Somewhere in europe
- 18 hours ago
- 18 min read
2026 is special year in terms of the Blues history. That's because its the 60th anniversary of our title-winning side representing the League of Ireland in Europe in 1966 for the first time in the clubs history. Fast forward two more decades to 1986 and it's the 40th anniversary of our last time time playing European football.
With such anniversaries lets look back on both European campaigns.
Of course, as League of Ireland champions, Waterford earned the right to play in Europe for the first time in the 1966/67 European Cup. A wonderous world of teams across Europe awaited with the real possibility of a glamour tie and though the Blues were delighted to represent the country in the tournament, when the name of East German side Vorwaerts came out it wasn’t exactly who the supporters had pictured. Vorwaerts were a Berlin-based side that had just pipped FC Carl Zeiss Jena for the league title that year and boasted several internationals in their ranks. They had played Drumcondra in the European Cup the year before. Drums’ even beat them 1-0 before going down 3-1 on aggregate.
Trying to maximise profit and accommodate fans, Waterford decided to ask for the game to be switched to Dalymount Park and on August 31st a crowd of 17,249 turned up to watch this trip into the unknown.
Waterford could not have got off to a worst start, conceding after only five minutes. The goal scored by Jürgen Piepenburg who would go on to complete a hat-trick that day. A second would arrive on the ten-minute mark. This was going to be a long day at the office for Vinny Maguire’s men! If anyone had expected the Germans to come and sit back, this notion was well and truly shattered even before the first third of the game had been played. Waterford were 4-0 down by the time Mick Lynch struck on 68 minutes to pull a consolation goal back but two more from the East German champions would give Vorwaerts a 6-1 away win with the second leg still to come.
Despite being 6-1 up from that first leg you would have thought the East German side would have a healthy gate for the 7th of September second leg. But as it turns out only 4,282 turned up at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark to watch Vorwaerts finish off the job 6-0 for an aggregate score of 12-1. A harsh lesson indeed for Waterford in their first competitive games in Europe.
A year later in September 1968 and Waterford got the plum draw they wished so hard for. They were paired against current European champions Manchester United. The champions of Ireland against a Manchester United side playing the first game in defence of the European Cup.
Excitement around the match had reached fever pitch and nobody who supported the Blues was ever going to miss the biggest game in the club’s history against the European Champions. There may well have been many more important games in Waterford’s 38-year history to that date, but never one as glamorous. A crowd of over 50,000 packed into Lansdowne Road, the obvious venue of choice to accommodate the fans to watch a proud Vinny Maguire lead his Waterford side out. The Dubliner striding alongside English International and European Cup winning captain, Bobby Charlton. Little did we know Charlton would briefly end up playing for the side United faced that day!
Traffic was at a standstill before the game. Absolute chaos. Car registrations from all over the country adorned the streets of the capital and combine this with the pedestrians and busloads of arriving supporters and even at 4pm in the afternoon it was jam-packed madness. A lovely touch was the Barrack Street Band heralding the arrival of the teams. The band had a close association with the club back in the sixties and it brought a nice touch of home. Then finally, after the teams exchanged pleasantries, the game kicked off.
The one thing Waterford didn’t need to do was concede an early goal. Their first venture into Europe two years previous had taught them that, but Denis Law was to make an absolute nuisance of himself that day and it was the Scotsman who put United ahead on eight minutes. Waterford had to make sure they won their little battles all over the field if they were to stay in the game. Noel Griffin had the unviable job of marking George Best whilst Jimmy McGeough never backed out of a challenge with Nobby Stiles and both men had a right tussle for the ninety minutes. Jackie Morley broke down as many dangerous build-ups as he could whilst Peter Bryan had an absolute barnstormer of a game, showing great timing in his tackles and taking on Kidd, Best and any United player he could with glee. Coad, Hale, O’Neill and Matthews ran their socks off and indeed Alfie Hale had the first chance which United goalkeeper Alex Stepney dealt with it. Just as it looked like Waterford could make it to half time just a goal down Law struck again heading home a Brian Kidd Cross though many Blues fans thought Charlton had impeded Peter Thomas on the goal line. It was more one way traffic in the second half from the European champions.
