Your first Ireland match?

Pigman II

What's the first Ireland match you ever watched and how long ago was it?

knobbles

ireland - england, euro '88

first soccer game i ever watched,
a very hot day and i think i was more interested in playin around in the garden but soon got absorbed into it as ireland were hangin on, i've barely missed a competitive game since.

yop

Ireland V Chile

I think it was Sept or Oct 1990 or so

Great crack with the boyz on the terraces

cournioni

Ireland vs Czech Republic, friendly just before the World Cup in '94. We lost 3-1.

Space Coyote

First match I seen in Lansdowne Rd was Ireland V West Germany in a friendly.

Think it was '87. It ended 1-1, I missed our goal coz I was getting hotdogs!

knobbles

first match i actually went to was 4-0 against tunisia in autumn '88

that germany friendly was in 89/90 during our great run of 17 or 18 games unbeaten

Space Coyote

Thanx knobbles, I was thinking i got the year wrong there. Found the match program...
Republic of Ireland V Federal Republic of Germany, Friendly International, Wed 6th Sept 1989. Picture of Klinsmann and Bergomi on the front for some reason...

My first game was actually Ireland V Luxembourg, 9th Sept 1987...think we won 2-1, memory fading badly.

ciano

Originally posted by knobbles
ireland - england, euro '88

Same as me! Or at least its the first one I remember watching.

Hairy Homer

Don't know exactly, and I'm almost too embarrassed to guess because I reckon it's before many people here were born.

I remember being taken by my dad to a match in Lansdowne Road which I was led to believe was Ireland v England but it couldn't have been a full international because Steve Heighway scored Ireland's equaliser and as any Liverpool fan knows, Heighway NEVER scored for Ireland.

Only two things I remember. One was the repeated pitch invasions by crowds of very young kids which led to the warning 'If the pitch is invaded again, the match will have to be cancelled'.

The other was the dog's abuse vented by the fans on the terrace at a blond bouffant-haired shaggy eyebrowed midfielder who made a complete bollix of everything he touched. A good player, but eh, not a great player.

It was that long ago. (Either 71 or 72)

Of course in those days there were no live televised matches. I do remember listening on the radio to a match in 1974 when Ireland thumped the Soviet Union 3-0 at Dalymount Park (yes that Dalymount Park). Making his debut was an 18 year old Liam Brady, of whom I had not yet heard, who gave the commentator (I think it was Philip Greene) paroxysms every time he touched the ball. Don Givens got a hat trick. This was in the days when Irish victories were extremely rare and so nobody could quite believe it.

Samba

Hmmm,


I probably went to a fair few before this,but it was a friendly against Spain at Landsdowne, can nay remember the year.


Also remember goin to the Cascarino Testemonial Match and dinner, got to meet most of Liverpool and the whole Ireland Squad, they were all really nice to me

Even Mick and Roy

Hugs-E

first match i actually went to was 4-0 against tunisia in autumn '88

same as me ! The day John Aldridge got his first goal for Ireland and I was on TV and most of my class saw it
Very cool for an 11yr old.

The first match Ireland match that I remember watching on TV was the match away to Belguim the 2 - 2 draw, I think it was the first qualifying match for Euro '88, just after the World Cup in Mexico which I cleary remember watching.

knobbles

don't remember any spain friendly.
there was the world cup qualifiers in '89 (1-0) and '93(1-3),
one of them maybe?

knobbles

Originally posted by Hugs-E
same as me ! The day John Aldridge got his first goal for Ireland and I was on TV and most of my class saw it
Very cool for an 11yr old.

that's right! only took him over 20 internationals or something like that, that jinx of 20 games probably cost him him being irelands cuurent record goalscorer but sure keane will be well past that in a couple of years

Samba

I remember that Tunisia match too, I am pretty sure it was just a friendly Knobbles, I have the ticket somewhere in my bedroom .

Ciaran

Liam Brady's testamonial whenever that was.

BKtje

Italia 90 i think. Just moved to Ireland a cpl years before and was the tender age of 6. Mighta watched games before that but thats the first one i remember.

First match i went to was the Ireland - England friendly that had to be abandoned cos of the pricks chucking **** down from the top of the stand.

Ronan|Raven

Ireland v Switzerland many many moons ago think it was around 1991 ish cant remember for definite. Ill go check the ticket stub later.

Bateman

>It was that long ago. (Either 71 or 72)

Ireland would have been playing in Dalymount at that time, so thats where the match must have been.

First game I can remember watching was the Stuttgart 88 v England, first game I was at must have been that friendly v West Germany as well.

Hairy Homer

Originally posted by Bateman
>It was that long ago. (Either 71 or 72)

Ireland would have been playing in Dalymount at that time, so thats where the match must have been.

No. It was definitely Lansdowne Road. It wasn't a full international. I think it might have been an English under 21 team or something like that.

It was round about then they started playing at Lansdowne Road, although they still used Dalymount occasionally.