BOHS IN EUROPE – THE 1970s (PART 2)
Bohemians manager Keith Long with Bohs heroes of the 1970s – Billy Young, Turlough O’Connor and Tony O’Connell – at Dalymount Park earlier this week (Luke O’Riordan)
As Bohemians look to build on last week’s positive result at the Aviva Stadium tonight, we are delighted to bring you the second of a three-part series by GERRY FARRELL focusing on Bohemians’ experience of European football in the 1970s…
BOHS IN EUROPE – THE 1970s (PART 2)
In the programme notes to the Newcastle United game in Dalymount Park the Bohemian F.C. President John McNally extended the usual welcome to the visiting team. He even went a little further, promising Newcastle that “they will be the recipients of a true Irish ‘Céad Mile Fáilte’.” As we’ve seen in Part I of this modest series, that Hundred Thousand Welcomes was replaced with bottles, bricks and beer cans, culminating in a Garda baton charge and several arrests.
In a time of escalating violence at matches throughout Europe, UEFA had to intervene. The result was to exile Bohs from Dalymount for the duration of the following seasons (1978-79) campaign in the European Cup. All Bohemians “home” games would now have to take place 150km from Dublin.
Bohemians were drawn against Omonia Nicosia of Cyprus in the first round of the European Cup, with the away leg in Nicosia’s GSP stadium coming first. This wasn’t to be the first time that Omonia would face Irish opponents in Europe. In only their second season in Europe, Omonia were drawn against Waterford in the 1972-73 European Cup, narrowly defeating the Suirsiders 3-2 before being heavily beaten by Bayern Munich in the following round. Two years later there was to be another European first round meeting with an Irish team, this time Cork Celtic but that match never took place.
To understand why this match never happened, and to understand a bit about Omonia and society in Cyprus at the time it is worth looking at the origins of the club. Today, Nicosia is the capital and largest city in Cyprus. It was also home to APOEL F.C. (their name being an acronym that translates as Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia) to date the most successful football team in Cyprus who were founded in 1926. Omonia were formed as a breakaway from APOEL in 1948. This arose after a telegram sent by the APOEL board to the body that governed amateur athletics in Greece which criticised what is described as a Communist, National Killing mutiny.
This was a reference to the ongoing Greek Civil War fought between factions backed by the United Kingdom on one side and the Communist states of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Albania on the other. There was a view that Communists were less likely to be sympathetic with the aim of Enosis – a nationalist union with the Greek mainland and other Greek communities in the Mediterranean.
There were protests at the decisions of the APOEL board from athletes, especially in the football section, but these players were expelled by the board with the reported comment of ‘Get out of our stadiums, build your own, and enrol in the Russian Federation of Football’. While no club enrolled in with the Russian Federation, a new club was indeed formed from this schism only a month later. Omonia Nicosia was born, Omonia meaning amity or peaceful friendship in Greek. Within five years Omonia were a league side and by the 1960-61 season had won its first league title. It was however, the 1970s when the club really came to dominance as they won seven Cypriot league titles and three cups through the decade.
It was during this period of success that Omonia were due to meet Cork Celtic and a little later Bohemians. The Cork match never happened however, because in July 1974, just two months before the opening rounds of the European Cup were due to take place, there was a Coup d’etat in Cyprus. Makarios III, the first President of Cyprus, who was also an archbishop in the orthodox Christian Church of Cyprus, was ousted by a right wing, nationalist group called EOKA-B, who were supported by the military junta that was ruling Greece at the time.
In dramatic events the usurpers claimed that Makarios was dead, however, he had managed to escape to London with help from the RAF. As the Greek puppet regime took power and began a crackdown on supporters of Makarios, the Turkish military invaded Cyprus, ostensibly to protect the Turkish communities on the island. These effectively separated the mostly-Turkish area of Northern Cyprus from the rest of the island, and created a de facto new state. Understandably against this violent backdrop even European Cup games took a back seat and Cork Celtic got a walkover, only to be beaten 7-1 in the next round by Soviet Top League winners Ararat Yerevan.
Cork, and the military situation in Cyprus are both themes that we’ll return to, but back to Bohs. The first leg in Cyprus was due to take place on September 13th with the “home” leg due to take place two weeks later. A new venue, 150km from Dalymount and agreed by UEFA had to be arranged. Eventually, Flower Lodge in Cork was agreed upon. Nowadays, a GAA ground known as Páirc Uí Rinn, Flower Lodge had been home to Cork Hibernians and after they folded it became the home for another Cork-based League of Ireland side, Cork Alberts.
But before the Bohs faithful would have to travel to Cork there was the small matter of the away leg. Omonia had been knocked out of the European Cup at the first round stage in each of the previous three seasons, the previous season they had been beaten 5-0 on aggregate by Italian giants Juventus.
Omonia weren’t without some quality however, they possessed a dangerous striker in Sotiris Kaiafas, who had won the European Golden Boot in 1976 and during his career would be top scorer in the Cypriot league on no fewer than seven occasions. The Cypriot FA named Kaiafas as their Golden Player (best player of the last 50 years) at the UEFA Jubilee Awards in 2004. Kaiafas had been born in the Northern Cypriot town of Mia Milia and was forced to flee after the Turkish invasion, eventually relocating to Nicosia.
Omonia wore green and white and featured a shamrock on their crest so fitted well into the role of rivals for Bohs. By chance, Shamrock Rovers were paired against Omonia’s great rivals APOEL in the Cup Winners Cup. Arriving in Cyprus a main concern for Bohs’ manager Billy Young was making sure that the squad didn’t over-indulge with the sun-bathing in the sweltering heat of Cyprus in September. The conditions were one of the biggest obstacles facing the team with the Irish Independent worrying about the players “battling against the heat and humidity”.
