Usually, following your heart instead of your head for betting is a recipe for disaster but it worked in my favour during the week. You may recall that I had backed both a 2-1 and 3-2 defeat for Bohemians against Red Bull Salzburg and if you were foolish enough to do likewise you would have ended up with nothing. Shortly before kick-off in Salzburg, I was feeling a little guilty about having backed a League of Ireland side to lose in Europe and that, coupled with a pre-match surge of optimism, resulted in me putting €40 on the double chance of Bohs to either win or draw at 11/4. And, yes, I’m sorry for not telling you but it feels safer to inform you of my change of heart now that it has proven to be successful.
Bohs’ 1-1 draw with Salzburg was achieved by a mixture of a superb goalkeeping display by Brian Murphy, excellent work-rate and decent ball retention by his outfield players as well as some good fortune in the shape of the home side not being more clinical in front of goal. Considering the disparity between the clubs’ resources, it was an incredible result and, if Pat Fenlon’s side can somehow follow it up with another on Wednesday, they will have gone a long way to securing the club’s future.
The only shame about Wednesday was neither Giovanni Trapattoni nor the national broadcaster saw fit to pay any attention to the game. It is no secret that the League of Ireland has an image problem and, certainly, its clubs have not done themselves any favours down the years and even now seem hell-bent of supplying a series of bad-news stories. But it is a stronger league than it is given credit for and there is an onus on both the FAI and RTE to help people realise this.
Sure, the FAI have upped the prize money and, in conjunction with RTE, have ensured that there is decent coverage of the weekend action on Monday Night Soccer. But when neither the international team manager nor the national broadcaster sees fit to watch Ireland’s representatives in the Champions League then all it does is reinforce the message that our clubs are not worth bothering with. While Bohs may have been rank outsiders on Wednesday, it is not as though the club or its manager do not have form when it comes to punching above their weight in Europe.
Trap’s job spec may be simply to get Ireland to the World Cup finals but if he can fly over to Ireland for photo-shoots, surely he could have made the relatively short trip to see Bohs take on his former employers. If he had he would have seen just why so many people thought Murphy should have been in his squad for the Bulgaria game ahead of Wayne Henderson and Colin Doyle. But people are entitled to ask why they would bother watching an Irish club when the international manager does consider it worth his while.
It is fair to assume that Trap won’t be at Dalymount Park on Wednesday but the TV cameras will be, with both RTE and Setanta Sports waking up to the fact that the Irish champions deserve to be beamed into our living rooms. But Bohs cannot afford to look far that ahead because, on Sunday, they host Derry City, a match which offers them the chance to move 10 points clear of the Candystripes. Derry will be tired after their trip to Latvia and I’m going to back Killian Brennan €10 each way to be the first scorer against his former club. I’m also going to put €10 on a treble on home wins for Bohs, Drogheda and Galway for a potential return of €81. I’m going for a double chance of a Sligo win and a draw – €10 at 2.05 – as it’s hard to see how Shamrock Rovers won’t be distracted by Real Madrid friendly on Monday and playing the game at Tolka Park will hardly help. Finally, I’m putting a €10 on double for wins for Shelbourne and Longford Town in the First Division for a potential return of €38.50
