The Great Escape

Twenty years ago tonight, Waterford completed one of the most exciting and audacious rescue acts ever and shook Irish football by sending Shamrock Rovers on their way to the First Division graveyard for the only time. It required big characters, some risky manoeuvres and nerves of steel before the Blues emerged into the light of safety after their greatest escape.

A year on from losing the FAI Cup final and finishing a very strong fifth in the Premier Division, Waterford United were plunged into crisis at the foot of the table having gone four months without a win. It was a season marked by one departure after another – chairman Ger O’Brien, star player Daryl Murphy, club captain John Frost, player-manager Alan Reynolds sacked in June – and, by mid-September, the club looked nailed-on certainties for relegation. Brendan Rea, who had taken over as manager, secured a handful of points and a ‘big-name’ striker was added in the form of St Vincent & The Grenadines international Rodney Jack, but the team clearly needed more. The nadir was a 5-0 loss to Shelbourne in Tolka Park. Martin Colbert (pictured above in Norris's Bar), having stepped in as a reluctant chairman in May, recalls meeting me at half-time in that match with the Blues already four goals down and assuring me that “next week, we’re going to beat Bohs”. The prospect seemed very far removed at that moment. 

Colbert got a call that Monday from Paul Cook – then managing director of the Irish Daily Star, now President of the FAI. Blues fan and sponsor Cook asked would the club be interested in talking to the Star’s weekly columnist Pat Dolan. Martin said “I won’t say no to anything” and met Dolan in Jury’s Hotel overlooking Waterford city. He told Pat (one of the biggest characters in the league in every sense) that the players were good, but needed a boost and “they’d look up to you” after his previous success managing both St Patrick’s Athletic and Cork City. A deal was agreed for Dolan to join as an advisor working alongside Rea for the final eight games with the provision of a Jeep being a key demand for the big man.

 

Pat Dolan on the sideline at the RSC

On the final day of September, Waterford United hosted Bohemians in one of the sneakily most important games of the club’s recent history. Colbert was funding all this as the publican of Norris’s Bar rather than the expansive property and business portfolios of some rival club’s owners and admits “we were having a bit of trouble with the wages that week.” The solution? “I put two grand on us to win at 5/2.” For a man whose wife, Jeannette, was seven months pregnant, it was brave, risky……you can choose your own words to describe it. Meanwhile, rather than planning tactics, Pat Dolan spent the hours before that crucial match focusing on getting insurance sorted for the Jeep. His best work was done in the dressing-room when he gave one of his famous, inspirational teamtalks. 

A few things went Waterford’s way that night and it started with a phonecall from the chairman. Having noticed that Bohs’ Stephen Ward, a future international and Premier League player, was due a suspension, Colbert checked with the FAI whether it was to be served that night or at a later date. He was assured that if Ward played, Bohemians would be deducted any points that they earned that night, but that no benefit would accrue to Waterford. Bohemians manager Gareth Farrelly seemed unaware of this and Ward began warming up pre-match with the intention of starting as usual. Martin explains, “Michael Hayes told me to go out on the pitch and tell Farrelly he is not to start Stephen Ward. So, I did it. Farrelly looked at me like I was from another planet, but he had to pull Ward from the team.” 

The visiting manager was fuming and it only got worse with the circumstances in which the Blues took a 35th minute lead. Pat Purcell played a pass forward to Rodney Jack who was standing at least fifteen yards offside and the linesman duly raised his flag. However, Jack didn’t go near the ball (not for the first time) so referee Anthony Buttimer chose to ignore the flag even though the entire defence stood still. The only other person who seemed aware of the rules was Vinny Sullivan, who ran in and slotted the ball past goalkeeper Matt Gregg. Bohs were apoplectic, but the goal was legal and stood. Paul Crowley added a second before half-time and the Blues climbed off the bottom of the table with their first win in eighteen matches. Dolan and Rea were heroes and the wages were paid out of Martin’s winnings at the bookies. 

United lost the next game away to Bray Wanderers, but won a Monday night game 3-2 at UCD with Purcell heading in an injury-time winner that was especially late as the League had forgotten to appoint a referee for the game so kick-off was delayed by almost an hour. The good run continued with a draw versus St Pat’s in the RSC before the Blues stunned everyone by taking four points from the two teams in the title race – first with a 1-0 win away to Derry with Sullivan scoring the goal of the season, then a 2-2 draw with Cork City which ranks as one of the best games ever played at the RSC. “That was the game that saved us,” Martin tells me. “We made thirty grand on the gate and that kept the club going.”

