Tayl’ of defiant 10 men
Former Hoops ace Kenny recalls 1985 V-sign salute
WATERFORD’S Richard Taylor saw red as early as the eighth minute at Turner’s Cross last night — but First Division leaders Cork couldn’t cash in.
Centre-half Taylor walked for a professional foul on Cian Murphy as the Leesiders looked to extend their threepoint lead over main promotion rivals Galway United.
In the end, they had to settle for a share of the spoils as the 10-man Blues dug deep to get something from this Munster derby, which was watched by a crowd of 2,265.
Keeper Paul Martin saved well from Barry Coffey and Cian Murphy. Coffey was then off target midway through a one-sided first half.
Wasteful
Cork had lost 2-0 to Treaty United at home on Friday night, a defeat that ended their impressive 22-match unbeaten run.
But they were so wasteful last night.
Manager Colin Healy (above) made three changes with Cian Bargary, Cian Murphy and Josh Honohan recalled at the expense of Dylan McGlade, Louis
Britton and Jonas Hakkinen.
Still, home keeper David Harrington had to be alert to turn Roland Idowu’s low drive out for a corner.
City were flat and uninspiring on the restart.
Bargary curled a shot wide on the hour mark, with Ruairi Keating, Coffey and sub Louis Britton all missing decent chances as the game ended in a draw.
CORK CITY: Harrington; Coleman, Honohan, O’Connor; Bargary, Coffey, Healy, Bolger, Crowley; Keating,
Murphy. Subs: Doona for Bargary (67), Britton for Coffey (72), McGlade for Murphy (80). WATERFORD: Martin; Sobowale, Cantwell, Taylor, Power; O’Keeffe; Idowu, Griffin, Patterson; Aouachria, Quitirna. Subs: Larkin for Quitirna (13), En-Neyah for Griffin (43).
REFEREE: Oliver Moran (Dublin).
THREE years before he became the world’s most expensive footballer — overtaking Diego Maradona and Ruud Gullit — Lajos Detari stuck the ball in the Shamrock Rovers net, then stuck his fingers up at Harry Kenny.
Detari was a member of the Honved side that took on the Hoops in the European Cup in 1985.
It’s the last time Rovers, who are in Budapest on Thursday to take on Ferencvaros in their Europa League play-off, faced Hungarian opposition.
Honved were a top side at the time and were famously the club of Ferenc Puskas for 13 years before his move to Real Madrid, as well as Barcelona legend Sandor Kocsis.
Posterboy
In Budapest during the 1980s, Detari was the posterboy for Hungarian football.
After moving from Honved to Eintracht Frankfurt in 1987, he was snapped up by Olympiacos — run by Bank of Crete owner George Koskotas — for €8.7million.
The fee eclipsed those paid by Napoli for Maradona and Milan for Gullit.
A far cry from his 1985 gesture, borne out of frustration and aimed at Rovers man Kenny.
“It was funny, Jim McLaughlin never used to mess around with the team in any shape or form. It was always 4-4-2,” Kenny recalled.
“But he had heard this fella Detari was very special and that he played in the middle of the pitch, so he asked me to play in the middle of the pitch, just to pick up this fella and do a man-marking job on him.
“On a couple of fronts, it was a bit unusual. I had never played for Rovers in the middle of the pitch, I was always known as a right-back.
“And Jim had Noel Larkin, who was a forward, playing at right-back instead of me.
“Detari was very good, but I did quite well on him.
“He scored that evening, late in the game. I think it was a free-kick.
“He basically gave me the fingers after it because I was pretty dogged on him all night and was going well on him.
“But when he stuck the freekick in, it was all over. They won 2-0 on the night.
Chasing
“Then he got two in the second leg and we lost 3-1.
“I wasn’t man-marking him that time. We were chasing the game a little bit, so
McLaughlin went back to the standard
4-4-2.”
Kenny might have been marking the man who went on to win 61 caps for
Hungary, but he didn’t get
Detari’s jersey at the final whistle. row), (back row) (front
It still takes pride of place in Paul Doolin’s collection of opposition shirts.
“I was only after joining Rovers that year and we drew Honved, the army team in Budapest,” recalled Doolin, who, 12 years later, played for Bohemians against Ferencvaros. “When we went, it was a little bit different to now, where you travel the day before a game. We went on the Sunday or Monday and the game was Wednesday. “We stopped off in Zurich, I think, and we trained on the way to it. Then we continued on to Budapest.
“The night before, we attended a game there, a league game with Ferencvaros and someone else, I can’t remember the other team.
“I just remember there was a lot of booing aimed at the referee.
Tougher
“But our own game was tough and it might have been even tougher as, prior to it, Dermot Keely was a doubt.
“We were in a pre-season tournament and we played Atletico Madrid and he got a belt.
“He broke three ribs. He did well to play in the game.”
While Honved were the army team, the make-up of the crowd surprised Kenny.
“The funny thing about the