Rovers, Sligo and Pat's fly domestic flag

by Rory Houston

The Dublin Super Cup proved a relatively low-key affair last weekend but it brought up a debate about the strengths and weaknesses of football as a whole in this country.

Watch Shamrock Rovers v FC Copenhagn on Tuesday evening on RTÉ Two and RTÉ.ie

There are several excuses for the poor attendances in the Aviva Stadium on Saturday and Sunday. The most obvious is that football fans can’t afford the ticket prices for the two days.

Perhaps if Manchester United or Liverpool had been involved we would have seen bumper crowds. Manchester City are not one of most popular teams in Ireland, though that may change in time.

Celtic’s support in Ireland has declined in recent years. Inter Milan are a giant in world football but they will not draw tens of thousands for a friendly game these days and rightfully so.

Pre-season tournaments are about building or re-building brands for the likes of City and Celtic. It will have proven a useful exercise for those reasons alone.

For the Airtricity XI, they received the chance to play against some of the best players in the world. Damian Richardson was without players from three of the top clubs in the country in Shamrock Rovers, St Patrick’s Athletic and Sligo Rovers. It might not have mattered.

Their squad will always be a group of players thrown together for a couple of days of training and are bound to struggle against top club sides.

The next advancement for Irish football has to be on the club scene. Maybe playing against the likes of Shaun Wright-Phillips and Adam Johnson benefits the LOI players and the performances of James McClean and Daniel Kearns made many stand up and take notice.

The progress the LOI desperately craves could come this week. Shamrock Rovers have an opportunity to reach the holy grail that is the group stages of a UEFA competition.

They face FC Copenhagen in a third round Champions League qualifier second leg on Tuesday trailing 1-0 after the first game in the Danish capital.

It is a tall order for Michael O’Neill’s men. If they mount a comeback they will be guaranteed at least a place in the Europa League group stages and the financial benefits turn from thousands to millions.

Recent results are heartening for the domestic league. St Patrick’s Athletic progressed past Icelandic and Kazakhstan opposition, though they now trail 2-0 to Ukraine’s Karpaty Lyiv in their third round Europa League qualifier.

Also in round three, Sligo Rovers secured a 0-0 draw away to Vorskla Poltava, one of the leading teams in Ukraine, where the likes of Dynamo Kiev and Shaktar Donetsk keep standards very high.

It was arguably the best result in the club’s 83-year history and as a Sligo fan, I can confirm it was a very proud day for the Bit o’ Red.

Local journalists that stayed in the North-West described the scene around the town on the night as similar to Italia 90.

Many pubs screened the game via internet connections (OK, maybe there was no broadband in the Charlton era) and each were packed out for fans to watch the game.

Premier League clubs are not losing their popularity, but the Sligo colours are everywhere to see on the young and old around the county.

Shamrock Rovers and Sligo Rovers can confidently state they are the biggest clubs in their locality at the moment, and while that may seem a ridiculous argument to make when we live in the Republic of Ireland, it shows that there has been great work done by some teams in their community.

Tallaght Stadium and The Showgrounds will host close to 10,000 fans in the next few days and will draw as much media attention as the Dublin Super Cup.

The first leg results proved the Irish teams can compete but this week will show if they are ready to make the next grade.

The experience of Tallaght for Shamrock Rovers’ win over Flora Tallinn in the last round was extremely enjoyable.

The electric atmosphere, the superior standard of players in green and white and another notch of progress for Ireland’s most decorated club that was great for Rovers.

Copenhagen are a much better team than Flora, but the likes of Ronan Finn, Billy Dennehy and Gary Twigg can turn the tie around so anything is possible.

If it does happen, perhaps we won’t need the likes of the Dublin Super Cup to bring some top quality players to Ireland and new life can be put into the game here.