Caught in an Athlone trap

WHEN Giovanni Trapattoni walks out at Croke Park this evening for his first game as manager of Ireland, the scene will be just a little bit different from the one he experienced on the only other occasion he was in the dug-out for a match in the Republic.

That was the celebrated day back in 1975 when Trapattoni, then on the coaching staff of AC Milan, found himself in homely St Mel’s Park for what the world of football assumed would be an entirely lop-sided clash between the Italian giants and plucky little League of Ireland representatives Athlone Town.

Instead, the game came close to producing one of the most remarkable upsets in European football history, as no less august an institution than the International Herald Tribune breathlessly informed its global readership the following day.

In an item datelined Athlone, Ireland, the newspaper reported: “Athlone Town, a collection of Sunday afternoon footballers who earn £12 a week, held the mighty AC Milan to a 0-0 draw yesterday in the second round of the UEFA Cup in Athlone.

“A crowd of 12,000 — which is Athlone’s population — crammed into St Mel’s Park to watch the match, which local historians claimed was the biggest thing to happen since the Earl of Lucan burned down the town’s bridge in the 17th century.”

The day would have been even more memorable for Athlone had their accomplished playmaker John Minnock been able to hold his nerve when winger Terry Daly was chopped down in the box and a penalty was awarded to the home side.

My friend, the journalist, author and Athlone Town supporter, Declan Lynch, was a young fellow in the crowd that day and vividly recalls the scenes of total dementia inside St Mel’s when the referee pointed to the spot followed, moments later, by the tomb-like silence which descended when Minnock managed merely to stroke the ball gently into the grateful arms of Milan’s famed Italian international custodian Albertosi.

Today, Giovanni Trapattoni looks back on the game as “a beautiful experience” with “all the people near the touchline, close to the pitch.”

He also well recalls that Athlone played in the Inter colours of black and blue stripes. But his memory might not be so reliable about other details, since he claims that Milan reached the ground by boat. Perhaps, after all these years, he’s just getting Athlone confused with Venice .

In the late Frank Lynch’s wonderfully titled ‘A History Of Athlone Town FC — The First One Hundred And One Years’, his son Declan has also recalled other notable aspects of that momentous day, such as the pipe band, led by a goat, which entertained the crowd before kick off. Visiting sophisticates might scoff, of course. “I laughed a bit myself,” even Declan had to admit. “We all did. All except the goat.”

The last laugh though went to Milan who, after being held for another astonishing hour in the San Siro, finally put paid to the men from the midlands with three late goals. And Giovanni Trapattoni thinks there might even a be a lesson for Ireland in the Town’s heroic endeavours of more than 30 years ago.

“It is an important example for us. Athlone was a little team, we were a famous team. And we didn’t win,” he points out.

Hmm. Trap has already characterised next year’s World Cup qualifier against Italy as a “David versus Goliath” clash. Perhaps the FAI should consider moving the game to Lissywoolen.