Old Dogs For the Hard Road
Kevin Henry, 1994 (from the 25th Anniversary book)Looking around at the current Pegasus Over 35 team, I am taken aback when I see 'young lads' like Dave Cowhey lining out. Only Cathal Travers and myself remain of teh intrepid crew who started with UCD in 1969. All of the others grew up and retired. Over the intervening 25 years, we have enjoyed some golden footballing days and plenty of wet, miserable, losing days too. The outstanding and enduring feature for me is the element of common purpose and teamwork. Our most successful team of the 1975-1981 era was a more effective team than the sum of the individual talent. Even on bad days, the resilience of that team mad it exceptionally dificult to beat. A good number of that team were football obsessives, capable of drifting off during important business meetings and dreaming of a dipping 30 yard volley into the top corner ten years previously.
Life had its ups and downs in a Pegasus jersey but what about those martyrs of the 20th century, the occasional Pegasus supporter (singular not plural)? Anybody who has read Nick Hornby's 'Fever Pitch', describing life as an Arsenal fan, will be aware of an uncanny resemblance to life as a Pegasus supporter. In the book, a chapter devoted to a friend of Nick's who fervently supported Luton Town, reads as follows:
"He has single handedly driven Mike Newell and a number of other players away from the club, by ensuring that he is always positioned near the dressing rooms to abuse incessantly anybody he believes not good enough to tread the Kenilworth Road turf."
Surely Joe McDermott's late father and his faithful dog were no less enthusiastic in their support of Pegasus!
Football with Pegasus is likely to confuse and dizzy you - and that is just getting to our home grounds. The list of home (?) pitches include three in Belfield, Masonic, Bird Avenue, Marlay Park, St. Raphaela's, Cypress Grove, St. Paul's Raheny, Harold's Cross and Dolphin's Barn - evidence of superb strategic planning by the graduate intellegentsia of our committees over the years. Yet, in a perverse way, our nomadic existence somehow serves to increase the will to win. Appalling refereeing decisions against us have often tended to work in our favour, by fuelling our indignation and enhancing our grim determination.
Maybe there is a football Utopia
- with beautiful
pitches, excellent referees, polite supporters, kindly opposing centre halves, hot showers and Jacuzzis. If such a place exists, it is unlikely that the Leinster Senior League teams will be admitted - nor would they want to be. The league which we have competed in for a quarter of a century is enlivened by its characters on and off the field. The competitive edge continues season after season and the joy of winning a trophy is enhanced by the knowledge that every victory has to be worked for. The footballing Walter Mitty in us would not have it any other way.
However serious soccer gets, it is still the unintentional humour that is the hidden bonus. My Pegasus favourite quote is an Irish Times report of an FAI Cup Tie which stated that:
"Pegasus, the ex-graduates defended stoutly."
I conclude with an analytical gem from Ron Atkinson,
when previewing a televised game. "I am going to make a prediction
- it could go
either way."
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