Copenhagen, Oct 7th, 2006
This fixture just so happened to ‘coincide’ with a trip to Malmoe just across the bridge to visit a friend, so my dad kindly got me a ticket for this game. Let me state in advance that I am no real fan of Northern Ireland (NI), or international football in general, the fact I was born and grew up in Norn Iron, and their status as ‘plucky underdogs’, ie crap, makes them sympathetic in my eyes.
We boarded the train in Malmoe for Copenhagen, and already a guy opposite us asked if we were from NI. Turned out he had fallen for a Swedish girl and had moved to near Malmoe in search of work and to be with the lady, and was off to the game. At the airport, loads more of the ‘Green And White Army’ (GAWA) boarded, but this was nothing compared to the sight that greeted us upon exiting the train and approaching the Town Hall Square. A veritable ‘sea of green’.
We went to pick up my ticket, awaiting me in a local hotel reception, then headed for the more beautiful, touristy parts of the city. Crossing the square we bumped into Bluenose, fellow Blueman and witness of my Irish Cup Final 2006 gurning and drunkness. We arranged to meet up later, he expressed the view that Copenhagen was ugly, (despite only having seen the bit of it from airport to town square…) and we headed on our merry way.
Green shirts and chants everywhere, but all in good spirit. We headed towards the harbour down the main shopping street. It was lovely, nice squares, buildings, a nature photo exhibition, very South Bankesque, picturesque canals, then Christiania, alternative autonomous village, delicious food in qa lush Italian restaurant, blah blah blah
ENOUGH CULTURE. Got back to where the people were gathered, beer in bag, said goodbye to my lovely lady friend, then the drinking and party begun. Except it started to rain. At this stage there was lots of friendly banter going on, bold boasts as to how heavily the opposition were going to get beaten, singing contests, scarves swapped, etc, the usual harmless fun.
At this point I shouls say a word about the ‘Green And White Army’. Ever since the Neil Lennon booing incident and resultant fallout, there have been major moves to eradicate sectarianism, racism from NI matches. With much success, I hasten to add. NI fans were recently presented an award from UEFA for their endeavours, making them the ‘best fans in Europe’. For someone with a Linfield and Rangers background, despite my club’s efforts to get rid of sectarianism, the ultra-PC nature of the NI support somewhat surprised me. To be honest, I don’t know what to make of it all. On the one hand, it is good that every NI citizen can feel they can support the team, and the atmosphere is great; on the other hand, the same 3 songs were sung again and again, the Political Correctness is going too far (no Irish League shirts, flags or badges tolerated, even though these are the lifeblood of the national team) and it all seemed a tiny bit too sanitised and artificial for me.
Eejits doing 'Sit down for the Ulstermen' in the square
Then at 6, the square just cleared.
The NI fans had had permission from the Danish police, especially as they had behaved themselves, to march the 40 minutes or so along the street to the stadium. Shoppers, passers-by and even Danish fans were amazed by this, witness one funny Danish fan and his “Normally we are not walking down the street”
I stayed behind with Bluenose, got another bit of Dutch courage in, and waited for their bus. In the meantime, I seemed to get talking to all the drunk Irish League rockets, a Portadown fan who near fought with me over the assertion that the IL is a bit rubbish nowadays, and some Larne/ lapsed Blueman falling over on the street, most bizarre.
Bus to the ground was a laugh, plenty of waves to the crowds, and singing, though it tended to be those 3 songs again: “Green and White Army”, “We’re Not Brazil, we’re Northern Ireland” and the David Healy “Away in a Manger” classic, which I’ll quote here as it always gets a laugh, it is a bit tedious after the tenth time on a bus though:
“Away in a manger, no crib for a bed
The little lord Jesus laid down his sweet head
The stars in the bright sky, looked down where HEALY! HEALY!HEALY!”
It was a bit of a joke when we got to the ground. Only 2 sets of turnstiles open for 3000+ NI fans, and we queued for a long time in a narrow cramped passageway under the stand for a good 20 minutes. The other disaster was when we got into the stand: the section my ticket was for seemed not to exist, the stewards gave out conflicting instructions, and this eventually led to a free-for-all, people sitting where they wanted. This meant I never did get to meet Colin, the guy I was sposed to be sitting beside who brought me my ticket. We discovered soon after that the away end was a temporary stand on scaffolding. The toilets were pretty old-school as well, one of them saloon bar-esque with the Wild West style doors n all!
As for the match itself: the Germans would say a ‘Zitterpartie’, in Norn Irish, it was a pure backs-to-the-wall performance. I wasn’t expecting anything else. I don’t remember us having one shot on goal all match. The Danes did all the pressing, passed the ball crisply and swiftly, a few shots past the post in the 1st half but nothing really dangerous. The defence was, and continued all match to have a stormer, especially Aaron Hughes (who later cleared one off the line) and Man U reserve Jonny Evans who competed for man of the match.
The second half, despite a bright start, we struggled to get any momentum, and when we brought Lafferty off for the headless chicken Mandy Smith-esque Steve Jones, we had almost no possession. It seemed a matter of time, the Danes were lurking around the box, looking to go to ground at every opportunity, and when the 6 minutes board went up, I had that horrible sinking feeling, just like the Blues vs FC Copenhagen back in ’93 (we’d have played AC Milan in the next round if the ref hadn’t played so long) but we held on gamely, thanks to Maik Taylor’s saves and a bit of luck.
The fans were great, singing all match, though as we were spread out along the touchline I had the feeling that we couldn’t get any big songs coordinated. The last 6 minutes though was one big continous ‘GAWA’ chant, class. Lawrie seemed to really value the fans. Though I was a bit surprised that the players hardly came over to salute the fans, maybe I’ve been spoiled by the personal touch of TeBe.
We’d been mocking the Danish fans all match for being so quiet, in fact they’d resorted to one of my pet hates, the gimpish countdown to the Mexican Wave (I guess the ultimate sign of stadium boredom, playing NI, I’m not surprised). We were singing ‘You’re not very good’ to them at the end, then stopped, and applauded them for being good sports, to which they replied by applauding us back. Everywhere I’ve read online, there’s been only good things to say about the fans, no doubt some drunkness, but not much else. A few Danish fans shook our hands and said well done as we came out of the stadium. It was great.
The bus back to the airport (Bluenose doing me a favour again) was pure singing, people were elated (with a 0-0! But, as one of my favourite sayings goes, it’s all relative… especially as the Republic got spanked 5-2 in Cyprus :D ) and the crowd outside mainly clapped us, a few moons and fingers but we weren’t exactly singing songs of praise! Then I said my farewells and boarded the train back to Sweden.
Knowing Norn Iron, they’ll undo all the good work and lose the supposed ‘easier’ match vs Latvia on Wednesday!
Match report here.
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