Keeping count of Carlow's football fortunes
“There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics” is a famous adage that has been attributed to Mark Twain, who himself gave the credit to British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli though there are doubts that he was in fact the first to coin the phrase.
Whether or which, statistics have long been a great love of mine though I agree that they can be manipulated to prove or disprove a particular argument. However, in the main, I believe the figures don’t lie. At it’s most basic level that statement gives credence to the fact that the final score decides who wins the game not the perceived ‘artistic impression’ of the biased spectators.
For instance, I remember coming home from a Carlow v Laois O’Byrne Cup semi-final in Portarlington in January 2002 and tipping into Finnegan’s on the corner of Tullow Street and the Potato Market to celebrate a surprise 2-11 to 1-13 come-from-behind victory over our neighbours. One neighbour - a man who hadn’t been at the game and hadn’t even listened to it on the radio – was holding court at the bar and was declaring to all and sundry that Carlow’s victory “was daylight robbery.” Seemingly a friend of his who was talking to a lad who was half-listening to it on the radio in another pub while watching a soccer match on the television told him that Carlow got a couple of lucky late scores, “absolute robbery.” High on the adrenaline of a famous Carlow victory and free of any alcohol I didn’t so much confront he holding court as explain to his listeners that as one who was actually at the match I could tell them that crafty Johnny Nevin set up dashing Bryan Carbery for a cracking equalising goal and that impact sub Brian Kelly got a ball close to the sideline and sent a high shot soaring between the posts, ‘Skeagh’ clenching his fist in delight as the winning white flag was waved.
“But did the best team win?” asked he who had held court, trying to regain lost ground.
“The team with the most scores won,” I replied, “and that’s the way it always was and always will be, that’s why the referee keeps count.”
Keeping count has always been a pastime of mine and while scorelines speak for themselves and decide the winner it was when those scorelines game after game kept declaring the Carlow footballers as winners, as had been the case these past two months, that I decided to delve into the archive and keep count of previous Carlow winning sequences. Barely had I decided to do so when I started fielding texts and e-mails enquiring as to when Carlow last won so many games in-a-row. Some were only concerned with league games but the mission I set myself was to ascertain Carlow’s longest winning or unbeaten run counting all competitions.
To come up with the answer to that question one first had to collate ALL the results and having emerged from a neglected archive that was quickly refurbished and updated your scribe can reveal that last Sunday’s fixture in Pearse Park, Longford was Match Day 943 since Carlow’s flagship footballers made their competitive debut on July 17, 1898 when Wexford were resounding 2-24 to 0-5 victors in the first round of the Leinster SFC in Jones Road, Dublin, now Croke Park.
William Allen of the Carlow '98 Club captained Carlow on that historic occasion, He was aged 23, living on Tullow Street, working as an Assistant in Molloy's Drapery Shop. The goalkeeper John Croke was also of the Carlow '98 Club and he was living on the Dublin Road while the third ’98 Club representative was 27-year-old Patrick Foley of John Street. Carlow Croppy Boys, another town team supplied four players, namely John Geoghegan, Thomas Shelley, Michael Murray and Michael Dwyer, the two Michael’s from famed Bridewell Lane. Loughmartin Emmets, from the Tullow area, were represented by Michael Kenny, Patrick Doyle, Patrick Timmons and J Kennedy while J St. Ledger and L Nolan had Crosslow Stars of the Sea in brackets after their names with Bagenalstown in brackets after M Clowry and J Finn. The 17-a-side team was completed by the Grange duo of J.F. Reid and A Dwyer GRAIGUECULLEN LEAD THE WAY Carlow’s National Football League debut was also a defeat to Wexford, this one on August 2, 1925 in the Enniscorthy Showgrounds, a Carlow fifteen captained by Bill Quigley and comprised of 13 of his Graiguecullen club colleagues as well as Matt Hanley of Palatine and Milford’s Mick Price. To Willie Hogan went the honours of scoring both Carlow’s first NFL point and first NFL goal while legendary Barney Hennessy completed the visitors scoring with a brace of points from frees. That historic Carlow team was: Bill Quigley, Barney Hennessy, Willie Hogan, Matt Hanley, Martin Hogan, Joe Price, John Moore, John Farrell, Martin Farrell, John ‘Mallet’ McDarby, Mick Price, Michael Tobin, Ned Byrne, Michael Comerford, Christy Townsend.
