four months.. well there goes that anyway..

I cant honestly hack this..

That and i'm having a sh!tty day at work on top of it all anyway..

Going to be the longest 90 minutes ever...........

YeatsCounty

Here we go, hopefully this will be a cracking match to end a cracking season for both clubs.

Cracking.

But seriously, whoever wins the title tonight will have deserved it. As has been said countless times already, if Derry sit back for a draw they will suffer.

Derry to make it a clean sweep for the North West in the League this season? That has a nice ring to it.

super_furry

As a Rovers fan, I want Cork to win for Damien Richardson.

Kingp35

I personally think that the game will not be full of good football and it will be a cagey affair with both teams full of Nerves. Derry need to go forward and not be forced into sitting back. Cork need to burst out of the blocks and put as much pressure on Derry as they can. An early goal would do them the world of good.

Anyway im hoping for a good game of ball and good luck to both sides

KdjaCL

Thing is Derry cant defend, ball bounces around Delaney and he falls over mumbling, him and Hawkins must be related.

The only reason Derry are where they are is cos they just attack, and for Rico to say they were a team who could only hit on the break for shame....

Should be a cracker, but with thats at stake it possibly wont be. Hope Cork score 1st and early then everyone will see why Derry are top of the league.



im babysitting so sadly miss the hugley entertaining Longford.


kdjac

ctrl-alt-delete

rte done well to get thomas graveson on the panel in the studio.......come on derry!!!!