Hardy(T)'s World Soccer Diary

1/6/96, Dublin, Ireland. Friendly

Ireland 2	Croatia 2
(O'Niell, Quinn)	(Boban, Suker)

Att: 29,100 at Lansdowne Road, Dublin.

It's hangover time again at Lansdowne Rd. The reason this time is that it's my friend Martin's stag weekend in Dublin. The previous day we'd drunk Naas racecourse out of Guinness and then partied on til 6am. So, it was that seven very delicate individuals turned up on the Sunday afternoon to see a young Republic side take on one of the more fancied teams of Euro 96.

 

A large, partisan crowd had gathered for the game, and it was in fine voice as we arrived at our seats in the nosebleed section of the East Stand. Lansdowne Rd is very much in the tradition of some of the older English stadiums. It's functional but unglamorous, and is desperately in need of a lick of paint. However, what the ground lacks in facilities, it more than makes up for in atmosphere, as the noise level generated when the teams appeared showed.

 

I was pleased to see Pompey's Alan McLoughlin in the starting line up - he's been on the bench so often, he's got splinters in his @*^#. Macca aside, it was a fairly young Irish side, coach Mick McCarthy trying to replace some of the ageing players bequeathed to him by Big Jack. The Croatians, fancied by many to do well in Euro 96, were fielding a pretty strong side - the only missing big name being Prosinecki. The Irish more than held their own and could have won what was a pretty even game. In the end, honours were shared with the Irish goals coming from Norwich's Keith O'Neill and Niall Quinn, then of Man City. Macca had a very quiet game and was subbed on the hour.

 

On the way back to the airport we sampled some of the Republic's former glories in Big Jack's Bar. Mick McCarthy has some way to go to live up to his predecessor, but the performance of his young side offers some hope for the future.

 

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