Ok, then, having given those historic trail blazing teams their due recognition and also recording that that Carlow competed in a Leinster League in the 1940s, that the O’Byrne Cup began in 1954 and that in later eras the county saw action in the Centenary Cup, the All-Ireland ‘B’ Championship, the Tommy Murphy Cup and the Tailteann Cup we can reveal that the red, yellow and green were on the cusp of a little bit of history last Sunday.
Had Carlow won, or drawn, their NFL game in Pearse Park it would have been either the first time ever the county’s flagship footballers had won eight competitive games in-a-row or the first time ever Carlow had gone eight games unbeaten.
Once before Carlow had won 7 consecutive games, twice Carlow had compiled a seven game unbeaten sequence, a combination of wins and draws, but NEVER has the figure extended to 8.
The current run had involved 3 O’Byrne Shield wins and 4 NFL wins. The fact that Carlow won the last two games of last season’s league and the first four this season meant that they were also in line to win 7 league fixtures in-a-row for just the second time in their history.
Alas, it was not to be, but the bottom line is that promotion from Division 4 is in their own hands and with two home games to come against London and Leitrim a place in Division 3 is a real possibility. An added bonus is that the Division 4 final is in Croke Park. And Carlow have won only FOUR senior football games in GAA headquarters, the last a mammoth 55 years ago. Wouldn’t it be mighty if Joe Murphy’s charges chalked up Croke Park victory Number 5?
The men looking out a you from the column to-day are the men who put together’s Carlow’s only previous seven successive victories, theirs coming in the 1984-85 NFL when beating Limerick (1-11 to 2-6 in Limerick Gaelic Grounds), Sligo (1-6 to 0-4 in Dr Cullen Park), Kilkenny (3-17 to 2-1 in St John’s Park, Kilkenny), Westmeath (1-1- to 0-4 in Dr Cullen Park), Tipperary (1-8 to 1-5 in Dr Cullen Park), Fermanagh (2-6 to 1-5 in Enniskillen, clinching promotion) and Waterford (1-12 to 1-2 in Walsh Park, Waterford). The run came to and end in Croke Park in the NFL quarter-final, beaten 1-8 to 0-6 by Armagh before rattling Kerry in Dr Cullen Park in the Centenary Cup/Open Draw, the Kingdom inching a great game 1-8 to 0-9. That Carlow team actually went unbeaten in the 1985-86 NFL too, winning 3 and drawing no fewer than four of their fixtures, the campaign bookended by ending level with eventual winners Laois in O’Moore Park, Portlaoise in the first round and ending level with lowly Kilkenny in the last round in Éire Óg’s Pairc Ui Bhrian. The other draws were with Wicklow in Dr Cullen Park and Clare in Ennis while wins were recorded over Tipperary in Clonmel, Waterford in Dr Cullen Park and Limerick in Askeaton. Those two campaigns saw Carlow go 14 regulation league games unbeaten.
The Carlow team that reached the county’s only NFL Division 1 final in the 1953-54 season also put together and unbeaten run of seven games and I suppose it’s fair to say in terms of quality of opposition this run merits a really high rating, beating Cork (1-7 to 1-4), drawing with Wexford (0-6 apiece), beating Tipperary (2-3 to 0-2), then toppling reigning All-Ireland champions Kerry (3-4 to 1-8), ousting Kildare (1-7 to 1-6), beating Waterford (1-10 to 0-3) before beating 1953 All-Ireland finalists Armagh 1-10 to 1-7 in the NFL semi-final in Croke Park. Alas the Billy McGuill captained team were beaten 2-10 to 0-3 by Mayo in the final.
Here’s one for you, a point to ponder so to speak and then put a figure on it. What was the Carlow footballers worst run of defeats. If seven is the most wins in a row, what sad count did the most losses in a row reach? And when do you think the unhappy sequence occurred?