Best punished a mistake by Maguire and sent Law free to make it 3-0 and collect his hat-trick. Then finally on 55 minutes Waterford scored the goal the entire country was waiting for. Al Casey got hold of the ball squaring it for Johnny Matthews and the man from Coventry directed his shot past the outstretched hands of Jimmy Rimmer who had replaced Stepney in goal. Waterford got a bit cheeky and could have even pulled another goal back with an Al Casey effort, but the game finished a respectable 3-1 defeat.
However, it was a day for all to remember. A Waterford goal complete with standard pitch invasion and some money for the club. The second leg at Old Trafford? Well, that was always going to be daunting. Denis Law would score (this time four goals) along with strikes from Stiles, Charlton and Burns. Alfie Hale would test Stepney on two occasions, but Al Casey would have the pleasure of scoring Waterford’s first away goal in Europe the same night in the 7-1 defeat in front of 41,750 fans. It would, and still, remains a standout part of Waterford Football giving the Lilywhite’s a comfortable 3-0 win. To make matters worse Dundalk centre half Derek Stokes was on goal for the last 20 minutes because of an injury to Lawless, and Waterford still couldn’t score!
After winning the title again in 1969, Galatasary would prove the opposition in that season's First Round European Cup draw. Like the Manchester game, the tie was changed to Lansdowne Road. This would prove a disaster. Where almost 5o,000 had turned up to see Best, Charlton Law and co, Galatasaray would never have the same appeal as a paltry 8,972 turned up on October the 1st to watch the game.
Waterford started brightly and forced four corners in the opening ten minutes, but if they’d been expecting a ten-man blanket defence from the visitors they were sorely mistaken. The Turks opened the scoring on the half hour to effectively kill the tie at 3-0 on aggregate. With nothing left but pride to play for, that’s exactly what Waterford did. Just before the hour mark Phil Buck made the score 1-1 and for a time the Blues had a right go at it, though the papers and broadsheets thought that too many players had a quiet game. Galatasaray took the lead again through that menacing Gökmen Özdenak, and five minutes after that the visitors made it 3-1. There was still time for Jackie Morley, who had been superb over both legs, to score on 75 minutes but the score remained 3-2 and Waterford went out 5-2 over both legs. It was a disappointment though. Before the game in the media there seemed to be a train of thought that the cold climate would unsettle the Eastern Europeans, or indeed the lush grass at Lansdowne Road might not suit them but to be fair to Galatasaray they were worthy winners.
Winning the league championship was easy at this point. Getting past the first round in Europe was another thing! However, Vinny McGuire's men managed to achieve that in 1971 that when a 4-1 aggregate win over Glentoran gave the Blues a superb draw when Glasgow Celtic were pulled out of the hat.
As expected, a huge turnout (41,486) turned up to see the mighty v the minnows. In games like this the team talk would start with one line “Don’t concede an early goal.” But Waterford had made this a habit during nearly all of their games in Europe! So, it wasn’t really a surprise when they did concede.
Mind you they held out for a whole 60 seconds!
John O’Neill’s back-pass to Peter Bryan was short and Willie Wallace was on hand to put Celtic ahead. Lou Macari would back-heel the Scottish club into a two-goal lead shortly after and by 30 minutes Celtic were out of sight when Robbie Murdoch netted and added another on 38 minutes for a 4-0 half-time lead. The game, and tie, was effectively over.
It was all routine stuff in the second half for Celtic with three further goals from Wallace (54, 56) and another Macari goal three minutes from time gave Celtic a 7-0 win. The other story that emerged from the tie would be Celtic supporters fighting among themselves in the stands. Innocent people had to run for safety due to the thuggery of a minority bunch of travelling Celtic supporters who decided to beat the crap out of each other with sticks, stones and anything they could get their hands on.
