The following is an article that I had published in the August edition (No 218) of The Lion Roars, a Millwall fanzine. It is my first attempt at writing & I hope you like it:-
Five go mad on Oysters
Kick off at Teryland Park
When the pre-season friendlies were announced there were 2 games that looked really interesting. Obviously the Richard Sadlier testimonial was the main one; a game that is long, long over due for a player who showed a large degree of talent allied with a great work ethic, & whose career was definitely cut short in its prime.
The other interesting fixture was the game away to Galway United.
As I have lived in south east of Ireland for some 8 years now it’s always nice to get to see them in your own back yard as it were, without going through the expense and heartache that is flying with Ryanhare. God bless Michael O’Leary to bits for bringing cheap air travel to the masses, but why does it have to be so bloody painful? From the minute you book on-line, ticking boxes for “No Insurance required” “No bags to check in”, “No I’m not going to wake up the girl at the check in desk, I’ll check in on line thank you” its like drawing teeth. And it continues right up until you get through security, fight the scrum to get a seat that will only accommodate a quadriplegic dwarf, pay an extortionate amount for a drink (£3 for a small bottle of water!!! A bloody litre of 4 star only costs £1.20 for feck sake) then a mad dash to the railway station only to watch the Stansted Express pull out just as you hit the platform.
Anyway, the Dublin games are OK to visit but don’t really spark a flame of interest. But Galway, was certainly one to be pencilled in – if only for the novelty factor.
Now I didn’t know too much about Galway to be honest other than it’s a small city noted for its cultural heritage and is a major tourist spot. There is a famous Oyster festival once a year, & the seafood landed there is some of the best in Europe. At the end of July the week long Race Festival attracts punters from all over Europe. And – possibly due to the 14,000 students the city accommodates – there are rather a lot of keenly priced hostelries playing music and serving alcohol to some ungodly hour of the morning.
The River Corrib
In fact most of my knowledge of Galway is garnered from songs: The fields around Athenry are particularly low lying and a very nice place to watch Freebirds in flight And according to Steve Earle, The local ladies have hair of black & eyes of blue and he’s never known nothing like his Galway Girl. In the interests of investigative journalism I endeavoured to establish the truth of this last statement but had to desist when my face started to ache from the slaps.
On the Sunday of the game Galway were playing local rivals Mayo in a regional final of Gaelic Football, an interesting sport to say the least. It’s a bit like rugby with a round ball, intense bouts of on-field violence and is pretty similar to Aussie Rules (but without the dodgy shorts). It was a cracking game and lived up to its billing as being a hard fought contest which Mayo edged with a last minute score.
Heading off to Terryland Park on the outskirts of town we found a small but well cared for ground on the banks of the Corrib River, with a fantastic playing surface. Even so it’s obvious Galway United are going through tough times and have just had to replace a major sponsor half way through the season, always a difficult prospect. However they are dedicated to bringing young players through the system and launching them on to bigger things. Indeed our own David Forde is an ex player, probably a factor in the game being staged in the first place. Given this, it was disappointing to see only a few hundred supporters turn out for the game. I know they had an important home league game the previous Friday against 4th placed Dundalk (Galway lost 3-0) plus the aforementioned GAA final the same day, but I would have liked to have seen a few more turn out than the couple of hundred that paid in. One fella who obviously had a good day was the man who arrived dressed as a cockerel in the red and green of Mayo with a white Millwall shirt over the top, a surreal sight indeed.
The game itself was a typical friendly between two wildly diverse sides. Millwall understandably looked a touch rusty but did enough collectively to show grounds for optimism. Galway played some neat football without ever troubling Fordy (or his 2nd half replacement John Sullivan) & their star player Jay O’Shea had some good touches but was always being martialled by our back four. Rumours abounded that an English club were coming in for him, possibly Derby County, but I think he’ll need to up his game somewhat from this showing. 14 minutes in the ball was crossed in from the left and after a scrabble it was put away by Gary Alexander.
The 2nd half saw wholesale changes as Kenny Jacket kept to his word of rotating the squad, and the game livened up a bit. Harris’ pace and experience started to cause problems in the opposition penalty area and in the 70th minute space opened up for Chris Hackett to strike low into the corner from the edge of the area. Within 2 minutes Harris had scored another with a low header from Hacketts cross. Almost from the kick off the ball was knocked back into the corner of the area and was chased down by Bomber and their over-excited goalkeeper. Both arrived at the ball together and Harris went to the ground. Penalty??? The ref blew and raced over…to promptly book the Lions star for diving! Everyone collapsed laughing at that one.
On 79 Minutes Ashley Grimes sealed the game with a 4th goal to send the Lions fans home happy.
We headed back into town and thought it really fantastic that the local people had laid on a huge parade, plus a firework display in honour of the Lions victory. Later it was explained to me that this was more to do with the start of the week-long arts festival than the visit of the glorious Millwall but I didn’t believe them. We celebrated in style with a platter of the finest oysters and a couple of glasses of Guinness (or ten), while listening to a live band play jigs and reels (more technically known as “diddley-dee” music). Long live Millwall on tour – the Mank Utd Sky viewers just don’t know what they are missing do they?
The narrow streets of Galway City
The latest edtion of TLR was released on August 28th and is available from good bookshops at £1.50, or contact The Lion Roars email:- TLRTowers@googlemail.com
Website: The Lion Roars
