John, lifelong Athlone Town fan

Interview with lifelong Athlone Town fan

The lads in Sean’s Bar pointed me the direction of SuperValu up the town (at least I think that was the direction!), they told me there I would find a certain John Croughan, a long time fan of Ireland’s oldest team, and who would be a well of information on all things Athlone Town FC.

Although he was a bit busy and his sister was eager to drag him off somewhere, sure enough John was only too happy to have a short chat about the fortunes of the club.

So I am with John here

Hello, how are you doing? My name is John Croughan and I have been involved with Athlone Town probably close on 40 years, more even, ha ha

Ha ok, so that was the first question, how long have you been supporting Athlone Town! ok, So why Athlone, so I guess you are born and bred in Athlone, it’s a natural progression is it?

Yes. I was born and bred in Athlone, but my father was a big supporter and brought us and my brothers when we were all young, and you just got into the habit, that just became the norm, every second Sunday.
When I was going to Athlone matches at the start they were only a junior club, then they went into the B division, or what it was called then of League of Ireland, and then progressed into the First division, or Premier League as it is known now. But that was how it developed.

Is it hard to get the people in the town out to support the club?

Yeah, because everyone wants success, whether its rugby, Gaelic, hurling, whatever club you are involved in, and soccer is the same. And if you are doing well everyone wants to be involved. When you are not doing well…..everyone wants to keep their head down and keep away from the club and that’s the situation.

In the good days then what would you say was Athlone’s attendance, would they get a good crowd?

Yeah, I would say they were getting 12, or 15 hundred people, probably even an up on that. Yeah they were probably getting on up on that, two or two and a half thousand, but em….its dwindled off…interest goes…if you are not getting success people lose interest. It’s hard to keep them motivated.

Is it much of a walk from the town? To the ground?

15/20 minutes.

So really there is no excuse then!

It’s not the distance that the pitch is out, and there are fantastic facilities for parking, etc, etc and at one stage there was a local mini bus running out but I dont know if that’s still going or not. But the location of it is ok.

All those years you have been following them, what have been the highlights? …..AC Milan, of course!

Yeah of course!

You are going to say you were at that game!

I was!

Oh, of course you were!

I was in the College, and we took the half day off. Lashing rain, and all my friends of my age we were all there

Dare I ask how old you were!?

I would have been 19 or 20.

It must have been great excitement in the town?

It was unbelievable, fantastic. Something you will never see again. Athlone had played a few European teams but Milan was the cream on the cake.

How many people were at the ground that day?

Well, it was literally, absolutely jammed. I dont know what the figure is, but I say it had have to be 4 or 4 and a half or 5 thousand people because it wasn’t a ground, nowhere just to squeeze them in, it was seriously jammed. It was a very wet day but all you could see was people.

Must have been amazing?

It was unbelievable. There is a few photographs doing the circles for a few years. Trapattoni getting off the bus….

Cult heroes of the club for you then?

For me, well John Minnock first of all, I know he missed the penalty (against AC Milan) but I grew up with John Minnock and when I was in the college John Minnock was working out there, but there was loads of them there, Carl Humphries, Eugene Davis, there was so many, Tom Conway, Larry Wise, and then you would have to go into the O Connors, Pauric, whom I met in here only a few weeks ago, and he still looking absolutely fantastic.

So ye guys are used to playing AC Milan, but did you ever think of the rivalry with Longford Town?

That goes on, sure I would be very pally, I was involved in the Athlone committee for years and I’d know all the lads with Longford, there would be rivalry all right.

But you haven’t beaten them in a while, its a few seasons I think.

No, look its local rivalry. Those games….the game you dont think you will beat them is the game you will beat them in. But I get on well with the lads from longford, never had an issue.

The last two seasons were pretty tough for Athlone.

Yeah it was crazy, they lost the focus on what they were at, and at the end of the day you are a football club. You have great development of the youth, and of course that is fantastic and I would be a big supporter of developing youth football and bringing young players through. But it is a football club. And you have to remember that!

So what’s different this year then? You have already got more points than you got last year.

They seem to have set a budget aside for a team of a certain calibre.

Not as many Chinese in the dugout?

No, not as many Chinese or Croatians or any other thing!

Do you follow the present team? Are there any players for anyone coming from outside that we should look out for tonight in the derby?

There are a couple of young players there you know, they would be worth looking at, there is sort of a mix between mature players and young players, Aaron Brilly is a good player, and there is a few more there that need to be looked at, and I think they maybe need this season and doing well to peak.

Well it’s already a progression from the last two seasons.

Ok first time at an EL Classico derby, midlands derby, what should I expect from atmosphere wise tonight, or getting to the ground, or ….will there be any argy bargy……

No no, I dont think that goes on, there might be some slagging between the two sets of supporters, but nothing more than that. It’s good humoured bit of fun.

Ok John thanks, lovely to talk to you.

John has to get back to work now………………………….