Today I'm going back 26 years to 21st July 1995 and another pre-season Friendly, this time between UCD and York City in Dublin in the Republic of Ireland.
For somebody who says that he doesn't do Friendlies, I do seem to have been to a few don't I? In my defence, this game offered the very rare opportunity to watch York City play in another country and it remains the only time that I have seen York play outside the United Kingdom. Once again this game fell nicely in with my regular summer holidays in Ireland and I made my escape for a couple of nights in Ireland's Big City where I met up with one of my mates.
Pre-season games often seem to offer a taste of the bizarre and this game was no different. As evidence I give you the extraordinary opportunity to watch York City whilst listening to a Rod Stewart concert! Rod the Mod was playing an outdoor show at the nearby Royal Dublin Showground that same night and his setlist boomed across the Dublin suburbs to Belfield Park. I'm pretty sure that "Do ya think I'm sexy?" referred to Paul Barnes that evening.
If you'd like to visit Belfield Park today, I'm sorry it's gone. At least the stadium that we saw this particular match at is no more. It formed part of the University College campus and was used by UCD until 2007 when they decamped to the UCD Bowl to groundshare with the Rugby team. Apparently the ground has now disappeared being replaced by the University's Biotechnology Centre. It isn't known whether there is a blue plaque commemorating Paul Barnes' exploits that day but if there isn't, there should be!
Despite being a University side, UCD take their place in the League of Ireland's top division where they finished third in the league in 2020. UCD has a small fanbase, which included the Father Ted actor Dermot Morgan, When Dermot, who played Father Ted Crilly in the series, was asked why he attended UCD matches, he replied "Because I hate crowds". I'm just itching to add "Dougal" to the end of that last sentence! Father Ted was one of the finest situation comedies ever in my view and if you haven't seen an episode then I'd urge you to search for it.
Apparently this game was part of a pre-season tour for York in which they beat St Patricks Athletic and drew with Shelbourne although I saw neither game. "Tonight's the night" for York to take a commanding lead against UCD with Paul Barnes scoring after 12 and 15 minutes. "The first cut is the deepest"? Well not in the case of York City who sat back as we saw UCD draw level with goals from O'Brien and O'Byrne after 31 and 33 minutes respectively. It was 2-2 at the break and when Paul Barnes notched his hattrick after 71 minutes we thought that might be the last of the scoring. York fans could rest assured that there would still be time for UCD's "Young Turks" to equalise once again however with a goal from Myler and the students had a 3-3 draw against an English League side. "I don't want to talk about it".
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