MONAGHAN UNITED MEMORIES

The First Division was formed in 1985 . Six clubs new to the League of Ireland made their bow that year, EMFA Kilkenny, Newcastlewest, Cobh Ramblers, ,Bray Wanderers and Derry City were five of them. The sixth was Monaghan United. They played at Belgium Park in their early days which is in the northern part of the town. Belgium Park was the only ground in a hollow in the League of Ireland at the time. The car park overlooked the facility and had a better view of the pitch than anywhere within the facility actually at pitch level. They won their first game as a League club which was a home game with Derry City by 2-0. It was the only time they had a sizeable crowd at a home game 3,000 packed into Belgium Park for this game. Monaghan’s players included goalkeeper Tommy Tasker whom I got to know very well years later, as PRO of the Dublin Women’s Soccer League, when he coached the Dundalk FC women’s team to WFAI Cup glory in 2005. Tommy had some League experience with Shelbourne before playing for Monaghan and he returned to Shelbourne after leaving United and finished his League of Ireland career with St. James’s Gate in the 1990’s.

Other players in the team included Dundalk men, Eamon Lynch and Colm McConville who went on to be the first player for Monaghan United to record 100 League Appearances. At the time I kept statistics on the entire League and actually brought this to the attention of their programme editor.  They had a couple of players from Newry Town who made an impact on the team in the late 1980’s Peter Magee and Jim Barr. Jim was the first Monaghan striker to hit double figures in League goals during a season and in 1987/88 Peter announced himself as a real talent in the First Division by scoring a hat-trick in Belfield Park as United ran out 3-1 winners.

But the real gems of the team were home grown talent. In more recent year Jonathan Douglas who went on to have  a career cross channel and current Wolves reserve goalkeeper Aaron McCarey have come out of their ranks but in the early years there were three homegrown heroes for United.  Mickey Conlon who was a very talented winger. Seamus Finnegan a rugged central midfield player and full back Paul Forde. I got to know Paul well over the years from games between the two teams but had a great experience meeting up with him when we stayed in the same hotel in Germany during EURO 88 and it was Paul Forde who introduced me to League Of Ireland legend the late lamented former Dundalk and Drogheda stalwart Barry Kehoe.

The bizarre statistical thing which occurred between the two clubs is that . Monaghan’s only victories over UCD were recorded at Belfield and UCD never lost a competitive game in Monaghan either at Belgium Park or after 1988 when they moved out to Gortakeegan on the Newbliss Road.  It was in this latter venue that my fondest memories of the club occurred.

In the 1988/89 season in our first visit to Gortakeegan there was an early incident when a man from each side was red carded by the referee. The two lads had actually buried the hatchet en route back to the dressing room which at that time was a makeshift prefabricated structure. The two lads went and had their shower came out to watch the game side by side in their tracksuits and the referee sent them back to the structure. That wasn’t the extent of the officialdom’s issues. U.C.D. were getting nothing from the linesman in terms of throw ins and offside decisions. This perceived ineptitude, annoyed one of the local fans so much that after about five throw in decisions in a row went incorrectly against the visitors one Monaghan United fan roared in exasperated tones ” ah for f**k sake ref that was a UCD ball!” I have never come across that level of sportsmanship from opposing supporters anywhere else.

But one incident which occurred when we weren’t even playing in a game will always have a special place in my heart.  In May of 1989 when we had finished all our First Division fixtures for the 1988/89 campaign,  we were one point ahead of Bray with a vastly superior goal difference. Because of their FAI Cup run that year ( beaten semi-finalists) they had a back match to play against Monaghan. A win for Wanderers and they were up. Monaghan held them to a 1-1 draw and Damien McCorry the Monaghan keeper played out of his skin becoming an unlikely hero to people in Belfield Park.

When the stadium developed the grandstand and club house at Monaghan United were always a welcoming place for visiting supporters. The Mon Dog arrived in due course and became legendary stadium food and greatly appreciated prize winning fare for supporters of all clubs.

I became involved with The Absolute Game programme  on Dublin City FM in 2005. And my co-hosts in those early days of my tenure was former Monaghan United manager Billy Bagster.

Bill’s so-called ” blue rinse brigade ” of veterans gained Monaghan promotion to the top flight in 1993, via a play off for the very first time, and they remained there for two seasons. Billy has a lounge in the club house named after him as a memorial to this achievement. Monaghan had two further brief sojourns in the top flight in the noughties before spending what seemed like an inordinate amount of time in the First Division. In 2010 Monaghan United were beaten in a promotion/relegation play off under Mick Cooke. When Sporting Fingal went out of business in February 2011 instead of promoting Monaghan  a relegation for Drogheda was reversed. This had knock on effects.  Drogheda had a First Division standard squad. The manager was sacked and when it became clear that Monaghan were not going up  Mick Cooke left Monaghan to take over Drogheda United four days before the season started. Roddy Collins took over at Monaghan United and gained promotion at the first attempt.

What happened to the club with not being able to get a shirt sponsor, or stadium sponsor or much interest from local businesses in sponsorship of any kind resulted in them pulling the plug on League membership .

Only 7,000 people most of whom are besotted with Gaelic Football left them on a hiding to nothing. Factor in the barstool brigade which shockingly are polluting the entire country not just the pale and you see the issues the club may well have had. The last time I saw the team play was in a pre-season friendly at the start of 2011 on the former League of ireland B team pitch in Belfield on Foster Avenue. I then met for the first time someone whose voice had become part of my radio programme for many years before.

 Julie Ann Sherlock whom I got to know through a football message board had become a regular contributor to my programme and  was a great help to me over the years . I met several of the committee when Monaghan United joined the Dublin Women’s Soccer League during my time as PRO there. And like I have outlined earlier I have many happy associations with the club over the 27 years that they were in the League. They were the only MUFC I have ever given a damn about and that was how I referred to them on the show ” The only MUFC worth a damn”…( no disrespect intended to Mervue United!) The real shame is that there were not enough  people out there like me!

Will miss them greatly, nice club run by sound people.