Dublin City

History

2001 - founded











2003 - promoted











2004 - relegated











2005 - relegated Shamrock Rovers











That is all.

Match reports on their website

Dublin City’s website is a source of eternal amusement for STIG. Well-designed, well maintained, it should be a model for the rest of us. Then, you come to the match reports. Ranting, raving, misspelled reports, clearly designed to earn fines. We've preserved a few of the best for your enjoyment.

A match report from their website

TURNCOAT Roddy Collins completed his season’s dirty work as an under strength Dublin City fell to Shamrock Rovers in the last game of the eircom League season at Tolka Park yesterday.

Collins walked out on the Vikings three weeks ago to Rovers in an act of unbelievable selfishness at a time when the club still had genuine hopes of survival. Yesterday he put all his Hoops players on trial in a game that rarely rose to temperatures that the fixtures’ potential suggested might happen.

City had no Adam Rundle - just the latest (and last) one of Collins signings who refused to turn-up for the a Dublin City fixture. And of course there was no Carlton Palmer, Danny Boxall, Alex Nescovic, Ronnie Henry or Grant Cooper - all hailed by Collins as being the best players in their position in the eircom League when he signed them. Gone like the wind, the lot of them! So much for Collins ability to attract players of the right character - Rovers beware.

Collins, obviously scared that his ample girth was under threat came with a professional minder in tow, and with lapdog Terry Eviston by his side, saw the visitors get the better of City who once again had large rafts of possession but failed to convert their chances.

Rovers went in front somewhat fortuitously in the 10th minute when Paul Malone’s off target shot from the left side of the penalty area found Shane Robinson who promptly drilled and angled 14 yard shot past Robbie Horgan in the Drumcondra end goal.

City were level within 10 minutes as Gary O’Neill set up Cottsie O’Connor to break free of the Rovers cover to drill home past Noel Mooney in the Rovers goal.

The winner arrived in the 54th minute when Derek Treacy got across his marker to flick Mark Rutherford’s free to the back of the net.

Cottsie O’Connor might have done better on a couple of occasions to set up Gary O’Neill in better positions, but O’Neill when he did get clear on goal in the 76th minute managed to screw his shot wide with only a jittery Mooney to beat.

Turncoat Collins was only too happy to pose for photographs with jubilant Rovers supporters after the match - the same people he had recently promised Dublin City fans, would be treking around the first division next season - but that was of course before he jumped ship on the club that had honoured every agreement with him and his players.

Rovers chairman Tony Maguire attempted to write off the recent events by engaging City Chief Executive Ronan Seery in a halftime `pow wow’ discussion and indicated that it was ’all over and behind us as’ far as he and his club were concerned. Sadly Maguire has a short memory or fails to appreciate the enormity of the damage his actions has inflicted on a fellow eircom League club.

The cheek of the lowlife cur! His apparent lack of intellect and moral rectitude would have him somehow believe that everything was rosy in the garden again, but his memory span is so short that he fails to appreciate that his damning actions will in fact be remembered by so many for a long long time to come - by anyone with a bit of common decency running through their body.

In fairness, Rocky, dignified to the last, told him with measured calmness to piss off!

City went down with dignity and Dermot Keely will now look to assemble a squad capable of returning to Premier Division in the coming seasons. An indication of Keely’s no nonsense approach was evident with his 11th minute substitution of Peter Hynes. Keely hauled him off for a slipshod performance and the player’s injudicious decision to engage in a verbal touchline exchange only served to confirm that he had played his last game for the club.

Collins, unfortunately - or perhaps fortunately after all, will now turn his wrecking ball tactics to Rovers, and, Rovers will give him free reign.

The fools, the fools have they not learned anything????? City will be back and Rovers have had their illustrious name tarnished in a way that a club with their rich history should never have allowed - but that’s what you get when you have people like Tony Maguire at the tiller.

Another entertaining match report from their website

DUBLIN CITY were the victims of some outrageous refereeing decisions as they crashed to a two-nil defeat despite a heroic nine-man effort after Brendan Kennedy and Ray Scully were red-carded against Limerick

Once again the appalling poor standard of Irish refereeing is centre spotlight today after Athlone referee Tony Kelly and his assistants Fran Cunningham and Dave Wogan contrived to produce a performance that would have done credit to the Three Stooges.

Perhaps the most controversial incident was the first half dismissal of Kennedy who came out to the edge of his box to collect a high dropping ball but was sensationally red-carded, sent to the dressing room for deliberate handball.

The decision incensed the Dublin players and management as both Brian Kelly and Alan Keely was clearly behind Kennedy who could not be deemed ’last-man. With Kennedy keeping an eye of the dropping ball, he could hardly be accused of a ’deliberate’ offence but Kelly - showing a complete lack of common sense, was having none of it and flashed the red in a decision which changed the shape of the game.