“If they behave like this when they win, I’d hate to see them when they lose” mentioned one newspaper.
With the tie well and truly over, Waterford would travel fourteen days later to Parkhead in what should have been a damage limitation exercise. With Celtic having racked up a massive 21 goals now in just three European cup-ties, the fear was the Scottish Champions could run riot again at Parkhead. One paper boldly proclaimed a headline of “Come See the Slaughter of The Irish Leprechauns”.
It was all a big joke in Glasgow. The Christian part-timers thrown to the full-time lions in their own arena for the amusement of thousands of Scottish fans baying for blood. Only 16.160 turned up that night. None could have expected what would happen. There seemed to be little danger when Alfie Hale forced a smart save out of Evan Williams, or Dave Kirby’s effort shortly after, but it would be a taste of things to come. Then on 17 minutes Waterford won a corner. Johnny Matthews sent it over and John O’Neill’s shot cannoned off Billy McNeill and beyond Williams into the home side’s goal.
GLASGOW CELTIC 0-1 PART TIME LEPRECHAUNS.
Waterford grew in confidence. With the home support seeing this as a temporary glitch then would be utterly stunned on 32 minutes when Al Casey got hold of the ball and thumped it forward to Matthews. Johnny took the ball on his chest, set himself and rifled past a helpless Evan Williams into the home net. The goal was met with stunned silence.
GLASGOW CELTIC 0-2 PART TIME LEPRECHAUNS.
It was getting beyond a joke for home supporters when minutes later Dave Kirby almost added a third but was ruled offside. Celtic countered and had their chances, but the rain-sodden pitch that night seemed to help the visitors and they saw out the half without conceding a goal to the shock of everyone in Celtic Park.
Jock Stein’s face at half-time was like thunder. Whatever was said in the home side’s dressing room at half-time seemed to have the desired effect after the break. Although Celtic were comfortably in the next round, Stein was a proud man and wouldn’t have wanted to see a pack of Irish part-timers turn over his beloved Glasgow Celtic in their own backyard. Hughes scored within a minute of the restart and just before the hour mark a cross from Lennox was neatly headed in by Jimmy Johnstone to tie the game up at 2-2. How great it would have been if Waterford could have hung onto that score but Johnstone’s goal on 65 minutes would give Celtic a narrow 3-2 win on the night.
1972/73 gave Waterford another campaign and what looked like a favourable draw on paper. For the first time Waterford would entertain a Cypriot club in the shape of Omonia Nicosia. Although not to be underestimated it gave the Blues a realistic chance of progress to the next round. Despite the first leg being played in Kilcohan the crowd of 2,544 was considered disappointing. On the pitch everything seemed to be going exactly to plan after ten minutes with two quick goals, but by the end of the ninety minutes the Cypriots would be by far the happier side. The Blues got that start they wanted when Carl Humphries’ free kick was deflected into his own goal by Drakos. Six minutes later it got better. Johnny Matthews beat three players and set up Alfie Hale to drive home number two from 15 yards. It should have been the springboard for Waterford to go on and win the game in a canter, but they could not extend the lead, despite hitting the crossbar and having two legitimate penalty shouts from challenges on Carl Humphries, waved away each time from French referee Rene Viglaini.
When Cypriot international, and leading goalscorer in Cyprus, Sotiris Kaiapas got one back with 11 minutes to go it changed the complexion of a game that should have been done and dusted in Waterford. But it was still a 2-1 victory which made Shay Brennan’s men still favourites going into the second leg. So, the equation was simple for Waterford. Draw or win and they were through. Even a high scoring defeat by one goal might see the Blues into the next round.
That away leg in Cyprus was a steaming mid-September evening with the temperature and humidity something Waterford had to deal with, and quick. But the Blues started on the backfoot and found themselves a goal down on 18 minutes with their striker Chelebis getting that important goal.
This got the crowd of 5,095 on their feet knowing that 1-0 scoreline would be enough to take Omonia Nicosia into the second round. It stayed that way until half-time.
