The Forgotten Irish International Soccer Tournament

[TenaciousDee]

Today (July 15th) marks the 25th Anniversary of our victory over Celtic in Lansdowne Road. If you are a regular reader of the City View programme you will have read my 3 part reflection on the tournament. I am going to post the three parts below in one post (as the IP Blacklist message may prevent me posting it in three posts).

The Forgotten Irish International Club Soccer Tournament

Part One

Truth be told I have never been a fan of pre-season friendlies. I often question the mental capacity of people who anticipate a glorified kick about between two sides who show no passion, bite or desire to win. When this country used to see glamour friendlies that territories such as the Far East, Abu Dhabi, the US etc. now enjoy, I admit my interest would peak a little if it involved Derry City. The idea of a big European Club coming to Ireland like Barcelona did in Derry back in 2003 with a full strength team almost seems impossible now. In the summer of 1997 though, as Derry City prepared for a tough Champions’ League qualifier against Slovenian Champions NK Maribor (Teatanic), they came face-to-face with two star studded British clubs in as many days, representing Ireland in what was hoped to be an annual pre-season International Club Tournament.

The inaugural Irish International Club Soccer Tournament, was the first pre-season tournament of its kind hosted on Irish Soil. Derry City booked their spot as the current FAI National League Champions, alongside the 1996-97 Eredivisie champions PSV Eindhoven, Scottish League Runners-Up, Glasgow Celtic, and Premier League Runners-Up, Newcastle United. The tournament, played across 2 days, would have two semi-final games, a 3rd/4th place playoff and a Final.

In the run up to this pre-season spectacle, the FAI and their tournament partners, MatchMaker Promotions Ltd., promised Irish Football supporters unbeatable value for money across the two days, with the prospect of seeing some of Europe’s established and rising football stars. In retrospect, the team lists boost some legendary names; Alan Shearer, Jaap Stam, Les Ferdinand, Paolo Di Canio, Eidur Gudjonsson, Peter Beardsley, Keith Gillespie, Boudewijn Zenden and Philip Cocu, who later in his career would represent Barcelona in the Brandywell.

Despite representing the country’s interest, Irish Media and Football pundits gave Derry City little of the column inches or on-air mentions in the lead up to the Dublin showdown, and they were mainly viewed as place holders by all. This is represented in the tournament’s match day programmes. Separated into two parts, one for each day, the first part featured 4 different articles on Newcastle United (one of which was a 3 A4 page sized in-depth look at the previous season and where the club was going) and two articles on PSV. Derry’s column inches that day involved two player profiles at 300 words each and a message from Paul Diamond that was approximately 250 words. In the second day’s programme there was one article on the club by Gerry Thornley but hilariously a player profile was done on Paul Curran that featured one huge error. These profiles were accompanied by a poster page of the player yet the photo in this profile was not of Paul, but his teammate Tommy Dunne.

Star quality aside, Glasgow Celtic were traditional favourites on this Island and would always prove to be a huge draw. The Premier League in this era started to gather momentum in the worldwide TV market and was beginning to widen the gap between themselves and other leagues. Newcastle were now amongst the most watch televised clubs in the host nation. With all the main marketing of the tournament being focused around Glasgow Celtic and Newcastle United’s involvement, the draw of Derry City v Glasgow Celtic and Newcastle United v PSV appeared to be setting the table for a Newcastle United v Celtic finale. As we now know, that would not be the case in the end.

Part Two

Looking back it baffles me that few wanted to applaud the under-estimated Derry City as they were living what appeared to be an unbelievable comeback story. In the space of two years the club had seen significant changes, flirting with extinction due to financial problems in the 95-96 season, to capturing the league on what was reported as one of the smallest budgets of the 96-97 season.

On paper, Felix Healy had gathered a formidable team thanks to the “Bosman Rule”, recruiting the likes of Gavin Dykes, Declan Boyle, Tommy Dunne and James Keddy for free. In goal, Derry had an unsung hero in Tony O’Dowd. He was defended by the aerially dominating and tough tackling centre-back partnership of Dykes and Curran. Declan Boyle made the right side of defence his own on the way to the league title with Dunne on the left. The Midfield was flanked by Keddy and Tom Mahon, each capable of finding space and delivering a pinpoint ball into the penalty area. Paul Hegarty was the holding midfielder, as Peter Hutton chased every back-to-goal, turn and pass from Liam Coyle to notch 15 goals for the 96-97 season. Alongside Coyle, Gary Beckett scored 10 league goals, creating problems for every defender in the league with his menacing runs. To compliment the foundations, Felix called upon Sean Hargan and Ryan Coyle when required. Both players played in many roles that league winning season across the pitch. Ahead of the tournament City added Eamon Doherty and Kevin Brady to the team to create competition for both wing backs.

The tournament was played on the 15th and 16th July, and on the first evening approximately 18,000 supporters were in attendance for the Derry City v Celtic fixture. I was 11 years old at the time and I watched the game at home picking out Derry faces in the crowd, a large number of them wearing Green and White Hoops.