Said Brendan Kennedy: “Naturally I’m very disappointed because there was no deliberate intent on my part. It’s not as if I came rushing out 20 yards or pulled a guy down. I made a genuine attempt to collect the ball and I had to keep my eye on it. The linesman has waved his flag and I see the ref reaching for his back pocket and I knew he was reaching for the red card and I just found the decision unbelievable.”

“I don’t think anyone in the ground thought it was a sending off offence and the decision has changed the whole course of the game. We had the better of the chances then and the lads felt that the goals would have come. What’s disappointing now is that for what was a mid-judgement of a couple of inches , I’m going to have to miss the Cobh match as well and the bottom line is the referee got it wrong, but it‘s Dublin City who have to suffer the consequences.”

Manager Dermot Keely was forced into a ‘sacrifice substitute’ in Dave McGill to allow 18-year-old Dave Ennis make his debut. It was not the most auspicious of circumstances in which to make your eircom league bow but credit to Ennis who had earlier in the day played a full part in the club’s under 21 game against Drogheda United.

Scully was to see red for a second bookable offence in the second period but again Kelly was duped by a spectacular fall by his ‘victim’ as both chased the ball at speed and they the howls of appeal from the Limerick supporters. Sadly for City, Scully made contact with the ball before the man but Kelly - consistently bad - sent the midfielder off.

The opening goal scored a stunning volley after 52minutes which Ennis could do little about while the second goal came from the penalty spot - and yet again referee Kelly called it wrong with a decision which should have gone City’s way for a blatant dive.

In fairness to City, even with nine-men, they created far more chances than Limerick with Philly e, Brian Kelly, Alan Kelly and Robbie Collins all contriving to miss chances after Limerick were opened up at the back.

The huge effort put in by the nine players deserved some reward but with the likes of Tony Kelly and Co. producing a horror-performance, that was never likely to happen.

Manager Dermot Keely managed to feel the wrath of Kelly and was sent from the dug-out. Again a strange decision of Kelly’s part who had chosen on more than one occasion to ignore the bad-language directed at him by Robbie Kelleher. His ‘effing and blinding’ warranted no action by Kelly yet Keely’s sideline volley was met with a dismissal. Again, inconsistency by a simply appalling referee.

“Once Brendan Kennedy was sent off we were not allowed win the game. These people don’t appreciate the huge amount of resources as a club we commit onlyu to see those efforts completely underminded by a complete lack of common sense. It’s a crucial decision and the referee and assistants have made a complete hash of it as a team - for the sending off of Brendan Kennedyu, Ray Scully and the penalty. It’s simply amazing that as a team the officials could get so much wrong” said chief executive Ronan Seery .

“The players were magnificent in the face of such adversity and deserved more but there is still a long way to go and things like this have a way of bonding teams and despite the officials getting decision after decision wrong, some good may well come from this. We won’t lie down and we won’t go away, but the powers that be have got to look at addressing the terrible refereeing crisis in a proactive way, because it’s fundamentally unfair to have to run the gauntlet of these type of farces.

“ I did approach one of the eircom league match assessors but he told me he didn’t have an opinion - one way or the other. That was a cop out of the lowest kind. If he’s here working for the game he has to have an opinion, but if he’s going to play the dummy, what the hell is he doing turning up at Dublin City games. Football is all about opinions but we have people employed by the league who have no opinions and that‘s just part of the problem which is blighting the game.

“They are a law on to themselves and even when they are wrong, they protect each other. They are way off the pace, don’t truly understand the game and the game really deserves better than that. The fact that the officials were kept in the dressing room for close to an hour after the game byu the eircom assessors speaks volumes in itself.”

More referees

ONCE again Dublin City have fallen foul of the poor refeering (sic) standards that blight the eircom League - and the two points dropped as a result of a 95th minute goal from Limerick could prove costly for the club’s promotion hopes.

On a night when the eircom league match officials have much to answer for, it is Dublin City who pay the price of having to suffer at the hands of officials who combine to undermine so much positve (sic) work this club is trying to carry out.

No doubt some will take time out to read these comments and once again we can utter with conviction that the powers that be have much to answer for and that the self same people who assess the match officials - those who have no opinion and wear blinkered bifocals - will protect their own which only serves to punish Dublin City for daring suggest that referees DO HAVE BAD GAMES!!!!

In fairness, we did witness one linesman who on witnessing Limerick goalkeeper Noel Mooney raise his arm and strike out at a Dublin City player , make a decent attempt to convince the referee of what had just taken place.

