The crowd are often called the 16th man and that certainly applies to Cuala’s young group of ultras.
Cuala brought a great crowd and great colour to their Dublin senior football semi-final against Ballymun Kickhams on Saturday evening.
Hooped red and white hats were dotted all over Parnell Park before throw-in, adding to the championship fever in the Donnycarney venue, with the Ballymun supporters also playing their part.
It was the Northside vs the Southside and with a place in the final up for grabs, you could feel the tension in the air.
Cuala have never won the title while Ballymun Kickhams are deemed to have underachieved, despite having won titles most recently in 2012 and 2020.
Con O’Callaghan and John Small enjoyed an intense battle. Sportsfile.
There was no shortage of motivation for either side, adding to the needle in the stand as well as on the pitch.
John Small picked up Con O’Callaghan and the Dublin team-mates didn’t hold back from each other.
O’Callaghan roughed up a Ballymun player at one stage and Small let him have it. He grabbed O’Callaghan by the scruff of the neck in a manner that said friendships are being put to one side for this one.
Playing against the breeze, Ballymun Kickhams got off to a brighter start and led by 0-4 to 0-2 after twenty minutes, but Cuala worked their way back into the game, bringing their supporters along with them.
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Their towering and influential Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne really got them going in the 21st minute, running hard at the Kickhams defence to win a much needed free.
Behind the goals, a line of about twenty young Cuala fans hammered the advertisement hoardings when Con O’Callaghan tapped it over, reducing the gap to one.
This was the start of it.
The Ultras kept it up as Ballymun Kickhams goalkeeper Sean Currie took the resulting kick-out, ramping up the atmosphere even more.
He kicked it straight into the chest of a Cuala man, leading to a Luke Keating leveller, playing right into the hands of the young supporters.
They were lapping it up.
From then until the end of the game, each Currie kick-out was accompanied with the same soundtrack and invariably, Cuala came away with the ball.
The youngsters showed their commitment to the cause by changing ends at half-time along with Currie, who is deputising in place of the injured Evan Comerford.
The Ballymun supporters got in on the act then, banging the hoardings when O’Callaghan took a late free but by then it was too late.
Cuala were already crusing to a 0-16 to 1-8 victory, and into their first Dublin final since 1988.