Try as they might, Waterford just couldn’t get a goal back in the second period and when Chelebis nipped in again for his second on 63 minutes to make it 2-0 it made things even harder. One goal back would have meant extra time but despite a late rally to get that goal, Nicosia ran out 2-0 winners and went into the second-round courtesy of a 3-2 aggregate win over Shay Brennan’s men.
What made matters worse? Omonia drew Bayern Munich in the next round! The Germans would go on to win 13-0 on aggregate over the Cypriots.
The last time we would play in the European Cup came in 1973/74 when Hungarian side Ujpest Dozsa came calling.
Despite this, the Hungarians were not exactly a box office draw like Manchester United and Celtic had been and the decision was taken again to use Lansdowne Road for the first round, first leg European Cup tie. It proved to be a disastrous move. A mere 5,621 turned up to watch the game. It seemed even the hardcore Blues faithful who followed Waterford everywhere had even stayed away.
On the day (19th of September 1973) the match took place. Shay Brennan was forced to play himself due to an injury to Paul Morrissey and things started badly. There would be two goals in the opening 15 minutes .Waterford would score both, though one was an own goal! That unfortunately came about in the ninth minute after Thomas had raced off his line only to see Peter Bryan accidentally knock the ball past him and into the home side’s goal. However, to their credit, Waterford were level within five minutes. A free kick from John O’Neill reached Paddy Shortt who crossed for Dave Kirby to crack it into the back of the visitors’ net. It stayed 1-1 at half-time. Shortly after the restart, Matthews almost put Waterford ahead and an Alfie Hale’s header was well dealt with by the Ujpest goalkeeper. That would prove costly as two goals in four minutes from Fazekas and Nagy turned the tide and gave the visitors a 3-1 lead. The Hungarian side were well in control.
To their credit Waterford did not throw in the towel or go down to a heavier defeat like that had in previous European outings and got a deserved second goal in the last minute when John O’Neill’s 20-yard shot deceived the visitor’s goalkeeper. It would finish 3-2 to the Hungarians but Waterford’s display was highlighted in the papers.
In the October away leg in Budapest, Waterford would have needed to score first to really make a game of it so they could have done without a goal on nine minutes by Dunai. Only a crowd of 9,982 turned up to see the match. Shay Brennan’s men worked hard to recover the ball anytime they lost but the class of the opposition meant the home side would have most of the ball. Fazekas and Nagy who had scored in the first leg helped themselves to a goal each after the break as the game finished 3-0 with an aggregate score of 6-2.
There would be a hiatus from Europe until 1979 (not by our own choice!) when Tommy Jackson's Blues got themselves back in Europe.
The Cup Winners Cup took centre stage now. Before that, the financial implications had to be taken into account. The cost of Waterford for their upcoming European away tie against IFK Gothenburg would be in the region of £5,000, an astonishing amount of money for the club officials to ponder over. Having missed out on Europe for several years this was a welcome return to the continent. The draw pitted Tommy Jackson’s men against Swedish opposition in IFK Gotenburg. This seemed a favourable draw for Waterford. Swedish football wasn’t considered any way among the elite of football in Europe and the Blues would have the advantage of playing the first leg away from home. The Swedes had hammered Atvidabergs to win the Swedish Cup for the first time in their history to qualify.
Only Peter Thomas, Tony Dunphy and Dave Kirby remained from Waterford’s last outing in Europe in 1973 against Hungarians Ujpest Dozsa. As expected, Waterford did a whole lot of defending when they kicked off against their Swedish counterparts in mid-September in front of 10,000 fans at the Ullevi Stadium. A bit of luck was needed. And Waterford certainly got that.
The home side hit the woodwork on no less than four occasions and Peter Thomas put in a stupendous performance in the Waterford goal making four stunning saves to keep the Swedes at bay. The home side could not score from open play and had to rely on a Thord Holmgrem penalty 24 minutes from time to give Gotenburg a 1-0 first leg lead.
