SOCCER:Getting back to winning ways would be the sign for fans that Shamrock Rovers are home, writes EMMET MALONE

INTERNET ROUTE planners suggest you allow just under 20 minutes for the journey from Milltown to Tallaght. Shamrock Rovers took more like 20 years to complete the trip and for some of the supporters, it’s only by reclaiming its place at the summit of the Irish game that the club can really start to regard its turbulent voyage as finally being over.

That Rovers have made it back from the wilderness and arrived at a point where the current side is just two wins away from completing the club’s first double in 23 years is remarkable. What is more astonishing, though, is that so many supporters kept the faith through those difficult years, with many even ending up playing a part in the rescue operation.

Chairmen and boards have come and gone since Glenmalure Park was sold for housing and the club was abandoned to an uncertain future and many have played an important role in keeping Rovers in existence when it might easily have become another sad chapter in the history of the game here.

Many of the club’s long-term supporters are more critical of the likes of John McNamara, Joe Colwell and Tony Maguire but then, as one acknowledges: “Football supporters are an unforgiving lot and most of the time they feel that if something’s wrong at a club, the chairman should put his hand in his pocket and sort it out.”

All three did that to one extent or another and none came out of it terribly well with Colwell, in particular, having paid a hefty price for his involvement. McNamara, though, is probably credited with actually saving the club in the wake of the Kilcoyne era when, as one season ticket holder puts it, he inherited “a handful of player contracts and a bagful of jerseys”.

“I think that everybody involved with the club during that time did their best,” says current chairman Jonathan Roche, a long-time fan whose involvement started to grow with the founding of the then 400 club, an attempt by supporters to help the club complete its move to Tallaght.

“Things didn’t work out but they tried and we’ve been fortunate in that we’ve benefited from some of the things that happened before we eventually decided we had no other option but to take a more active role in running things along with Ray Wilson.”

While various plans for a long-term future were pursued during the years of the initial move from Milltown, Rovers ended up having to base themselves at just about every half-decent football venue in the city and even had to play one home game in Cork.

The RDS, though, was the only one that came close to being considered a home until the decade-long battle to get to Tallaght was finally resolved thanks to the determination of the fans and the help of South Dublin County Council. Now, new challenges loom with the club, in the event that it really does wrap up its first league title in 16 years in Bray tonight, needing to avoid the sort of financial catastrophe that has enveloped Shelbourne, Drogheda United and Bohemians in the wake of similar successes in recent years.

The club, which had accumulated losses of €620,000 to the end of last year, will turn a profit this year according to Roche and has plans to continue its progress on and off the pitch without risking its future, with the development of a training facility at Kiltipper rated alongside the likes of expanding the schoolboy section and improving the first-team squad on the list of priorities.

“I think we’re lucky in a way on that front too in that we’re not going to be up against clubs who are over-extending themselves at the moment and so we’re not going to have to chase them during the next few years,” says Roche. All the signs are, in fact, that if Rovers can seal the deal tonight they be well placed to lead the way again.

Past Shamrock Rovers players talk about being a part of the team

Terry Palmer

(Player for seven seasons, 1998-2004, and supporter)

My family would have been big Rovers fans and my dad would have taken me to Milltown, so signing for them was a very big deal to me . . . they were the biggest club.

It was a difficult time, though. They used just about everywhere you can think of, including Cork once, for home games while I was there. But the real problem was the training. Sometimes, I’d pick a few lads up in the car and hit the M50 and only once I was on it would I give a call to see where we were supposed to go. Sometimes it would be a public park, where the first thing was to establish where the park was.

Tony Maguire

(Former board member and chairman for three years)

My first day as chairman I realised we didn’t have the money to pay the wages and had to come up with 10 grand. A builder gave it to me, he had agreed to do a bit of sponsorship over three years, but ended up handing over the money in one go. My last game in charge, I borrowed another 10 from the 400 Club to pay the players and told them I’d give it back to them from the gate receipts for a game against Longford. But after paying Bohs for the ground there was only €6,500 left. I had to borrow the balance from somebody else and ended up repaying that myself.

I’d say it cost me €70,000 personally and I took some dosing from the fans, because obviously things didn’t go to plan. But I’m still proud that, like a lot of other people, I made a contribution and, if I’m honest, I’d have to say that, tough as it was, I miss it now.

Derek Tracey

(Played “about 487 games” for the club over 17 years having joined in 1989. He will have a testimonial game on November 5th in Tallaght)

I had my chances to move on during my career but there was always something about playing for Rovers, and captaining the side for three years was the highlight of my career.

Getting relegated was the low, but I was there for the last title win in 1994 and played enough games to get a winner’s medal – even if they spelt my name wrong on it. It’s great to see them back up there, but it’s no coincidence that when we won it back then we had the RDS as a bit of a base, and now they’re on the verge of doing I again with Tallaght as their home. You need that.

Liam Buckley

(Had two stints with the club as a player and one as manager. Member of the 1983/’84 league-winning side).

When I finished up (as manager in 2004), the money had run out and there was no real plan as to how to keep the club on the road. I left, and it seemed like the players were leaving, the board was leaving and all that was going to be left really was the supporters.

It’s a testimony to the work they’ve done since that Rovers are back where they are. It’s probably only now, when I’m really involved in running a club myself, that I fully appreciate all the work that goes in, all the time you spend in meetings behind the scenes in order to get anything done.

Those lads certainly put the work in and they inherited nothing – apart from a great brand, that is: in terms of Irish football there’s none better. They’ve restored it to the point where clubs like my own are aspiring to compete with it again.

– Emmet Malone