Fifty years of soccer at Lifford

PLAYERS from the cup-winning team of 1974 and ’75 together with the double winning team of 1975/’76 will be honoured at Lifford’s 50th celebration dinner on Saturday, October 29 at the Auburn Lodge Hotel
Tickets for what promises to be a gala night are currently on sale and can be purchased by contacting Deirdre at 086 2474006
The club was formed in 1961 shortly after Ennis United withdrew from the Limerick District League.
They had played their first game in August 1960 and scored a 6-0 win over Astor Athletic but after the league directed that they play all their games away in Limerick, they withdrew. This led to the formation of the Clare District League in September 1962 with many of the Ennis United team to the fore in the setting up of the league.
Players from that team such as Freddie and Declan Ensko, Jimmy Coughlan, Noel Bane, Syl Cosgrove and Gerry Roche along with Michael O’Gorman and Frank McInerney helped for Lifford. The majority of the founders lived in Lifford and hence the name for the new club.
Matches were organised on an ad-hoc basis initially. At that time, the ban on GAA members playing foreign games was still in place and there were many willing vigilantes to do the spying on the many hurlers and footballers who decided to wear the colours of a soccer team.
Lifford joined the inaugural Clare League and played their first game on Sunday October 14, 1962 against Gardimex wearing their new red strip, which was purchased for the sum of £13 from Mick Coleman’s shop in O’Connell Street.
Peadar Kelly scored Lifford’s first ever competitive goal in soccer and the late Paddy ‘Giles’ Coughlan scored their second as they played a 2-2 draw. Other prominent players in those early days were Mick Reynolds, Anthony and Aidan Lynch, Peadar O’Brien, Gerry Roche, Johnny Pickford, Syl Cosgrove, Noel and Andy Carmody, Peter Whyte, Oliver Ball, Willie Moloney, Ray Duggan, Noel Bane, Johnnie Butler and Sandy Coote.
On April 28 in 1963, Lifford won the inaugural ‘Fergus Cup’ when they scored a 6-2 win over Angers at the Showgrounds before a crowd of 400. On the way to the final, they had a 3-2 win over Pike Rovers and a 6-0 win over Hermitage in the semi-final. The Lifford captain on the day was Syl Cosgrove.
The league went into decline after this before being resurrected in 1965/66. In the 1967/68 season, Lifford were in dispute with the league and played under the name or Rockmount for one season. In that season, they won the Fergus Cup when they beat Hermitage in the final on a 6-2 scoreline. The team was Eugene Moylan, Gerry and Paddy Commane, Michael Frawley, Paddy Smyth, Mick Newell, Nicholas Moloney, Bernard Carroll, Aidan Lynch, Jamesie Gormley, PJ Linnane.
In the ’70s, Liford’s youths sides had a lot of success winning the U-16 league and cup in 1972. Lifford reached the last eight in the FAI Junior Cup.
“The case of the Missing Football,” has been recalled many times over the years. On May 6, 1973, Lifford met their arch rivals of the time, Bridge United in the quarter-final of the Haughey Cup at Our Lady’s, Lifford’s home grounds where a 3-3 draw resulted. There were a lot of niggly tackles in this tie.
In the replay in Sixmilebridge, the home side was leading 5-2 when the match ball disappeared out of play into a nearby field and never returned. When a ball was eventually given to referee Carl O’Neill, he decided not to continue with the game as there were many spectators on the pitch and some of the Lifford players were missing.
The club won the cup final in 1975 beating Hermitage 4-2 after being 1-2 down at half-time. Lidfford’s first-half goal was an og, while Tim McAllister, Jimmy Spellissy and Leo Mannion scored in the second period. The line-up was A McNamara, M Hanrahan, J Gormley, E Hanrahan, C Keating, B Smythe, J Spellissy, B Mounsey, L Mannion, T McAllister N Moloney. The sub was C Mullins.
A year later, they won the league and cup double while their youths also won the league and cup double. In the Junior Cup, they beat Kilrush, St Michael’s, Coonagh and Newmarket. The final was played in the Fairgreen on May 21.
Michael Skelly scored an equaliser for Lifford early in the second half after Johnnie Sheedy had given Newmarket the lead. Skelly scored the winner six minutes from the end.