Dunmanway D-Day as Red Army roll in

THERE has been enough chat about D-Days in domestic football in recent weeks so it comes as something of a relief to be able to talk about Dunmanway’s day in the football limelight.

West Cork League Premier Division side Dunmanway Town will host a Liverpool XI in a friendly later this afternoon at the Maria Immaculta College in the town and, unsurprisingly, all tickets for what has become a historic event have long since sold out.

While uncertainty over which players would be included in Liverpool’s travelling party for today’s unique friendly slightly overshadowed the build-up, Dunmanway were themselves facing a battle against time last night to achieve a sensible balance between experienced League of Ireland standard players and their own motley crew of amateur jockeys, guards and bricklayers.

And the man who started the ball rolling, Belfast-born David Hall, was up to his 803rd phone call of the day (he counted) when the Irish Examiner finally caught up with him last night.

“It has been a crazy few weeks but we’re nearly there,” Hall admitted. “I don’t think my phone expected this much traffic to be going through it. It’s about to pack up.

“We have a clean bill of health and no injury worries. Everyone’s excited but there are a lot of nerves as well. But it’s going to be a great event, it’ll be great all day. It’ll be like a wedding, over in two seconds flat.

“It’s the biggest thing to ever happen to the town, never mind the club. It means everything to us.

“It will establish the club, help it build new facilities, coaching structures. The interest in us has gone through the roof. It really puts us on the map.”

Another Liverpool XI was in Norway last night to beat FC Lyn 2-0 in a friendly.

And while some questioned the time it took for the Anfield club to release the names of those who would be West-Cork bound, the high profile transfer of Xavi Alonso to Real Madrid for €30m got in the way.

“Yeah, I was liaising mostly with (Liverpool club secretary) Ian Silvester. So he has had other things on his mind. I rang him last week asking about jerseys or something and I could tell he was under pressure. He told me he had arrived to work that morning to find Xavi Alonso waiting in his office to hand in a transfer request.”

Hall, who was born on the Falls Road in West Belfast, moved to Cork to run his business before meeting and marrying a Dunmanway woman four years ago. He has been at the soccer club just six months.

“We lost out on the league on the last day of the season to Drinagh but we’re definitely looking to make a game of this.

“Subs have been worked out, I’ll play the first 45 minutes for example. We want to give them a good hard game. They’re not here for the scenery, I’ve told John (McMahon, Liverpool reserve team manager) that. They’re going to get a good, hard game.”