There was still hope and there seemed a real chance Tommy Jackson’s men could pull this off. Kilcohan Park would host its first ever Cup Winners Cup tie in the return leg and though the Swedes would still have been favourites Waterford would be kicking themselves with a host of missed chances. The Vinny McCarthy chance on nine minutes could have proved crucial. Mick Madigan won the ball in midfield and set McCarthy clear on goal. With a few options he went to try chip Lindberg but the goalkeeper made a comfortable save from it. The Swedes would make the home side pay. A long throw from Stromberg was headed on by Neilsen, allowing the incoming Thord Holmgrem to chip the ball over Thomas’ groping hands and into the back of the Waterford net. A sickening blow.
Waterford now needed three goals to progress. An equalizer did give hope on 67 minutes when Vinny McCarthy’s cross was struck towards goal by Brendan Carey. The shot was parried by Lindberg but Tony Keane was on hand to make no mistake with the rebound. Try as they might, Waterford could not find a winner against a resolute visitor’s defence and the game finished 1-1, with the Swedish outfit winning 2-1 on aggregate.
Winning the FAI Cup (I still can't believe it's 46 years and waiting for us to bring the cup back over the River Suir) put the Blues into the First Round of the Cup Winners Cup were they drew Hibernians of Malta , beating them 4-1 over the two legs.
Next up would be tough oppopsition from the old USSR in the shape of Dynamo Tibilsi which was considered very tough.
Tbilisi featured several Russian internationals and would qualify for the tournament even though they had lost the Soviet National Cup to Shakthar Donetsk that year. In a time where money was a premium for Waterford, the last thing they needed was a gruelling trip to Russia to eat up whatever funds they had. Chairman Joe Delaney outlined a figure of around £20,000 needed to send the club behind the Iron Curtain. Tickets were pre-sold as well as on the gate and a massive fund-raising operation was launched.
The hard work was put in and a crowd of 5,000 turned up for the home first leg. School children, including myself, had been either given a half day or bunked off school to go watch the Blues play that afternoon in Kilcohan Park. For the first 30 minutes it was all Waterford as Tommy Jackson’s men pegged back their Russian counterparts with Paul Kirk having the first chance of the match on ten minutes and shooting wide. Al Finucane and Man of the Match Vinny McCarthy were next to try their luck but to no avail. It was an extremely aggressive performance from Tommy Jackson’s men, and they were unlucky not to be ahead before the break.
Gradually Tbilisi came out of their shell and would begin to dominate proceedings in the second half and that would mean only one thing. Sure enough, the only goal of the game came on 50 minutes from Russian International Ramaz Shengelia who ran onto a long-headed ball, rounded Peter Thomas, and slotted home for the lead. Dynamo seemed to have had trouble with the muddy surface but would see out the game to its 1-0 conclusion.
That next week would see the club’s fundraising go into overdrive and it’s a credit to the men and women that helped organise the drive and went door-to-door collecting for the team’s expenses so Waterford could travel to Russia for the second leg. Something as basic and necessary for some League of Ireland clubs at the time, that situation would never happen now, but the truth is the club had to go cap in hand to get help from the Waterford public.
Funds were raised, the team travelled to Dynamo Lenin Stadium in Tbilisi and put in a spirited performance which kept the home side out for the first 45 minutes. Still only 1-0 down in the tie there would be an extreme outside chance for Waterford should they have scored but the moment Daraselia opened the home side’s account in the second half, the result was never in doubt. With Waterford tiring in the last 15 minutes Dynamo added another three goals to win 4-0 and 5-0 on aggregate.
Dynamo Tbilisi would actually go on to win the 1980/81 Cup Winners Cup beating FC Carl Zeiss Jena 2-1 in the final. Ramaz Shengelia would star again but the man who hit the solidarity goal against Waterford in the first round would die of a brain haemorrhage in 2012.
