Tom The Gom, Stuffed Animals & the Tailback from Hell.

When I started the mammoth journey around the country to visit the 21 Airtricity clubs I had no idea which ground I’d finish up at. The obvious choice was to leave the longest until last but I couldn’t seem to get a weekend when Finn Harps and Derry City were playing at home.

When you’re living in Waterford having just gained your full drivers licence at the third attempt (thanks you fat bastard for failing me on a speed bump!) the thought of driving outside the county to Kilkenny, let along Derry terrified me, however I knew it had to be done.

As luck would have it the second weekend in July offered a trip to both Finn Harps and Derry, but crucially it also took in Sligo Rovers. Harps had been covered by my friends a month earlier but I still had to make my journey there, be it U-11’s, reserve or First Division in order to validate the trip.

With this in mind ,I first made the 5 hour - 200 odd mile journey to Finn Park to chat to the staff, ex-players and supporters of Harps before heading over to The Brandywell that night to watch Derry City take on Shamrock Rovers in possibly the best game of footy I’d seen on my travels – Derry winning 1-0.

20 down – 1 to go.

The Showgrounds had changed from my last visit to the West, well over 20 years ago. The revered Shed stand had gone, facilities much improved and Rovers (as they like to be called up there) where on the crest of a wave. One part of the landscape that hadn’t changed was this lunatic at the turnstiles waving his hand in protest and shouting “Don’t be coddin me” at the top of his voice.

I think he was doing the same thing back in 1984 when I last stepped foot in Sligo!

Tom the Gom is, well – an institution. Yes he should probably be put in one as well, but a more dedicated League of Ireland man you won’t meet. It was Tom raving about how Rovers could lift the title for the first time since 1977 (a night he’d apparently slept under the stars...like many) and how Drogheda United would be easy meet on my visit.

That the Drogs were. A 2-0 win was enough to put Rovers top of the league on July 9^th 2011. The last time they’d beaten Drogheda 2-0 to go top of the league was a certain 1976/77 season.

I wondered at the time what it would be like to come back to Sligo on the last day of the season with the title at stake?

Whilst planning my book tour I always had this in the back of my mind...and I very nearly got my wish. Alas the other Rovers from Tallaght pushed them into second place, not that  that or the drizzle dampened my spirits last Friday night when I finished the main book tour at The Showgrounds and then after in Fiddlers Creek where the Mayor launched the book.

The trip was symbolic. I’d walked out of the Showgrounds in a flood of tears in July having realised I done something never done before, visit the grounds and write about all 21, so it was fitting I went back to the west (via a wrong turn and the worst traffic in the history of Longford..and I mean every sodding vehicle owned by anyone in the town was out about 5.17pm)

I was also there to present Benny The Bull with the Just Follow The Floodlights best mascot. We’d been trying to keep it a secret but a Daily Mirror full page had given the game away that morning.

Bulls obviously read the tabloids as well!

The reception at half time for me, Benny and the award was fantastic. I thought the roof was going to come off the Treacy Stand. I may have lost a windscreen wiper, got soaked and stuck in Longford for what seemed an eternity, but that half-time announcement and subsequent celebration from both of us made it all worthwhile.

Shortly after a cramped but enthusiastic Fiddlers Creek saw the official launch of the book, where myself, the mayor and Chairman Michael Toolan spoke after Keith Dwyer had orchestrated events.

Having a mayor in a crowded pub at 10.30 on a Friday night was great and full credit to the first citizen of Sligo Rosaleen O’Grady who was so enthusiastic about the whole thing. Some officials might have thought it was beneath them to be standing alongside guys with long-necks and a band patiently waiting to start but she got right into the spirit of things.

I left shortly after, few more books sold, the gospel spread that little bit more. It brought down the curtain on a 7 city tour (mind you I’ll fit some small ones in yet) and left me with some great memories from the “land of heart’s desire” as WB Yeats once remarked.

Tears of joy, table topping antics, five hour journeys, Longford tailbacks, Tom the Gom...hopping around a field with a man in an oversized bull costume.

Football...don’t you just love it!