AS IT APPROACHED 11pm in Inchicore, the debris on the Richmond Park pitch told the tale of what turned out to be a raucous night in the League of Ireland.
Champagne bottles, burned out flare bombs and stray canisters of ‘juicy peach’ flavour vapes were strewn on the grass.
Shamrock Rovers assistant manager Glen Cronin also paraded around the centre circle on a video call to some family wearing a green suit jacket with shamrocks printed all over, as well as signatures from members of the victorious squad.
A night that began with green smoke from the away end covering the whole ground before eventually lifting just at kick off, ended with the Hoops crowned Premier Division champions for the fourth season in a row.
An historic triumph for the club, emulating the feat of the great side that dominated from 1984-87.
And for manager Stephen Bradley it is a milestone that also sets him apart from the rest, making him the first League of Ireland boss to oversee all four triumphs.
In the 80s, the legendary Jim McLaughlin departed Rovers after his hat-trick with Dermot Keely taking over.
Bradley said afterwards that he wanted to add a fifth, but put the onus on the board to show they did, too.
When he led his players and staff back out from the away dressing room at 10.20pm Richmond Park had emptied.
There was a hush.
Bradley gathered his players in the centre circle and they broke into a rendition of ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’, the club’s adopted anthem.
After the full-time whistle blew here, there were several minutes of bedlam.
The visiting fans didn’t make it onto the pitch straight away, but once the Rovers players made a beeline for the goal in front of the away section that was the catalyst for things to spill over.
A hastily-arranged cordon of Gardaí and stewards formed on the halfway line to keep them apart.
They succeeded for the most part, although those who approached from the Rovers end did so with glee, taunting their Dublin rivals with yet another league title secured. Flares and bottles were thrown, as well as other unidentifiable objects.
Scores of fans emerged from a section in the home end to retaliate, with at least one steward struck in the face by something.
As well as the Gardaí present, there was also a large element of self policing from both sets of fans as they ushered those partaking away from trouble.
Rovers defender Roberto Lopes, a cornerstone of all four successes under Bradley, was unaware of the scenes and simply basked in the afterglow of more glory.
It was he who led the charge of Rovers players in the direction of the away end.
“Jaysis, yeah, I just said to myself I’m doing a Klinsmann here,” he beamed, placing a bottle of champagne by his side as he spoke, shivering with the cold as some of the adrenaline began to wore off.
“We were too far away from the fans, I thought ‘it’s going to be a big sprint, I’ll have no energy when I get there but hopefully the ground will take me the rest of the way’. Yeah, incredible. It just gets better each year.
“The pressure is on you a bit more, everyone’s chasing you. Everyone’s waiting for you to drop. To get over the line is just incredible. We knew there was always going to be noise around it with the four in a row and how tight the league was this year.”
February and March seem a long time ago now.
Rovers didn’t win a match until a 4-0 victory against Dundalk at Oriel Park on 31 March.
The five draws and one defeat prior to that suggested that maybe this was a side nearing the end of its dominance rather than stamping its authority once more.
“I remember one article from one of the journalists in March or April saying that we’re done, I thought ‘right, that’s interesting’ that was our teamtalk for the rest of the year, we just pinned it up, there we go,” Bradley, still clutching his bottle of champagne, revealed.
“I don’t go siege mentality, I don’t do that, it’s about our processes and what we do, but I thought that was interesting, I thought that showed the mentality around. People were wanting us to fail. It’s Ireland, isn’t it? People don’t like success in any form.
“People were saying let’s split the Dubs (Dublin GAA) and make them into three or four [teams]. That article probably summed it up. We don’t do the siege mentality but it was an easy one to show the players and say ‘that’s what we’re up against and that’s what people think of us’. I thought we had built up more credit in the bank than that but obviously we hadn’t.”
Ironic, then, that in March ’87 when Rovers beat Galway 3-1 at Milltown to complete the original four-in-a-row there was a similar sense of feeling undervalued.
“The sad thing is that the feats of this Rovers team will not be fully appreciated until 20 years from now, when its true historical significance will be realised,” McLaughlin, who by that point had left for Derry, said.
Indeed, what happened next at Rovers has only served to enhance the sense of wonder about that side.
A month after clinching the title, their home at Glenmalure Park was sold off to property developers by the club’s owners, the Kilcoyne family.
Decades of homelessness followed.
There was fleeting, sporadic success, but nothing sustainable.
Until now.
The contrast with now could not be greater, especially as the new stand at Tallaght Stadium is nearing completion and will increase capacity to 10,000.
Right now, this season will be remembered as the one Rovers were able to stutter to the title because there was no team capable of capitalising on their shortcomings.
“If there was ever a year someone was going to catch us it was this one considering the start we had, but I don’t think they’ll get that opportunity again,” Bradley insisted.
For Lopes, the ‘Drive for Five’ is only something he will think about once the time is right. “I’d say in about four more hours with a few drinks on me,” the Dubliner, and Cape Verde international beamed.
“We will enjoy this one. We need to enjoy this one. The goal was to get to four in a row and get in the conversation with that great team that we’ve heard so much about.
“It’s something I will look back on with fond memories but I’m still playing so I don’t want to rest on that. I’ll get the head ready for next year.”
The night before the St Pat’s match, Bradley’s head was somewhere else.
He poured himself a glass of wine and then pored over the 25 goals Rovers had conceded in the league this season.
“My wife thought I was mad. You have to go over these things. You have to understand why. If you don’t and just put it away and think ‘success’, it’s just going to keep happening then you will end up in trouble. It’s my job to bring that to the players in pre-season.”
That acknowledgement of planning ahead already is also significant given the tensions that emerged towards the end of this season, when Bradley admitted that issues behind the scenes were a major cause for concern.
“It’s hard enough to win, and it’s even harder to win when certain people are trying to stop you winning, so, yeah, that’s difficult,” he said last month.
Bradley reiterated his stance in his interview with RTÉ straight after last night’s win, insisting he was on board to deliver a fifth title but it was “up to the board” if they wanted the same.
Budget concerns are only one of the issues, as he later alluded to again.
“It’s not nice. I have a serious problem at home to deal with, with my son [who was diagnosed with cancer]. We’re in hospital every week, and for someone to attack me personally is not right,” Bradley said.
“Tonight is not about that, it’s about what we’ve achieved. I will talk about it in the future.”
A cloud – not just of green smoke – lingers.
Once it settles, Rovers will know how that future will look, but today belongs to them.
They’re champions again.