Fast forward to 1986 and the Blues had qualified for the Cup Winners Cup via that FAI Cup final defeat to Shamrock Rovers. And for the draw the man above was smiling on us this time as Waterford United drew great opposition in French club Bordeaux. The Ligue One club had just beaten Marseille in the French Cup Final to qualify for Europe. The French outfit boasted current internationals like Bernard Lacombe, Patrick Battiston, Jean Tigana to name but a few. Aimé Jacquet’s men were seen as a plum draw. Jacquet was a hugely successful manager in France. As a player, he’d won five league championships with St. Etienne and had moved into management with Bordeaux and delivered three league championships and two Coupe De France cups. Waterford were under no illusion. This would be a daunting task.
Though excitement had reached fever pitch and a temporary stand erected in Kilcohan Park (that looked like it was going to give way every time Waterford got into the visitor’s half with excitement) the crowd was a slightly smaller than imagined 4,462. The evergreen Al Finucane was creating his own piece of history that day. At 43 years of age the Limerick man was at the time the oldest player to play in a European game. Tony Macken would captain the Blues side that night.
Waterford didn’t get off to the best start and lost Duncan Burns after only 15 minutes of the game. The visitors started to run the show and Macken and Kieran McCabe seemed to be fighting a losing battle, though Jimmy Donnelly did give the odd bit of trouble to the visitors as did a young Paul Cashin. Bordeaux took the lead on 33 minutes via René Girard. David Flavin had been an absolute marvel at this point making some superb stops, but he was helpless to stop Philippe Vercruysse putting Bordeaux 2-0 ahead 61 minutes. The sheer class of what Waterford were up against was obvious and began to tell. Now there was a worry among the home crowd that the visitors would up the ante even more and go and try knock a few more goals in.
But with 89 minutes on the clock all that changed.
Noel Synnott jogged up from the back to see if he could do any damage and got himself on the back of a Martin Reid free kick to score from six yards beating French goalkeeper Dominque Dropsy and bring the tie to life again. The wall of sound that came from the main stand in Kilcohan Park had barely died down when a minute later Waterford were presented with another chance. Dominque Dropsy was caught well out of position and Micheal Bennett got on the ball but drove his shot narrowly wide in what was the last action of the game. Waterford 1-2 Bordeaux. Not a bad night’s work at all.
Everybody knew the second leg would be even harder. Technically if Waterford had taken a draw with them out to the Stade Chaban-Delmas in that return game, things would have been interesting, but it was not to be. Hale’s heroes defended for their lives and kept things interesting until four goals in the last eleven minutes changed the reflection of the tie and Bordeaux went through 6-1 on aggregate.
Here in 2026, it still remains our last visit to mainland Europe in European competition.
Of course we have competed in Europe nine times in those sixty years.
WATERFORD IN EUROPE 1966-1986
European Cup 1966/67: Vorwaerts (East Germany) 1-6. 0-6 (Agg; 1-12)
European Cup 1968/69; Manchester United , 1-3. 1-7 (Agg; 2-10)
European Cup 1969/70; Galatasaray (Turkey) 2-3. 0-2 (Agg; 2-5)
European Cup 1970/71; Glentoran (Northern Ireland) 1-0, 3-1 (Agg;4-1)
European Cup 1970/71 Second Round; Celtic 0-7, 2-3 (Agg;2-10)
European Cup 1972/73; Omonia Nicosia (Cyprus) 2-1, 0-2 Agg; 2-3.
European Cup 1973/74 Ujpest Dozsa (Hungary 2-3, 0-3 (Agg 2-6)
European Cup Winners Cup 1979/80: IFK Gotenburg;1-1 , 0-1 (Agg 1-2)
European Cup Winners Cup 1980/81: Hibernians (Malta) 4-0, 0-1 (Agg 4-1)
European Cup Winners Cup 1980/81; Dynamo Tbilisi (USSR) 0-1, 0-4 (Agg 0-5)
European Cup Winners Cup; 1986/87; Bordeux (France) 1-2. 0-4 (Agg 1-6)
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