At the Waterford RSC
Friday, October 11th, 1996
The summer of '96 will be remembered by most as being the summer of Wexford's great breakthrough in hurling, winning the All-Ireland title for the first time since 1968. It will be remembered for Michelle Smith, three gold medals, more American gymnasts, Euro 96, Gareth Southgate, bad weather....
But for St. Francis, this summer marked their breakthrough into the League having sweated it out for a long time. Many National League Committee deliberatons were held after St. James' Gate, another famous old Dublin club, ran into heavy financial difficulties. Gate could not convince the League authorities that they could fulfil all their fixtures in the First Division for the coming season, and eventually the decision was made to drop Gate out of the League, bringing in the last non-league side to make it to the FAI Cup Final.
Overall though, it was a match to remember not for the visitors but for newly re-signed Norwegian Haakon Johannsen, who marked his League bow with a brace of goals. It was a night very far away from that glorious afternoon for Irish football in May 1990 when Francis went down 3-0 to First Division Bray Wanderers. The next six weeks were the most remarkable in the potholed history of Irish soccer.
Waterford United's opener arrived after 14 minutes when Mark Brown and Joe Lawless combined to release Johannsen for a very well-taken goal.
Three minutes before the break, he struck again. A quickly-taken free-kick from player-manager Tommy Lynch located the Norwegian, who zipped past two defenders before coolly rounding St. Francis goalkeeper Gary Matthews to slot home into a vacant goal - a quite brilliant strike to make it 2-0. Great applause greeted Johannsen when he went off midway through the second half.
Despite facing a sturdy gale during those 45 minuts after the interval, United kept up the pressure, and didn't let that howling wind disturb their progress. On 62, Joe Lawless showed his alertness by snapping up goal number three, following a Matthews' parry from a low, driving effort from league debutant Pat Sinnott.
Sinnott's signature during the summer was a significant one. While the Wexfordman while playing local junior league soccer for First Division outfit All Blacks last season, he was watched on a number of occasions by a scout from Bray Wanderers. No sooner had Bray been promoted when Waterford moved for the midfielder-cum-striker, snapping him up under the noses of the Wicklow outfit.
It was the reverse of what had happened a couple of seasons before. The manager of Waterford United at the time, Johnny Matthews, wanted to sign Graeme Coughlan from Bray during the 94/95 season, but had his proposal turned down by the Blues board. In the summer of '95, Coughlan signed for Blackburn for £100,000. Rovers had been tracking Coughlan for some time.
Four minutes after going three up, the Blues were reduced to ten men when Tony Wall retaliated following a late challenge, an incident which resulted in referee Eddie Foley pulling out the red card. Despite this though, United made it four immediately after this when Mark Browne found the net.
Overall, it was a comfortable win for the Blues, who - for one week at least - find themselves top of the First Division. As for St. Francis, it wasn't the best of starts, but they can only improve. Welcome aboard, lads!
WATERFORD UNITED: Grace, Greene, Hall, Lynch, J. Reynolds, M. Browne, Power, A. Reynolds, Sinnott (sub. Maher 83), Johannsen (sub. Scully 63).
ST. FRANCIS: Matthews, Mahedy (sub. Griffin 58), Cullen, McNally (sub. Marshall 81), Coleman, Patton, Connolly, Smith, Doyle, Cooney (sub. Devlin 58), Clarke.
Referee: Eddie Foley.