10 Reasons to be excited about the 2011 Season
10 Great reasons to be excited about the season ahead.
10: The live atmosphere
Photo courtesy of Kevin Finn
Its been a long 4 months since we last visited the Showgrounds for a competitive league match. Throughout those four months, many of us would have been sitting at home, watch football on the telelvision, Premiership, La Liga, Internationals, and the Asian Cup, there has certainly been a variety. However, despite all the live football on the TV, you can’t help but miss the feel of actually attending a match and being part of the atmosphere. Getting involved in the cheers when the team score, shouting many expletives at the referee’s,applauding the team as they leave the pitch after a hard fought performance and perhaps even the occasional Mexican Wave, it goes to show its much better being present at a match rather than sat at home watching it.
9: New signings
Rafael Cretaro Aaron Greene
Photos courtesy of Shane Murray
New signings always bring a sense of excitement and belief that there will be a new star playing for the club. Undoubtedly, the most notable signing has been that of Rafael Cretaro, the ‘Tubbercurry Tornado’ returns to Sligo Rovers after spending a year at Bohemians. He isn’t the only player who joined from Bohs, as centre back Jason and McGuinness and winger and striker Aaron Greene also join. From Sporting Fingal, we’ve signed experienced midfielder Alan Kirby and goalkeeper Brendan Clarke, and finally from Salthill Devon we’ve signed exciting an exciting young winger, Irish U-19 International Daryl Horgan.
8: EA Sports Cup
Photo courtesy of Shane Murray
The first of two deomestic trophies we won last season. It will be difficult to expect Rovers to retain two cups, while also trying to challenge for the league, play in the Setanta Cup and in Europe. It would be great to retain even one cup, we all love a good Cup Final as well.
7: MNS
Photo from rte.ie/mns
Weekly highlights of every game. It’s a very useful show for many people, those who live abroad who can’t go to games, or those of us in Ireland who can’t always travel to attend away games, and of course, to rewatch those dodgy decisions by referees to see just how wrong (or right) they were and to relive some of the seasons finest goals. This isn’t where the coverage stops, especially for those of you who follow the weekly goings on in the league via internet, there are various websites to follow every story and to read every match report such sligorovers.com, The League of Ireland Interview Show, the Airticity League Website, Extratime.ie and the LOI Blog to name just a few. All links to these websites can be found at the bottom of the article.
6: Forza Rovers
Photo courtesy of Kevin Finn
As always, Forza Rovers will be home and away, cheering on the team. There is no doubting their commitment and love for Sligo Rovers, the travel to every game regardless of the destination, they’ve even travelled to Albania to see the team in action, and with a return of European football, they’ll be travelling to somewhere in Europe again. They even backed this up with their own chant which incuded the line “We’ll follow you on European nights”, but as the next line suggests, they also follow the team for the reason “Shams are shite”. When it comes to supporters, they are the heart and soul of the stands, and epitomise what it means to be a true supporter of Sligo Rovers. With their many outstanding displays and catchy chants, they bring a lot of noise and colour wherever they go, and there is guaranteed to be some fantastic displays again this year.
Last season, they also created one of the truly greatest moments of the season. All though theres no video of it, I’ll talk you through it and provide a photo. 1-1 at half-time in The Showgrounds against Shamrock Rovers in the EA Sports Cup semi-final. The ‘Hoops’ faithful unfurl a banner with ‘The Bitter Red’ written on it. Just 2 minutes into the 2nd half, Padraig Amond scores to make it 2-1, and would also prove to be the winner and his last goal for the club. Following the cheers of his goal, Forza Rovers unfurled their own banner, ‘Not Bitter, Just Better’, the timing could not have been any better and I have never heard a louder cheer for a banner before. Possibly one of the highlights of the season!
Photo from forzarovers.net
5: Tom
Photo from the official Tom facebook page
Known as Tom, Cork Tom or Tom the Gom, I think everyone who’s been to The Showgrounds knows who he is, wheter you’ve spoken to him or just see him around the ground. A legend in his own right, Tom is believed to travel to as many as 200 games a year, via “Thumbing”. Arguably the greatest League of Ireland fan there is, he is frequently seen in The Showgrounds during the season, usually behind the goal where the old shed used to be. He often predicts we won’t win the league, and to be fair, he’s been right. So, if he reckons Shams will be relegeated or we’ll win the league this season, don’t dismiss his predictions straight away!
4: Sligo Rovers vs Shamrock Rovers
Photo courtesy of Shane Murray
The most anticpated league fixture for all Sligo Rovers fans, and will be more intense this year with both ourselves and Shams expected to battle it out for the league. There’s usually controversy one way or another may it be a referee giving a dodgy penalty or red card, or crowd trouble. This year’s games with the Hoops should prove to be crackers.
3: The FAI Cup
Photo courtesy of Shane Murray
The biggest game of the season for many fans across Ireland. This season, the FAI Cup will proudly be in the trophy cabinet in The Showgrounds, and the team and fans alike will be eager to see it stay put for 2012. Winning the trophy thanks to an historic penalty shoot-out against Shamrock Rovers, it will be another reason why the games between the two Rovers will be more intense this season. The mixture of Cup fever and being able to watch the match played out in the brand new national stadium worked a charm, with an attendance of 36,101 as proof. Hopefully we’ll be back at the Aviva in November, enjoying another memorable Cup Final night.
2: Europa League
Photo from flickr.com/vataa
Dermot Brannigan would have a shocking bump on his head if someone dropped this! The 2nd biggest competiton any Irish team can play, but it’s the biggest for Sligo Rovers this season. Qualifying through a 3rd place finish, Rovers will hope to get through a couple of rounds, and possibly do what no Irish team has done before, and reach thw group stages of a European competition, where they could face some Europe’s biggest and best teams. It surely can’t go worse than 2009 ?
No, surely it can’t, because I can’t see Rovers getting beaten by a team trying to lose this time.
1: League title challenge
Craig Sives and Iarfhliath Davoren with league title prior to last season
Photo from Sportsfile.com
Its what we all believe just might be possible this year. After such a successful 2010 campaign, its only natural we feel we can win a league title which has eluded us for 16 years now. With a team that appears to have gelled already, it gives the team an oppurtunity to pick up a few wins early on, and as we found out last season, our early form is what cost us winning the treble. By no means will it be easily won either, we face stern competition from current champions Shamrock Rovers, while Dundalk may also prove to be dark horses for the league this year.
It is certainly a year to look forward to, and I am fully confident it will deliver. Now to help get you all hyped up about the season ahead, not only will the links be left here, but I also leave you with this:
Links to websites listed earlier:
interviewloi.blogspot.com/ amd Youtube page www.youtube.com/user/interviewLOI
leagueofirelandblog.blogspot.com/
