Shamrock Rovers

Ground: Tallaght Stadium

Visits: 1

Date: 21st July 2014

Match: Shamrock Rovers - Cork City 2-0 (League Cup)

Attendance: 800

I woke up in Dundalk on Monday morning. At 11am I then boarded a commuter train taking me back to Dublin Connolly station. My hotel was only a 5-minute walk from the train station, for convenience I had booked the same hotel as I had used on Wednesday evening. My match today was the Irish League cup quarter-final between Shamrock Rovers and Cork City. I realizes this match would have a low attendance but being in Ireland anyway I saw this as a bonus match. My room wasn´t ready yet so I went to the hotel bar instead where I had something to eat and drink. At 4.30pm I was supposed to meet a German friend of mine (Dirk) but he was in Dublin earlier than expected and at 3pm it knocked on my door. That was of course Dirk. He had been in Norway for a few days and three weeks in Asia before that.

Shamrock Rovers play at Tallaght Stadium and Tallaght is also the final stop on the red tram line. There was a (red line) tram stop next to my hotel, apparently I am not entirely stupid when it comes to where I stay. The journey to Tallaght took 45 minutes and once there Dirk spotted someone taking pictures of the Tallaght tram stop sign. Since that is not normal behaviour Dirk asked if he was a groundhopper. The person was Polish groundhopper Aleksandr who joined us for the rest of the evening. Shamrock Rovers were generous this evening ad gave me a press accreditation for the match. That included a tour of the ground including walking through the players tunnel. Tallaght Stadium opened in 2009 and has an all-seated capacity of 6 000. There are only two stands at the ground, on the east and west side of the ground, and the stands both have a capacity of 3 000.

The weather was really nice this evening and for most of the match I wore short sleeves. In total 800 were at Tallaght Stadium for the match. In the 32nd minute two players head-butted each other and were both sent off. For a moment there was anarchy on the pitch. Things calmed down though and in the 41st minute Shamrock took the lead. They then scored their second goal in stoppage time and this quarter-final finished 2-0 to Shamrock Rovers. After the match the three foreign groundhoppers ended up next to someone from Scotland onboard the tram taking us back to central Dublin. When I told him I was from Sweden he asked me if I was PGN. That was fellow Footballfan Ken from Glasgow. What can I say, a small world! Tomorrow I leave Ireland for Edinburgh, Celtic vs KR for my at Murrayfield Stadium. That will be my sixth and final match on this trip. It will also be the chance to meet with some old faces.

tallaght stadium