 

Kevin Waters in Dalymount Park on his greatest night

Those results meant Waterford went into one of the most decisive games of this century with the chance of staying up at the expense of Shamrock Rovers. The Blues went to Dalymount Park, where the pre-Tallaght Hoops were tenants, on the 11th of November 2005 for a game that rocked Irish football. Waterford were now tenth and Rovers eleventh of twelve with Finn Harps rock bottom and relegated. As bad as the Dubliners’ season had been, the expected home win would lift them back above Waterford to safety. It’s rare that a chairman has to go to a manager, particularly Pat Dolan, and persuade him to spend money, but that’s what Colbert did. “I convinced him to bring the team up the night before and stay in a hotel. I told him I’d find the money somewhere.”

Hundreds of fans made the journey from Waterford with busload after busload arriving in Phibsborough. There was a little rubbernecking to two fans at the back of the Des Kelly Stand when it was noted that John O’Shea and Wes Brown, at the height of their Manchester United fame, were among the Block E gang, but everyone was more concerned with the injury to David Breen in the warm-up that led to a third change in defence with Kevin Doherty already ruled out with flu and young Kenny Browne suspended. Waterford lined up with Packie Holden in goal, Niall Andrews and Seán Finn as full backs either side of Dave Mulcahy and Purcell. Captain Mulcahy’s place in midfield went to John Lester with teenager Stephen Grant beside him, Crowley and Colm Heffernan out wide and a front two of Sullivan and the hero of the day, Kevin Waters, playing as a makeshift striker with Dolan quickly having lost patience with the expensive Rodney Jack.

This being the Blues, they went one-nil down to increase the tension - Willo McDonagh scoring from a Tony Sheridan corner in the 16th minute and it stayed that way at half time despite Mark Rutherford going very close to making it two. It was time for Dolan to work his magic again. Colbert had no doubts: “Even at 1-0 down, I just knew we were going to win.” Waterford came charging out for the second half, full of confidence and attacking the end where the away fans stood. Sullivan had a big chance blocked before the equaliser came on 63 minutes when Crowley latched onto a Grant header and buried the ball in the net before burying himself in the away fans. 

 

Packie Holden running to celebrate at the final whistle

Then, six minutes later, came one of the greatest ever moments in many Blues fans’ memories and one that devastated Shamrock Rovers. Kevin Waters, the 25-year-old winger from Clonmel converted into a forward by Dolan, was fouled on the edge of the box. ‘Blondie’ to his teammates, ‘Muddy’ to the fans, Waters had been in the first team for four or five years, quietly grafting away without being flashy. Dolan played him up front because of his aerial prowess, but he also had a thunderous shot. Kevin takes up the story – “I had taken a few corners and frees that were cleared, so I just decided to drill it in low. One of the defenders stuck out a leg and it flew in. I didn’t score many so I suppose I’d have to claim it. It was a definite highlight – one of my best nights in football. There was a massive crowd of fans behind the goal. There was a good core of local players too so it meant more.”

The rest of the game was frenetic, heart-in-mouth stuff without having too many clearcut chances on goal. There were bodies on the line and gut-busting runs. Holden was fantastic in goal, Mulcahy magnificent at the back. When that final whistle blew, the difference between both teams and both sets of supporters couldn’t have been any starker. Packie immediately sprinted the length of the pitch to celebrate with the travelling fans. The Blues were staying up and now it was official. Rovers were on the floor even though they still had to meet Dublin City in a playoff (ultimately losing 3-2 on aggregate) and faced relegation for the first time in their history. As Martin tells it, “Roddy Collins was sacked on the pitch afterwards. He had a column in the Sunday World and wrote that he knew they were in trouble when he saw the Waterford players coming off the bus – they looked so fresh and relaxed after staying in the hotel the night before.”

United’s season ended with a home win against Drogheda a week later to finish a comfortable eighth. The turnaround in form was staggering with five wins, two draws and just one loss since Dolan’s arrival. Waters is effusive in his praise. “Pat was brilliant. He was a great motivator. His teamtalks and man-management were fantastic. Himself and Brendan made a great partnership.” Colbert has plenty of praise for Pat, but also for Brendan for being willing to work with him, and for the players. He’ll never forget how one player volunteered not to take any wages for the last few months of the season as he had a good day-job and another handed back a thousand euros of a bonus for avoiding relegation, insisting it was spent on a celebration for the team instead. How did he get through the chaos of that year? “Jeannette was so supportive”, he says, “and Jack was born a month later on the 19th of December.” By the time ‘The Great Escape’ had its traditional Christmas showing on TV, every Blues fan had a new understanding of its name after our own thrilling escape against all odds.