By Kieran Burke (@KieranBTS/@BetweenStripes)
Delve deep into your imagination and the thoughts that immediately rush to mind at the sheer uttering of the words ‘’derby day.’’ You’ll soon find yourself reminiscing on the extreme tribalism, the passion, the nerves and the unrivaled excitement a clash with your teams greatest foes brings. There are many things that separate the sport of association football from the rest but it is the derby day experience that is perhaps the most unique event in the beautiful game that makes it what it is to billions of people around the globe.
We are no different in Ireland. For a small league and a small nation we have managed to produce some truly historical head to head meetings that can match the drama of any other derby around Europe’s big leagues. Of course the standout fixture on the League of Ireland calendar is that of Dublin foes Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians. You only have to go back in time just a few weeks to see what we are talking about when we mention passion, hatred and drama as the capital clubs played out an epic derby in front of the Eir Sport Cameras at the Tallaght Stadium, with Darragh Leahy’s ninety-ninth minute winner for the ‘’Gypsies’’ already set to go down in the annals of time.
However, while the Dublin derby has always been a well publicised one that needs little additional marketing, there was once a meeting of two country clubs that brought about the very same levels of emotion and drama as the Irish football showpiece. The battle for supremacy in the Midlands between Longford Town and the League of Ireland’s oldest club, Athlone Town, was for many years one of Ireland’s most underrated derby day clashes. Representing a battle between one of Ireland’s most historical clubs and a rapidly growing neighbour, the game known as ‘’El Classico De Midlands’’ always meant something to the locals, even if the vast majority of meetings down the years meant nothing more than who would finish higher in the middle of the First Division table.
This already fiery local derby took another step in the right direction when a certain Roddy Collins (pictured below) arrived at Lissywoolen in 2013. Promising promotion at the first attempt, the maverick manager was sneered publicly by a Longford Town committee member as the Red & Black club of the Midlands sat twelve points clear of their local neighbours at the mid-season break.
To cut a long story short, when Roddy and his re-energised Athlone Town team returned to Longford later that season, they faced Tony Cousins’ Longford knowing a win would put them on top of the First Division table as the season grew nearer and nearer to a once unthinkable conclusion.
Collins and Cousins battled it out all week long in the build up to the game across both local and national media outlets, the result was one of the largest attendances either club had seen in almost a decade. The colour and atmosphere created on the Strokestown Road that day was befitting of the Premier Division, but in the end it would be Collins’ boys who would secure that dream as they won the crucial six pointer and went on to claim the title ahead of a Longford side, who had now bottled the second tier trophy two years running.
A heartbreaking yet epic promotion play-off defeat against Bray Wanderers meant the Midlands derby would not grace the Premier Division in 2014 and with Collins quickly departing Athlone after their title success, the wheels soon came off the Athlone Town bandwagon as the Westmeath club was ironically replaced by Longford in the top flight just twelve months later.
In truth, the Midlands derby has never reached the same heights since, but that has been more down to the shortcomings of one side of the Midlands divide. While Longford maintained their top flight status until 2016 and have since made great strides in the hope of reaching the glory days once more under a fresh and energetic manager in Neale Fenn, Athlone Town have fallen to new lows, which is quite something given the numerous dark days this sleeping giant has encountered in the last two decades or so.
Hopes of a revival thanks to foreign investment led to one of the greatest scandals in recent league history, when claims of match fixing by players with a more than checkered history were flagged up on more than one occasion. It eventually resulted in respective twelve month bans for two Athlone Town players by the FAI as the club’s mysterious foreign investors headed for the hills and their next scheme.
This season the club has resorted to ploughing on under an all amateur playing squad, which was put together via open trials in pre-season and unsurprisingly that has resulted in absolute humiliation on the field. Off the field, Director of Football Roddy Collins got his coat just a week into the 2018 campaign, with manager Aaron Callaghan resigning over what he citied as a lack of professional standards at the club, although his impending six month ban for breaching a touch line ban and threatening match officials may have had more to do with that decision.
His assistant, Terry Butler has since stepped into the not so hot seat at the Athlone Town Stadium (pictured below) and while the new man has been able to keep the scorelines down in recent weeks, Athlone remain rooted to the foot of the division with just a single point from twelve league matches.
Quite simply put, a once proud League of Ireland club has managed to turn itself into a circus and a running joke, although the goings on at Athlone should be no joking matter, as many on-lookers continue to question if the club can or even should be allowed to play in the League of Ireland, given its complete lack of competitiveness and more importantly lack of credibility.
A football club is only as strong as its supporters and without a strong connection with the local community it is supposed to represent with pride, you are fighting a losing battle. The people of Athlone and the surrounding Westmeath/Roscommon areas have turned their back on the club and you can not blame them for doing so. Scandal after scandal and crisis after crisis have left the club isolated at a time when it should be trying to rally its most loyal of supporters and volunteers.
However, a long running supporter boycott and questionable tactics from those charged with the running of this sinking ship have made such an event impossible and without fans there can be no derby.
From a Longford perspective, their supporters no longer see this as their big day out. Instead a promotion six pointer against the likes of Drogheda, Galway or particularly ‘’Shels’’ is much more enticing to the average passer-by fan, who currently sees Athlone Town as an imposter junior club wearing League of Ireland clothes.
How can you expect to entice those who are not weekly matches goers to a game that Longford won 5-1 earlier this season without even playing at twenty percent their best football, a fixture they won 7-1 last season despite finishing mid table in a woefully poor First Division and a fixture they now remain unbeaten in since the Rod squad of 2013.
In the short term, the money men at Athlone will benefit from what is likely to be the largest away gate of the season but with no home support, no tribalism between the two sides and in fact with a sense of sympathy from those in Red & Black to their once mighty neighbor, this can no longer be considered a derby game of any sorts.
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