We are four games into the new league campaign and we have taken six points from a possible twelve, a stat that most supporters would have bitten your hand off before the season.
Last night we headed to the Show Grounds to take on Sligo Rovers in what was tipped as a game that could have sent us top of the league table, albeit at an early stage, but top nonetheless.
It was our fourth game of the season and Sligo Rovers third game and their first home game of the season, but you wouldnt know that if you were there or watching on LOI TV.
Let me explain, every game in the league has the opportunity to showcase the league to the neutral support, a chance to promote and show off the talent and potential that our league has, a chance to attract new supporters to the league, we all remember the Jordan Flores goal against Rovers that was nominated for a Puskas Award, the Colin Healy overhead kick for Cork City and some of the worldies we see throughout the league from players like Jack Byrne, Patrick Mc Eleney, Chris Forrestor and many more, but with that said we headed to the Show Grounds last night and the talking point straight away among supporters and commentators was the poor condition that the pitch was in.
If you said to me that last night’s game was the last game of the season I would have somewhat excused it, but standards must still be kept, but given that it was Sligo’s first home game of the season then it was inexcusable, and moreso it provided a poor platform for both teams to showcase their talents, showcase the league and overall it was just dangerous.
Yes, both teams had to deal with the poor conditions, this isn’t an attempt for any excuses, not at all, to be positive, we left the Show Grounds with a point, our second clean sheet of the season and more importantly no injuries. Overall a draw was a fair result with both teams having their chances but being unable to take them.
My point here is, if we as a league want be taken seriously by the neutral support, if we are serious about wanting to promote our league, then we need better standards and we must demand them.
Before i get inundated with comments about the poor condition of Oriel Park, yes i know it is in poor condition, thats my point, there isnt enough investment in our league, there isnt enough prize money on offer for clubs to significantly invest in their facilities and we dont have enough marketing or promotion of our domestic game overall, but standards still must be kept.
For example, why is there no merchandise for the League of Ireland such as “Panini style” Sticker Collections, Colouring books, T-shirts etc, there is so much we can do here that just isnt being done.
There is news that an UnOfficial fantasy football league for the League of Ireland is being developed and is due for release soon, this is very welcome news, but there isnt enough being done overall to promote the league to the younger generation.
After the game, Stephen O’ Donnell said, “Once we arrived, we knew what kind of game it was going to be..“, throwing all notion of any tactical plans out the window, he continued to say that the game was, ” a waste of time.“
If a neutral support was watching that game last night they would have turned it off early and we couldnt blame them.
We have made massive leaps in recent years to promote our league at local level, national level and on the european stage, but we cannot let our hard work be undone by allow poor standards to creep into our game, this goes for poor refereeing standards, poor infrastructure and poor pitch standards, we must demand better.
Last nights game was one of the poorest games I’ve seen in the last 10 to 15 years in the league and it wasn’t down to poor performances or two teams not trying, on the contrary, both teams tried and attempted to play football, but the platform they were being asked to perform on was just unacceptable.
We use the hastag #GreatestLeagueInTheWorld to promote the league and rightly so, it truly is the greatest, but if we don’t up our game we won’t have a league to promote.
End.