Bright start to summer league

NATIONAL LEAGUE/Column: Gracing us with its presence, the sun shone briefly to put the National League in the spotlight on the opening night of summer soccer last Friday. An official attendance of 6,500 delayed the start of the Cork City-Shelbourne Premier Division clash at Turner's Cross while the Bohemians-UCD game, hardly a crowd-pulling Dublin derby at the best of times, attracted a creditable 3,000 to Dalymount Park.

The games at O2 Park for Drogheda United-Derry City and at the Carlisle Grounds for Bray Wanderers-Longford Town were also reasonably well attended to bring the total for the four games to well over 10,000.

It's worth noting that the game that was postponed - Shamrock Rovers v St Patrick's Athletic - would have attracted a crowd to boost that figure significantly.

In light of the registration fiascos of last season, and the doom-and-gloom merchants predicting the demise of the domestic game, the league can be indulged in its claim that the first weekend of its brave new structure was a triumph.

"The opening night of the 2002-2003 Eircom League season was an all round success both on and off the field," said a league statement. "Critics saying that there is no interest in the league must now retract their comments. On the same day an attractive new TV package was announced with TV3, cumulative attendances reached five figures."

Another good display by St Patrick's Athletic, despite their 2-0 defeat to Belgian side KAA Gent in the InterToto Cup second round, first leg and, not least, Shamrock Rovers' excellent performance against Celtic add to the promise the new dawn brings.

The registration overhaul almost suffered one potentially embarrassing teething problem, however. Bray Wanderers were told not to field five players for the Longford match due to technicalities, thankfully spotted quickly, with their forms.

Bray accepted full responsibility as a fax which should have accompanied forms for Mick Doohan, Ciaran Ryan, Darragh Birch and Kevin Doyle was not sent.

In fairness, judgment on this one can be seen as the league clamping down immediately on any anomalies, however inadvertent, regarding their bete noire of last season.

Overall, the general positives continue to spring up. Bohemians, second favourites for the championship, will this week finalise a new sponsorship deal with a Dublin carpet firm, for a sum believed to be in the region of €100,000.

One grumble is with the First Division Cup which is generally not regarded as an ideal way for the teams in it to start the season. Most managers agree they would have favoured a three-round league rather than the very short 22-match season.

A development almost everyone agrees on is the new promotion/relegation play-off structure.

In it, the teams finishing second, third and fourth in the first division are joined by the team finishing second bottom in the Premier Division. The latter will meet the fourth-placed First Division side over two legs with the winners facing the victors from the other tie in the final to decide promotion.