Typical Vinny

by Shane Murphy

(first published in the April 2010 Finn Harps programme)

When the story of Waterford United in the early part of this century is told, one name will keep cropping up more than most. Vinny Sullivan, who turned 29 on Monday, has been a central figure in all of our highs and lows over the past 8 years. He was one of three players – along with Kevin Waters and Alan Carey – to play in both the 2004 FAI Cup Final and last year’s EA Sports Cup final. It was Vinny who kicked that second ball away in Lansdowne Road, Vinny whose toe was milimetres from the ball against Shamrock Rovers at Tolka Park in 2007 when any contact would surely have been enough to save us from relegation, but Vinny’s goals won us promotion in 2003 and kept us up in 2005 and it’s his goals that are needed to win the title this season.

A list of some of his strike partners over the years tells its own story about the Blues’ recent history – Alex Dixon, Daryl Murphy, Gary O’Neill, Willy Bruton, Rodney Jack, Karl Bermingham, Willy John Kiely. Others have come and gone, but Sullivan has always been there and his 65 league and cup goals make him our highest scorer in twenty years. Some would say that he could be in triple figures by now had it not been for his notorious penalty jinx. He has scored two competitive hat-tricks for the club (versus Monaghan in 2008 and away to Cork side Everton in 2003). On both occasions, he scored twice, had a penalty to seal his hat-trick, missed, then scored his third shortly afterwards. The usual response by fans is to smile and say “Typical Vinny”. He celebrated the Monaghan hat-trick by running down the track at the RSC being chased by half a dozen ballboys (or Mini-Vinnies as they were christened that night). Nobody enjoys scoring more than him and the fans love him all the more because of it.

Having played as a schoolboy for Dungarvan United, Vinny signed a three-year contract with Celtic aged 17. He was a prolific scorer in his two years with the youth team, playing alongside Shaun Maloney, Liam Miller and Colin Healy and becoming an Irish under-17 international. However, his chances were limited when he stepped up to the under-21 side and so he accepted a transfer to Livingston in 2002. He had no luck breaking into a Livi team who finished 3rd that year in the Scottish Premier League behind the two Glasgow giants. Seasoned pro’s were favoured and Vinny made just a single League Cup appearance before playing four games on loan at Cowdenbeath. He still regards Scotland as a great experience and learned a lot about the game there, but he was delighted when approached by Jimmy McGeough about a move back home.

Vinny made an immediate impact with the Blues as he scored 6 goals in his first 5 league matches including a goal on his debut at home to Athlone. He went on to score 13 goals in that title-winning season – the pick of the bunch being an audacious backheel against Monaghan. His status as a Blues favourite was cemented when he spent most of the next two seasons playing selflessly on the right wing. His workrate, as ever, was tremendous and he still notched 6 goals in each of those years. What further endeared him to fans was that he had a habit of scoring against our old foes Shamrock Rovers (four times) and our neighbours Cork City (another four).
 
But it was in 2005 that he performed his greatest heroics helping the club to avoid relegation against all odds under the guidance of Brendan Rea and Pat Dolan. A staggering five month winless streak had seen the Blues sink to the bottom of the table as Finn Harps looked to have the momentum in the survival battle. The despondent Blues faced Bohemians at the RSC with most fans resigned to a return to the First Division. When Pat Purcell played a long ball forward, the linesman raised his flag as Rodney Jack was coming out from an off-side position. However, referee Anthony Buttimer deemed that Jack wasn’t playing an active part in play (did he ever?) and while the Bohemians players and keeper Matt Gregg stopped, expecting to hear the sound of the whistle, Vinny took the ball down coolly and virtually walked it into the net. Minutes later, a piledriver from Sullivan was spilled by Gregg and Paul Crowley tapped home. That 2-0 victory gave the team renewed hope and Vinny’s form propelled us up the table. A stunning volley in a 1-1 draw against St Pat’s was followed by an even better strike as United produced the shock of the season winning 1-0 in Derry. Next up were soon-to-be-champions Cork. Despite being down to ten men, Vinny put us 2-1 up in front of a crowd of 5,000 before George O’Callaghan gave City a share of the spoils. When the final whistle went in Dalymount Park after a come-from-behind win against Rovers a week later, the Blues had secured their top flight status and given fans one of our fondest memories and biggest celebrations.

Vinny spent the 2006 season away from us and it turned out to be one of our worst seasons ever. Damian Richardson gave him the chance to go fully professional with Cork, but it was very tough to get a run in a strikeforce that contained Roy O’Donovan, John O’Flynn, Denis Behan and Neale Fenn. To Blues fans’ delight, Gareth Cronin brought Vinny back in 2007 and he played 34 of 35 league games that season (culminating in a red card in the play-off against Harps as the frustration of relegation got the better of him). In a hard season for Waterford, he scored in six of our seven league wins and was agonisingly close to keeping us up with that late chance in Tolka Park (a goal earlier in the season in Tolka was chalked off when the game was abandoned due to floodlight problems). Ten First Division goals in 2008 made him our top-scorer again, but he left us before the 2009 season – switching to Gaelic football with Dungarvan. That seemed to be the last we’d see of Sully, but you can’t keep a good man down. When David Grincell’s injury left us short up front, Stephen Henderson knew where to turn. Vinny signed for the third time last August and had a very successful few months – playing in every game and scoring 6 times (that’s six more than Graham Cummins scored in the same period).

The striker lay down a marker in pre-season with 7 goals and has rattled the netted 4 times already this season. In typical cult hero fashion, the best of these was a thunderous volley in front of a terrace packed with Blues fans in the derby in Turner’s Cross. His 57th and most recent league goal for the club was against Mervue in Terryland on Easter Saturday – yet another away goal. Strikers tend to get the lion’s share of their goals at home (think Torres or Henry), but 30 of Vinny’s league goals have been scored away from home as have all 8 of his cup goals. What’s left for him to do? Well he hasn’t scored against either of the County Louth clubs yet or against Shelbourne, but he has a chance to put that right next month. Who’d bet against him scoring a volley in Tolka Park? It’d be typical Vinny!