Flag waved and raised after calmness has been restored and within ear shot informs Mr referee that the goalkeeper was guilty of striking an opponent - in other words - raising an arm and facing a red card offence. Mr Honorable linesman is exonerated in that he saw, he witnessed and he attempted to inform Mr Referee.

Unfortunatly (sic) for Dublin City the referee wants to know nothing of it and tells the linesman that what he saw didn’t happen. Honorable (sic) linesman states again that (the referee is wrong) the Limerick goalkeeper did raise an arm and floor an opponent. I saw it, linesman saw it, many people in the ground saw it but Mr referee says it didn’t happen and he’s over ruling his linesman.

A cop out of major significance on the refs part. If he didn’t see it his linesman certainly did and he made a strong case stating twice that an assault had taken place. This become a key moment in the game - Limerick down to 10 men and it makes life very difficult for them altogether, but instead within a few minutes its Dublin City down to 10 for an offence that is mild in the extreme compared to Mooney’s attack on Dave McGill. All we would ever want is fair play, nothing more, nothing less!

So where’s the team work, why have a linesman, what’s the story? The Limerick keeper has spent a lot of time taking kick-outs - time wasting but he’s shown an unbelievable amount of tolerance simply becasue (sic) he has an injury. Is this Dublin City’s fault that their opponents have a net minder with a dodgy leg. No, but do we get penalised. Well, you’d be right there... all through the match... then he’s allowed an assault into the bargain... and he’s given the benefit of the doubt.

In the first half Trevor Vaughan slid in to try an (sic) stop a ball going over the end line. Free out. OK, no complaints. What happens next? Mooney hobbles out and steals about a dozen yards - howls of appeal from the City support but the ref has run up the pitch and isn’t interested in seeing justice done.

Second half, City have an injured player and after due attention has to leave the field of play before coming back on but why in god’s (sic) name does he have to wait close to a minute and 15 second before being allowed back into the field of play.... what about the corner he gave when he indicated Robbie Hedderman had made contact when everyone in the ground could see that no contact had taken place - sees what he wants to see but Noel Mooney never threw a punch.

No wonder he skulked out of the ground, head down... shame.. but don’t forget your fee and don’t give a toss about the devastation you leave behind.

What about the sending off? This was a meaty game with a lot of crisp challenges. City had three under 21s and Mr referee showed them no favours when they faced both physical and verbal intimidation unlike the treatment affored (sic) Noel Mooney.

There was a lot of contact in the game and lying down and taking punishment has got to be met man to man. One up and defending desperately and Mr referee hands Limerick a lifeline....and this time takes the linesman’s advice that Paul Shiels had hit out.

Very strange that one. Accepts one linesmans (sic) word and refuses to accept the other. Paul Shiels, the City player red carded said: "The Limerick guy had been winding me up all night and he kept backing into me and standing on my toes - I gave him a tap and pushed him away in the back. It wouldn’t have knocked an old man over but the ref takes the linesman’s advice. It’s just another bad decision becasue (sic) it was never a sending off offence and then you hear Dave McGill telling you how he was floored by a punch and Mooney is let stay on the pitch. It’s just amazing that these things happen and it’s always seems to favour the other team and not Dublin City. It’s very stange (sic) altogether.

Shiels was also somewhat taken aback by the level of abuse newboy James Duff suffered. "They got stuck into from the minute he came on the pitch and they really tried to intimidate him. He done well but he was given absolutely no protection."

So down to ten men Limerick get an equaliser - deep, deep into injury time and a goal they didn’t deserve. More frustration but we’re still alive and we won’t lie down.

There’s talk of a €5000 fine for putting stuff up on website or putting inflamatory (sic) remarks into programmes or posting them on websites. A cure for that of course would be to have officials who are up to the job, that would mean you would’nt (sic) have to let the world know just how bad it was. Football is about opinion and it’s remarkable that the referees are the ones who don’t want criticism voiced and they don’t want themselves rated except by their own. Where’s the transperancy (sic) here? What a self-serving load of baloney really. If supporters have opinions and if managers and chief executives have opinions, they are entitled to voice those opinions and I’m sure the European Court of Justice would support the freedom of speech and if refs are CRAP, we are entitled to state that in our, our my opinon (sic) that they are CRAP, so be it!!!!

The match video clearly shows Mooney lashing out....the linesman saw it.. so did so many other people in the ground but when the man who most of all matters and when told by someone there to assist, the information is ignored ....will we ever know the reason, will we ever see a match assessors report...will the match assessor be honest in what he reports or can we come to expect what we’ve come to expect?

This club is trying desperatly (sic) hard to raise our game, our standards and attract new support. We will not die, we will survive and we do have long memories. Up the Vikings!