Letters of comfort have some misplaced faith

Friday Morning

Some Northern Ireland fans write: Dear Mr Out of the North, Just a quick note to let you know that we've got your number sunshine. If this is international weekend then it must be time for you, Mr Smart-Alec, to fill that column of yours next Tuesday with all sorts of cheap shots, limp sarcasm and lame jokes about our national football team.

Well, consider yourself told that your card is marked and that we're not going to stand for it anymore. Where we come from in Belfast there's a saying about getting your retaliation in first. This is it. We don't normally buy your paper but word started to get around about the kind of stuff you were peddling about Sammy McIlroy and the boys and we just decided that enough was enough.

Alright, we haven't won in a year and the team has just lost six games on the bounce. But since when was it decided that this football lark was all about winning. There is dignity in defeat. Playing for the jersey and all that. Besides, they're doing us a favour in a strange sort of way because we don't have to worry about saving up for those expensive trips to the World Cup or European finals. We're still paying for those World Cups back in the '80s. Thanks for the thought fellas.

We've even been able to stop going on those away trips because after a few group games we're usually out of the running anyway. All those Republic supporters must go through an absolute fortune. Though the way things have been going recently with that jolly the boys had in Prague, it looks the nightclubs after the games are the places to be. By all accounts some of them moved quicker in there than they've ever done wearing a Northern Ireland shirt.

And all this stuff about Windsor Park that you keep going on about. It's plenty big enough for us and who says that you have to change just for the sake of it. We've stood there and sung the same songs for years now and what's so wrong with a bit of tradition?

If we wanted to create a welcoming atmosphere and encourage family groups to come to Northern Ireland games then we'd do something about it. Windsor is good enough for Linfield and that's good enough for us. We have to stand up for what we believe in.

So we're not in Copenhagen for the game but we're going to stay up late for the highlights tomorrow night. Who's to say that we can't pull something out of the fire and really stick it up to you and all the other sideline snipers? What have you ever done for the team or our country? Exactly.

Yours in Northern Ireland and monitoring your every word, The True Supporters.

Late Saturday Afternoon

Dear Mr Smug Irish Times, We can just see you now. Leaning back in your fancy leather armchair in your swanky journalist's office and grinning from ear to ear. Dreaming up some way of praising the Republic for your column next week and at the same time getting some sort of sly dig in at Northern Ireland. It's not big and it's not clever.

Let's get one thing straight. The Republic were lucky, lucky, lucky. Not since the Titanic sailed has a group of people had such bad luck as the Dutch in that game that has just finished. The Republic were so negative once they got a man sent off against one of the best teams in the world. Why didn't they just go out and try to make a game of it instead of defending for most of the time? No ambition.

Holland did everything but score and for most of the match the Republic were just hanging on. The people in Dublin seemed to enjoy it but as far as we're concerned up here it's not what we want. So they were well organised, worked for each other, chased the ball and closed down any spaces.

All of that kind of honest, hard-working stuff is over-rated and it's certainly not the way Northern Ireland have tried to play for the last few qualifying campaigns.

Far better to go out, open the game up and if you concede a few at least you've always got the chance of getting one back. That sort of open, positive approach is the reason we've been able to keep crowds at Windsor at around 8,000 for years now. Any more and the place would get too crowded and lose some of its special and unique atmosphere.

By the end, we were disgusted, although we did think the Dutch tactic of getting Hasselbank, the top scorer in the Premiership last year, to play as a winger for most of the second half was an interesting one. Maybe that's where Northern Ireland have been going wrong all these years. Just think of the sweeper that George Best would have made or the benefits of playing Martin O'Neill in goal. It's something for Sammy to think about.

We do, though, take one consolation from the game and God knows we've become pretty good at clutching at straws after so much practice. When the cameras zoomed in on all those Dutch fans behind one of the goals at the end, it made our Northern Ireland hearts soar so see so much orange right there in the heart of Dublin. The Orange men had arrived. You knew we'd get there in the end. Come on Iran (or Iraq), The True Supporters.

Sunday evening

Dear Mr So-Called Journalist, We would have got back to you sooner but the size of our hangovers this morning had to be seen to be believed. What a night we had down at the Supporters' Club. You could have heard the shouts of "There's only one Kevin Horlock" half-way down the street.

When they come to write the history of Northern Ireland football that 1-1 draw in Copenhagen will be seen as the game when we turned the corner. It's still 12 months since we won a game but now we're going in the right direction. You mark our words and write some of that in your fancy newspaper.

But even already it looks like we're not going to get the credit we deserve. All the papers and the television this morning are full of the Republic game and England's 5-1 win in Germany. So what? Northern Ireland is our team and they're all that matter to us.

Did you see the game? It didn't look too promising a few minutes in when Mark Taylor wandered yards out of his goal to come for a cross, didn't even get near it and they went 1-0 up. But we dug in, used up any of the luck that was left after the Republic had finished with it and got our equalizer just before the end. Richly deserved, we're sure you won't agree.

We're going to finish with a heart-felt plea anyway. Leave behind the habits of a life-time and just try to say something nice about Northern Ireland. Sure we have our problems, what with booing our own player because we don't like the Scottish team he plays for, an out-dated stadium and never even getting within a sniff anymore of qualifying for any of the big competitions. But it's time to stand up for the little guy.

We'll be watching, The True Supporters.