BRIAN FLYNN TAKES his two sons by the hand and begins to walk across the car park.
It’s just after 5pm and champions Shamrock Rovers will have their guard of honour from runners-up Derry City before kick off two hours later.
Ten-year-old Noah fixes his Hoops cap – with three enamel badges pinned to it – and his younger brother, six-year-old Georgie, looks back to the car.
Their grandad, Brian’s father, does one final check of his jacket pockets, loops his green and white scarf around his neck and catches up. Mark Flynn is 63 and has been going to Rovers games since he was younger than his youngest grandson.
“I’m from Stillorgan,” he says. “It used to be the 86 bus to Milltown, or the 46A out to Donnybrook and then walk down Merrion Row.”
Now they come in the car to Tallaght.
Three generations who can savour moments and success like this, Stephen Bradley delivering a three-in-a-row of League of Ireland titles.
“It was passed down to me and I’m passing it down to my boys,” Brian continues. “I was dragged all around the place when we had no home. Morton Stadium, Tolka Park, everywhere.
“This is great. I’ve told the bots it’s not always like this but you have to enjoy it.”
Georgie’s favourite player is Dylan Watts, and he has taped his No.7 on the back and worn his full kit for the fancy dress party the club have laid on for kids.
Noah cites Lee Grace and Pico Lopes as his defensive heroes and explains why he has been able to convert at least one classmate in school to become a Rovers fan.
“I love the atmosphere. The fans make it, and the nachos.”
Rovers will win their last home game of the season 1-0 courtesy of a Rory Gaffney tap in following some sublime build-up play from Andy Lyons.
Both players are hot favourites to win the respective PFA Ireland Player and Young Player of the Year awards. The Hoops striker turned 33 last week and that six-yard tap in is his 10th league goal of a campaign in which his all-round play made him the standout performer.
Lyons signed for Blackpool earlier this year and will link up with his new teammates at the English Championship club in December. He is 22 and arrived from Bohemians admitting somewhat of an inferiority complex given he was the only one in his new dressing room without a league winners’ medal.
“Now I’m the only one who has only won one, you know?” he says after the trophy parade around the pitch, with gaggles of children still waiting for photos and autographs before he leaves for good.
“It’s brilliant to get over the line and win it. When I came here that was the main objective so I’m really happy.”
That was the overriding emotion, yet nights like this can still evoke melancholy.
John Farrell’s leather jacket and jet black mohawk stand out a mile away, even at 6pm when darkness has descended. ‘Paranoid Visions’ is the name of the band emblazoned on the back – no doubt some managers live by that mantra – and next year he will be among a group of Rovers fans going to a 40th anniversary gig for the Dublin punk band in the Button Factory.
With a Dad from Kildare and Mam from Offaly, he never stood a chance. “Football wasn’t in the house, I had to find it myself. I watched the 1987 FAI Cup final on telly and when I was 17 I went to my first match, it was a 2-2- draw with Bohs in the Cup and since then I’ve always gone.”
Jim Conroy is another, and he joins the conversation. “We’re old mates,” he says. But one of them is missing. Declan ‘Big Dec’ Keogh’ passed away in 2020 and was a link for so many.
“We were home and away, everywhere together, but since he died it’s not the same so we just do the home game,” Farrell adds.
“He was the No.1,” Conroy continues. “But it’s not just Dec you think of on nights like this. I am going since the 1960s and it is all the people from before who have gone and not made it to Tallaght. You don’t forget them.”
This will be the 10th league title he has watched Rovers lift. For Farrell the tally is six, and the man who has ensured these milestones have been reached is Bradley, who is only 37 years of age.
He was 31 when the club asked him to be caretaker manager following the sacking of Pat Fenlon in July 2016. Since then he has helped to mould the club into the impressive, cohesive unit it has become.
Although there will be more than an element of freshening up required to maintain their place at the top. That is the next stage, and test, of Bradley’s managerial prowess. He has built a squad and now must begin the process of subtly dismantling it while continuing the success which Rovers fans demand.
But this night was special for more than just the significance of a third title in a row, with Bradley open about his eight-year-old son Josh’s battle with leukaemia over the last number of months.
That treatment continues but Josh was still the one leading out club captain Ronan Finn and vice-captain Lopes to lift the trophy, before then getting the crowd going even further by replicating his father’s fist wind-up and salute.
“It’s so emotional looking at him going out with the players,” Bradley says, as kids patiently queue up behind him while players continue to show their appreciation.
“The players have given him this night, making his day has made my day, made our year considering the year we have had. I couldn’t be prouder of the group, and I am emotional, when he is going out with Ronan and Pico, it’s very emotional. I was crying. I couldn’t hold it back.”
Few could, the sight of Josh leading the celebrations a moment those closest to him will cherish but one that also captures the hearts of so many others.
Lopes is one of them, and he faced the first serious injury of his own career when a knee problem in July ruled him out for 10 weeks.
“It was very emotional to be able to do that for Josh,” he says. “We wanted to give the gaffer and his family this moment just to give them some happiness. He gives so much time up for us, we wanted to give them this and rally round.
“It was a big thing. Football is so insignificant when you think of what they are going through but if it makes Josh happy when he has his own fight, it’s the least we can do.
“We have the right personalities here. I like to think it’s a squad of good people.”
One of those who left, but still feels part of it, is Gavin Bazunu, and the Ireland goalkeeper spent the guts of 45 minutes standing in the tunnel after full time congratulating every player who passed as well as posing for photos.
Bazunu is a die-hard Rovers fan who grew up less than 10 minutes from Tallaght Stadium and now has the world at his feet as Southampton’s No.1 in the Premier League.
Fans Deco Fitzsimons and Gary Parsons (the latter will be recognisable to viewers of the Irish version of Gogglebox) are
“I remember when this was all fields here, for that aspect alone what’s happening is incredible. It’s all Rovers, Rovers, Rovers around her for the kids in the schools. The club is about the community and feels a part of it.”
Parsons expands on that point. “My kids are starting to go to Rovers now and that’s what I love this team for. They now know what it means to love a football club that belongs to them.
“That’s why I love what’s happening now, it’s brought my family closer together through Rovers. To continue on the success is the next step, keep pushing on. It’s a fantastic time to be alive, and to be a Rovers fan.”