We Are All Ón Trial

And so the season starts, it’s about 2 o’clock on a crisp Saturday afternoon and I’m in town, waiting for a friend to arrive so we can get the sow on the road. We must take the No. 8 bus out to Bishopstown to witness Paul Doolin’s first game in charge of Cork City and the return of Michael Devine. The bus journey was….interesting to say the least, a mixed member of society proceeded to discuss to my friend and I, he came away with the notion that I had multiple girlfriends!!! (We can all hope) Anyway, after getting off the bus a few stops in advance of the ground we set off to the ground.

Bishopstown was an ambitious plan set out buy the club’s former owners at the start of the previous decade. They planned to turn it into a purpose built stadium, fit for hosting concerts, internationals and big club matches. But after building the original stand it all fell to pieces, the club were planning to build a bar and restaurant facility and after the club were refused a licence to sell alcohol their main source of finance was taken from under their feet. Soon plans were scrapped and all that was left was the original stand (All thanks to the one and only Plonk) now all that remains is that one stand, the wire fencing outside the pitch has been taken down so thus stand a sole arch outside the tunnel, which everyone walks through for some reason (thus are the eccentricities of League of Ireland football)

With sunny skies overhead, and the ground bitterly cold, the match got underway, it was a fairly scrappy affair, with loose tackles flying in and umpteen passes going askew. Gints Fremanis was back for his second trial spell and looked impressive, with good ball control on what was a poor surface. Brazilian (Yes you read correctly) trialist Tacio Santos didn’t impress me, his passing was poor and his tackles were mis-timed and rash, that was when he actually attempted a tackle. There were some more good signs, Finnish centre back Matthias Kullstrom looked solid at the back (Not that we have problems filling the gap) and second half sub Levi Reid played well (English centre mid) At half time the group popped down to the shop with the idea of warming ourselves up, choclate was my preferred method, tea was another and Paul (mon ami) decided to warm up with a piping hot….Brunch??

We returned confectionary and hot drinks in hand to a scoreless game, the game had some more flow now and with the players getting used to the bumpy pitch, we decided to opt for a place in the sunlight in the second half and stood in the embankment opposite the main stand. Even with the added flow the game was still low on entertainment, and within hiatus’ in the match, we sourced alternative entertainment by watching a rip-roaring game between younger City fans going on behind one of the goals. Needless to say the game was end to end stuff, which wasn’t hard to be fair because the ends had 20 yards between them.

As the game made the transition into the final phase changes were made, both goalkeepers were changed and more first team players were introduced into the match, but there was very little troubling the net minders, both only having to do minor errands between the sticks. But with less then 2 minutes to go, a good corner was dropped in for David Grincell to powerfully head home, and the travelling support (About 4 in number) went wild and disgracefully jumped onto the pitch. (Which wasn’t difficult considering the touchline was barely visible) Referee Alan kelly blew the final whistle and their journey was worth it, they had a win away to Cork City and will no doubt now proclaim their selves themselves as ‘The best team in Munster’

For the Cork International Trialist XI it was the performance more then the result that mattered, and no doubt come the start of the season, we won’t be losing to Waterford. All that was left for me was to conduct a few short interviews in the all new Bishopstown reception area which had a modern table no less!!! After gingerly getting out of the stadium through a waterlogged field (Olympic Way eat your heart out) there were more bus eccentricities, first we had to run to catch a bus with no passengers on, and then I walked the two miles home faster then the bus could drive (Granted I had a head start). And I finally arrived back where I started from 4 and a half hours after setting out, so far so bad. Played 1, lost 1, conceded 1

Match Photo's: Alan Mooney