DIARY: St Pats vs. OB

Our HR guy from work, Gareth, an ardent Shamrock Rovers fan, told me that OB, a club I supported from 1991 to the early 2000s, were in town to play the UEFA Cup 1st Round game against St. Patricks, or St. "Pats" as they are colloquially known.

Sure enough, my ex-colleague Steen, who know plies his trade with The Irish National bank, aka Danske Bank in disguise, called me up and asked if I wanted to brave the trip out to Inchicore and watch the match.

See all the pics here.

Glories of Yesteryear
Odense Boldklub, or OB as they are known, have long been one of the 5-6th best clubs in Denmark, and have won numerous Danish championships, the last one tracing back a long long time, however.

I used to support them, spurred on by their glorious victory over Real Madrid back in the early 90s when they overturned a 3-2 home deficit to clinch a last minute 2-0 victory at the Santiago Bernabeu, before being cruelly defeated 1-0 on aggregate by a strong Parma side in the Quarter Finals.

So while today's opposition was less than stellar, it would be no walkover. Danish club football is not what it used to be, and while it's still a few levels above Irish, all Irish and British teams know how to sell themselves dearly at home.

Richmond Park
Steen and I arrived early in the little neat stadium of St. Pats, currently Richmond Park, a stadium that has also served as the home of Shamrock Rovers. St. Pat's are known as the "Pride of Inchicore", and their fans did them proud singing heartily throughout the game clad in their red and yellow colours.

The match itself was a mixed affair, glorious sunshine and a well-kept pitch, meant that there were signs of good football, mostly from OB, while Pats got their chances from a few counter attacks and set-pieces.

All in all, OB didn't look to sharp, and on a good day would have hit Pats for 5 without reply (we'll come back to that).

In the stadium, Steen and I ran into Niels and his IBM comrades, and catched a glimpse of Kristian's mates "Anders and Anders". Oh yes, the Danes were out again!

The Return Leg

0-0 it finished, a good quiet night out with no incidents, but the EUR20 charged was a bit exorbitant for the quality of football at display.

St. Pats were buoyant, a freak goal in the away leg could secure progression.

Personally I was confident that OB would go through, though, barring a disaster. The difference in technical ability was quite pronounced, and St. Pats did not have a striker capable of creating chances on his own (he's injured I hear!).

And so it proved, two weeks later, OB won 5-0 at Fionia Park in Odense, Denmark's third biggest city at about 150.000 inhabitants, slightly smaller than Cork, and progressed to the 2nd round.