supporting the Eircom League
Do you ever wonder sometimes why you bother? I mean, how easy would it be to forsake the local version of the beautiful game for the warm and cosy alternative offered courtesy of your satellite dish? You've got your numerous camera angles, expert analysis, build-ups, post mortems and all manner of gadgets and gizmos at the other end of a wee red button. Hard to beat, isn't it? Irish League football doesn't really stand a chance. So why do we bother?

Maybe it's something to do with a sense of belonging, a sense of pride in your own community. Your local club, well, they're YOUR team. You know the players - and they're ordinary blokes like yourself. You pass the ground on a regular basis, you've seen it develop over the years - the lights, the new stand. You've maybe went down on a winter's morning to help clear snow so the match that afternoon can go ahead, maybe turned up in the summer months to give the old place a much needed lick of paint. You sell programmes, raffle tickets, attend club dinners, sponsor a player, buy a brick. You do your bit.

Then there’s the match itself. That feeling when things go right on the pitch. The last minute winner enjoyed in the company of your mates not forgetting the despair during the bad times. You’re all in this together. After the game, walking home, getting stopped in the street, queuing at the corner shop for the Pink, "How’d they do today?". You’re a real supporter, a true fan. You’re recognised as such. There’s something in that. And woe betide anyone who dares rubbish your team, especially some ‘expert’ who claims to support some bunch of overpaid prima donna’s they’ll only ever see on the box.

What do they care? It won’t ruin their weekend if ‘their’ team loses or make it if they pick up those precious three points. Leave them to their replica shirts and their once a season trip over to scoff their prawn sandwiches. They’re not fans, they’re customers. With you it’s different. It matters. It matters a lot.

Choose to forget the Irish League.
Choose rebirth.
Choose 1985.
Choose Declan McDowell.
Choose EMFA in the snow.
Choose Da Gama and Da Silva.
Choose red and white convoys.
Choose tea and soup at half time.
Choose Cork at Flower Lodge.
Choose a mass exodus for a cup final.
Choose Jim McLaughlin.
Choose the Treble in '89.
Choose the Jungle.
Choose Punts and Euros.
Choose Storky scoring against Benfica.
Choose trying to pick Liam Coyle's best goal.
Choose Sunday at the Brandy.
Choose scoring a 100 goals and coming second.
Choose Roy Coyle kicking Turlough O'Connor up the arse.
Choose owning the League Cup in the nineties.
Choose McNabb and "Miss it" Blisset.
Choose Derry City 3 Celtic 2.
Choose outsinging every team we ever play.
Choose beating Finn Harps.......every time.
Choose winter football.
Choose summer football.
Choose Coyle putting Puyol on his arse.
Choose Cardiff, Lisbon, Arnhem(twice), Sofia, Maribor, Nicosia.
Choose planes, trains and automobiles to get to the game.
Choose to back Stuarty to score that penalty.
Choose to hate Shane Curran and Tom McNulty.
Choose beating Sligo after going 4-0 down.
Choose being two kicks from two doubles.
Choose the Legaue in '97.
Choose the Dublin mafia.
Choose the Undertones in Squires.
Choose DCFC Online.
Choose Brandywell Pride.
Choose to abandon your barstool.
Choose the League of Ireland.
Choose face paint and tickertape.
Choose City till you die.
Choose sing songs and ding dongs.
Choose to walk a million miles for their goals.
Choose your Teenage Kicks.
Choose Derry 2 Finn Harps 1.
Choose the game to end all games.
Choose God to score.
Choose to think that it's destiny.
Choose red and white.
Choose Candystripes.
Choose Derry City F.C