Early in the game Bohs had more than just the oppressive weather to worry about. The Omonia winger Andreas Kanaris scored after just twenty minutes. Bohs had started the game well and were having the better of the match to that point but Kanaris, who was his team’s stand-out player on the day latched onto a header from Kaiafas to get the game’s opener from five yards out. Despite this setback Bohs started to press and again and towards the break forced Omonia into conceding consecutive corners, from the second of these Terry Eviston whipped in a cross which was only partially cleared, and fell to Pádraig O’Connor, who struck a rocket of a low volley in from 25 yards out, a goal his brother would have been proud of.
Parity wouldn’t last long however, early in the second half during a Omonia attack the ball ricocheted off the Bulgarian referee and into the path of Filippos Dimitriou who scored from ten yards out. The Bulgarian referee came in for some criticism from the Bohs’ players and Irish journalists after the game for favouring Omonia who were also coached by Bulgarian. Despite these two goals, Mick Smyth had surprisingly little to do in the game, with the conditions beginning to tell and the Bohs players “almost out on their feet at the finish” the game finished as a 2-1 win for Omonia. The narrow margin defeat and the away goal were something that Bohs were happy with, confident that even if it wasn’t to be Dalymount that they would do the job back in Ireland, a 1-0 win would suffice.
Billy Young summed up the mood simply by saying “I believe we will do it”, before going on to say how “tremendously proud” he was of the players who because of the heat “were almost on their knees but never stopped battling”. The media reports, despite the narrow defeat were full of praise for the Bohs players, especially John McCormack, Joe Burke, the tireless Paddy Joyce and 19 year old Gino Lawless.
While Bohs were optimistic about making the next round, Omonia (or their club secretary at least) was incredibly downbeat, Simos Loizides when interviewed after the game, and quoted in the Irish Press had this to say: “We don’t particularly want to go into the second round. It will give us too many problems, for our league championship starts next month and that must be our priority. I doubt if we can beat or even draw with Bohemians in Ireland.”
After the match, the Bohemians party had a somewhat unusual reception to attend. As mentioned the political situation in Cyprus was tense and a violent coup, followed by the Turkish invasion of the island had taken place only four years earlier. As a result there was a large UN peacekeeping force deployed on the island who invited the team and officials back to the officer’s mess for food and drink. An offer gratefully accepted by Bohemians. A Colonel Walker was the man in charge and the Quartermaster, a man named Mills, was more than generous with food, and indeed with drink.
The cost of said drink at the bar in the officer’s mess was incredibly cheap, according to Billy Young bottles of Scotch whiskey could be bought for a £1 so it is safe to say that the players indulged a bit, according to Tommy Kelly the Quartermaster even surreptitiously billing some of the cost of the drink consumed by him, Joe Burke and Eamonn Gregg and put it on the Colonel’s personal bill. Terry Eviston was good enough to share some of his photographs from the away trips from around this time and you can see the squad members laden with bags and bottles, all purchased at a heavy discount at the UN base, about to board the plane for the flight home.
The Bohemian FC squad, with gifts aplenty, preparing to fly back from Cyprus (courtesy Terry Eviston)
Despite the statements from the Omonia club secretary there was still the small matter of having to win the “home” leg of the tie, due to be played in Flower Lodge. The Lodge was at the time a larger ground than Turner’s Cross but the crowd that attended the game was far smaller than the bumper attendance at the Newcastle match in Dalymount the previous year. Just 4,500 thousand made the trip to Cork for the game. The conditions were far different from Cyprus, it was obviously much cooler, but the game was also played in a strong wind.
To make matters more surreal the Bohs team had to change in the nearby Cork Constitution Rugby club and walk the short distance to Flower Lodge. While Bohs may have started brightly in the Cypriot sun things were a bit more nervy down in Cork, as Omonia started well, the main threat being winger Kanaris and Kaiafas up front. Despite showing off his skills Kaiafas was well shackled by Bohs’ Joe Burke, who denied him time and space near goal, and forced Cyprus’s international No. 9 to play much deeper.
While defensively things were sound both teams were cancelling each other out in a close, tense and not particularly attractive match, but Bohs needed that all important goal to go through. Gradually though Bohs began to exert greater pressure on Omonia, with a strong wind at their back Bohs began to pour forward more and more, before finally on twenty-seven minutes when Turlough O’Connor laid on a pass to young Paddy Joyce, who bore down on Loukas Andreou’s goal before a calmly slotting the ball passed the keeper. With an hour still to play Bohemians were through to the second round of the European Cup, they just needed to remain focused and avoid conceding.
Joyce was described by teammate Terry Eviston as a world-beater on his day, his good form that season saw him (and Gino Lawless) called up to the Ireland Olympic squad who were attempting to qualify for the Moscow 1980 tournament. Joyce scored in the game against Norway to put the Irish on the cusp of qualification but two late Norwegian goals saw them secure the qualifying spot. The Norwegians would later join the boycott of Moscow ’80 and their place in the football tournament was ultimately taken by Finland.
Returning to Flower Lodge and although Omonia tried hard to get back into the game, Bohs seemed content to stifle them. Eamonn Gregg effectively shut the winger Kanaris out of the game in the second half, while Joe Burke continued to frustrate Kaiafas. Despite a late chance for the substitute Petsas, Bohs defensive resilience won the day. The club had made the last sixteen of the European Cup for the first time. Awaiting them was a trip behind the Iron Curtain with the formidable Dynamo Dresden as their opposition.
Gerry Farrell