Gary Beckett told me on Twitter in the summer of 2020 that going into the game, Celtic supporting patrons at his local pub ribbed him about Derry City and his prospects in this fixture. Confident in his ability, he made a bet that he would not only score in the match, he would score first. By the 7th minute I was jumping up and down my living room as Gary Beckett was quid’s in after sending the ball whistling passed Gordon Marshall to give City the lead.

Prior to travelling to Ireland Paolo Di Canio informed Celtic that this appearance in Dublin would be his last for Celtic, as civil unrest was being felt around the club at the time. After Rangers completed their 9th League title win in a row, Chief Executive Fergus McCann began another upheaval of the club infrastructure. McCann’s vision favoured an infrastructure similar to that on the continent. A General Manager was to be hired, a role that would be controversially given to known Rangers fan Jock Brown. McCann wished to remove the term “Manager” and replace it with “Head coach”, as well as appoint a Head of Youth Development. Wim Jansen was installed as Head Coach as Manager Tommy Burns was offered the demotion of Head of Youth Development, that he turned down on this occasion, before being dismissed entirely. Such upheavals were not uncharacteristic of the times at Parkhead, but it would go on to infuriate a large portion of the Hoops support and the club’s players. Pierre Van Hooijdonk forced a move to Nottingham Forest, and, fellow striker Jorge Cadete went on strike, claiming he was receiving medical attention in Portugal for his physical and emotional well-being.

Despite his declaration to leave, Di Canio was cheered for throughout his time on the pitch and gave the Celtic fans something to celebrate as he equalised on the 37th minute, scoring his final goal for the club. A ferociously contested first half concluded with a 1-1 scoreline but the second half would bring more drama and an unlikely hero.

Part 3

Marty Devine once commented on derrycitychat.com that “Friendlies are not friendly” and this fixture falls into that category. Robust challenge followed in succession and there was no bigger hatchet man that day than Paul Curran. In retrospect it is hard to believe the centre half was never given a card of any colour. During the first half he delivered a two footed tackle on new Celtic signing Darren Jackson, then later he introduced Jackson’s face to his elbow. Everyone watching witnessed the incidents, whilst the officials seemed to turn a blind eye.

In the second half both teams threatened the goalmouth but it was Derry who regained the lead 16 minutes from time as Tommy Boyd turned Peter Hutton's harmless looking cross into his own net. The Red & White Travelling Army were still celebrating when two minutes later, with the Derry defence caught napping, Weighorst headed home a teasing cross from Di Canio.

With eleven minutes to go, an unlikely hero not long from coming off the bench would step up to give Derry City a famous victory. Ryan Coyle, ever the reliable player, drove a low left footed shot beyond the keeper to put Derry City 3-2 up. I had read in the Journal that a squad of Ryan’s family journeyed south, including his Celtic supporting Uncle, who watched the game amongst the Celtic fans. He recalled his uncle’s reaction to not knowing what to do in this instance; celebrate the goal scored by his nephew amongst thousands of Celtic fans or get angry with the “Bhoys” defensive setup? Either way it is a goal Ryan, a Celtic supporter himself, loves to recall every chance he gets.

It was a result that upset the apple cart with everyone not involved with Derry City, who were deserving of their victory. The most upset at the result were the television companies. As mentioned in the previous parts, the promotion of the tournament and the draw of Derry v Celtic and Newcastle V PSV seemed to be setting the table for a final game between both British teams. Sky Sports and Scottish Television had bought up the rights to the tournament, with STV adjusting their schedule that week to sell advertising on a prime time slot (normally reserved for Coronation Street on a Wednesday) in favour of a final that they expected Celtic to feature. Felix Healy had alluded to me in the past that he had to battle with the organisers and the TV producers in the team hotel who jockeyed to move the final to earlier in the second day, so Celtic could have the prime time slot. This, in the end, never happened.

The following day Celtic would lose the 3rd/4th place playoff on penalties to PSV Eindhoven, who on the previous evening were defeated 3-2 by Newcastle. 14,500 football fans attended in the rain to watch Newcastle United be crowned as the inaugural winners of the Irish International Club Soccer Tournament. Despite a dogged performance, Derry City’s fatigue showed from the offset as Jimmy Crawford scored from a heavily deflected 25 yard shot to put the Geordies ahead. Peter Beardsley capped off the scoring before half time. Derry came up against a side containing 9 internationally capped players and their only chance of note came from an audacious Liam Coyle bicycle kick, saved by Pavel Srnicek.

The Irish International Club Soccer Tournament would return the following year as the Carlsberg Trophy starring St. Patrick’s Athletic, Liverpool, Leeds United and Lazio. Different attempts to resurrect the competition would be endeavoured but they never captured the imagination like the first two (Carlsberg) Irish International Club Soccer Tournaments did. A big part of that was thanks to Derry City’s unexpected victory against favourites Celtic. To most it is just a pre-season tournament but for Derry City supporters it was a great midweek break that brought friends closer together, created memories of seeing big names in the flesh and for someone like me, a victory to rub in the faces of Celtic supporters who looked down at me for supporting my local club.