Time to capitalise on clubs' European success

Approach an average National League club's supporter prior to last Thursday and mention the figures "three, two, one" in that order and the chances are the first thing to spring to their mind would still have been Ted Rodgers and the world's worst ever gameshow. Not any more.

Bohemians' remarkable win in Germany last week meant that Irish clubs in this year's UEFA competitions had won three and drawn two of their six away games. The win in Kaiserslautern was the best of the lot and probably the most memorable result away from home by any club from this league since Irish sides started competing internationally just over 40 years ago.

Bohemians' defeat of Aberdeen a few weeks earlier, like Shelbourne's victory over Sloga Jugomagnat, was undoubtedly more important in that it set up a win over two legs but never before had an Irish side beaten opposition of Kaiserslautern's quality at their own ground while only occasionally had they managed to draw away with the likes of Rosenborg.

Of course, it's scarcely a coincidence that both of these results came in the second legs of the respective ties. Both the Norwegians and Germans had every right to think that they had done enough in Dublin to ensure their progress to the second round but in reality each was a little fortunate to go into the return match with a 3-1 advantage.

A rather dopey opening spell aside, Shelbourne performed strongly against Rosenborg at Tolka Park where Richie Baker and, later, Richie Foran proved too agile and quick witted for defenders with international experience.

Bohemians were more unfortunate still with Trevor Molloy's ridiculously harsh sending-off robbing them of an ability to get the ball out of defence and hold it up for stretches, a tactic employed profitably during the first half of the Kaiserslautern match.

Under the strain of playing against a side that had a numerical advantage in addition to most of the other aces it was hardly surprising that Wayne Russell was finally beaten midway through the second half. In retrospect it might well be argued that the club's directors slipped up when they willingly agreed to switch the order of the two legs to grab the £300,000 on offer from German television for live rights to the game. True, we will never know how well they would have done had they faced the away trip first but the reality is that Bohemians would probably not have beaten Aberdeen over two legs had they not travelled to Scotland first. So the hope is that this year's performances might provide Irish teams with the confidence to grab what favours they receive in the draws.

With next year's representatives in the Champions League qualifiers likely to be seeded in the opening round as a result of this season's results the benefits to the Irish game as a whole will be quickly felt but there's work to be done between now and next summer.

For a start, the Super Cup - a worthy effort when it was started a few seasons back as a way of helping our clubs in Europe - should be scrapped immediately. The timing of the various competitions means no more than one or two of the four clubs involved can be meaningfully assisted by the quickfire knockout competition while for the others it is pretty much a waste of time.

In the circumstances the money would be better off used to help clubs prepare in whatever way and at whatever time best suits them. Shelbourne's trip to France this year was one indication of the way in which Irish clubs have to invest if they are to progress. The Super Cup money should be used either to back that sort of initiative or to help organise more competitive friendlies against sides from other countries which are also preparing for European outings.

While they're at it, the league could do with dumping its second most meaningless competition - the League Cup - or at the very least return it to its pre-season slot where it enjoyed some sort of advanced friendly status.

Last Friday week the league produced two of the best games we are likely to witness all season with 4-2 wins for Shelbourne over Bohemians and Longford against St Patrick's Athletic. They should have been the sort of contests that helped to generate interest and had people itching to see the following week's action. Instead the entire season was put on hold for a week while the League Cup, its status or lack of it underlined by the fact it is put up against the All-Ireland football final, made an unwanted and unmerited appearance.

The return of the competition's early stages to their old slot before the start of the league campaign would at least be of some benefit to the two clubs competing in the UEFA Cup. But better still, dump it and put every penny into building on results like last week's in Germany because failure to push on now will leave us, just when everybody is starting to believe Europe can be more about glittering prizes and less about ritualised humiliation, staring once again at football's equivalent of "Dusty" the bin.

Kilkenny City last night confirmed that former New Zealand international coach Joe McGrath is to return to the club as Pat Byrne's replacement. The Dubliner, who has been out of National League football for almost two seasons after being sacked by Bohemians, previously managed Kilkenny City in the early 1990s.

After leaving Kilkenny, McGrath took on a full-time coaching position with the FAI before moving to the New Zealand job. When he returned, he took over at Bohemians but they made a poor start to the season and he was quickly replaced by Roddy Collins. He now takes over a side that contains several of the players who were then with Bohemians including Tommy Byrne, Eoin Mullen and his son, Derek.