One Win Can Mean So Much

by Shane Murphy

(first published in the August 2011 St Patrick’s Athletic FAI Cup match programme)

A few years ago, an unlikely victory against tonight’s opposition lifted our spirits and reinvigorated everyone involved with the club. It was a testament to hard work and team spirit that will hopefully be repeated tonight and could even give the current Galway United team hope. One win can mean so much.

Cast your minds back to five summers ago when Zidane headbutted Materazzi, Charlie Haughey had a full state funeral and Shamrock Rovers were a First Division club. 2006 was a rough year for the Blues. New manager Mike Kerley assembled a very inexperienced team mostly signed from junior football. The young guns actually got off to a promising start nicking a draw away to St Pat’s on what proved to be our lucky ground that season. Fortune certainly favoured us that night (the result was likened to daylight robbery), but our luck soon ran out as United went on a club record twelve game losing streak which saw Gareth Cronin taking over from Kerley. Eight or nine new players were brought in to arrest the slide downhill and there were encouraging performances against Drogheda and Longford, but by the time the 1st of September rolled around the team still hadn’t won a match. Twenty agonising League games had yielded just four draws and sixteen defeats (with an extra loss at home to the by-then-defunct Dublin City wiped from the record). We were six points behind Bray and a further twelve below the rest of the division. “The New Robbie Fowler” Paul Hopkins had gone back to Liverpool and defender Kristian Lamberski was our top scorer with two League goals! With the Independent Assessment Group set to deliver their verdict on the make-up of the League at the end of the season, it looked very ominous for Waterford.

Despite a run of eleven consecutive away losses, the bus kept running and supporters kept showing up. It seemed lunacy to outsiders: 4-0 in Drogheda, 5-1 at Shels, 4-0 in Derry. The bookies offered odds of 6/1 on a Blues win in Richmond Park and anyone backing us would have been met with snorts of derision. We expected to lose, but we travelled anyway. A large chunk of our regular support had gone to Germany to watch Steve Staunton kicking a water bottle, but a couple of dozen fans set up base at the Inchicore end of the main stand determined to make as much noise as possible. At this stage it was all about salvaging some pride. Would we go the whole season without a win? Would we have the lowest points tally ever? That Monday, we had exited the Cup after a replay defeat to… well, it was the Cup so you can guess who! Now all we could do was hope for an end to the humiliating winless streak.

Goal hero Alan Cawley who went on to line out for the Saints three seasons later.

New flags were waved as the Blues were welcomed onto the field like heroes. The team lined up: Spicer, Flynn, Keely, Hayes, Hedderman, Paul McCarthy, Grant, Reynolds, Kavanagh with Alan Cawley playing behind Ger McCarthy in attack. It was a stronger team than we had seen all season, but none of us saw the win coming. Becoming Waterford’s first scalp of the season was sufficiently painful for the St Pat’s official website to use Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” as musical accompaniment for their highlights package the following week. The opening lines of the song played as the only goal of the game was scored. “I hurt myself today to see if I still feel”. Ger McCarthy steals possession from Darragh Maguire and plays in Cawley. “I focus on the pain – the only thing that’s real”. Cawley skips past a couple of defenders before seeming to take forever to shoot past Barry Ryan as if he was teasing us, toying with our fragile emotions and prolonging our six month nightmare. That set off raucous celebrations in the away end and gave us our first glimpse of the ‘Cawley dance’ – part jig, part Cossack. It was only our fourteenth goal of the season, but we all felt it came too early for us to hold on. There were still 89 minutes left! Pat’s, who had started the season impressively before a severe dip in form after the World Cup break, were quickly roused into action. Dave Mulcahy grabbed a hold of midfield while the sublime Keith Fahey supplied the ammunition for Trevor Molloy and Mark Quigley. Spicer made a great save from Colm Foley while John Hayes stretched every sinew to deflect Molloy’s shot wide. The mini Tifo display continued in the Blues section as the drum beat loudly. When we finally heard the whistle blow, we had to remind ourselves it was still only half time. It’s a strange form of entertainment when you want the show to be over as soon as possible. Some ducked into McDowell’s to settle their nerves as we tried to convince ourselves we’d be happy if we could even get a draw.

Pat’s manager Johnny McDonnell introduced Paul Keegan (our Cup final nemesis) at the break to inject some more strength into their attack, but Cronin’s troops refused to crack. Alan Keely was every bit as rugged a tackler as his father, Reynolds was in no mood to take any prisoners in midfield and McCarthy was running like the Duracell Bunny up front. Youngsters Lee Russell and Conor McDonald came on before the hour mark to maintain the work rate. The fans tempted fate by singing “The Eircom League is upside down” as the players used every means necessary to hold up the constant Pat’s assault. Half blocks, hoofed clearances – it was far from tiki-taka. Pat Flynn, guilty of some criminal defending earlier in the season, put in tackle after tackle. Molloy went close and Spicer somehow stopped Anto Murphy equalising. Four minutes of stoppage time were announced. 240 long seconds! Ian Fraher came on for the exhausted McCarthy, but I don’t think he touched the ball. After what seemed like an eternity, the ref blew the final whistle to screams of delight from the travelling fans. Our first win since the previous November. It wasn’t so much a monkey off our backs as a five hundred pound gorilla. A flare burned brightly as the fans sang “Blue til I Die” (a commitment they had more than proven that year) to the applause of the players. The Pat’s highlights package had the opposite view as they showed the anguish on the home team’s faces: “And you can have it all – my empire of dirt, I will let you down, I will make you hurt”. We knew all about hurt that season, but now was our time to finally celebrate. I wished that I was going back to Waterford on the bus with the rest of the hoarse supporters, but I was staying in Dublin so I grinned my way into town on the 78A instead.

The win pushed us on for a few weeks. Within a fortnight, we were off the bottom of the table following a 3-0 win at home to Bray and a draw with UCD. The lack of depth in the squad caught up with us though and one point from the last seven games meant finishing bottom of the division was inevitable. Amazingly, 4 of our 12 points had been gained in Inchicore. We had a controversial play-off with Dundalk and a two month relegation until Shelbourne’s enforced demotion saw United get out of jail and be reinstated to the Premier Division. Pat’s, meanwhile, lost a classic Cup final at a windswept Lansdowne Road. That win at the start of September hadn’t made us worldbeaters, but it was extremely precious given the context. Sometimes it’s the victories that come in the least likely circumstances that are the most treasured. The Blues have an opportunity tonight to pull off another shock and lift our season. If we show the same unity and determination as we did five years ago, then 2011 could still become a very special year for Waterford.