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Linfiels supporters proudly display the Union Jack flag. ©INPHO/Donall Farmer

Arrests made as Union Jack is raised at Tallaght Stadium by Linfield fans

Shamrock Rovers did not allow the off-field antics distract them from a 4-1 win.

GARDAI IN TALLAGHT made two arrests for ‘public order offences’ last night following a cup clash between Shamrock Rovers and Linfield.

Rovers won their Setanta Cup tie 4-1 but the football was often a side-note on a tumultuous night at Tallaght Stadium.

A member of the gardaí was treated at Tallaght Hospital when they were thrown from their horse, which was startled by a firecracker.

There was sectarian chanting reported from both sets of supporters, with sections of the home crowd singing that there is only ‘one flag in Ireland’.

About 10 Rovers supporters ran onto the pitch to celebrate a goal from Ciaran Kilduff that put their side in charge of the fixture.

With the Dubliners controlling the game, the off-field action was left to barbs from both sets of fans. A Billy Joe Burns goal for Linfield enlivened the atmosphere.

A minority of the Linfield support launched projectiles at the gardaí and match stewards with a small troupe, approximately 12 fans, attempting to gain access to the pitch.

A British flag was also raised, before kick-off, at the far end of the Main Stand, where the Linfield fans were situated, which raised the hackles of the local supporters.

A Union Jack flag is raised at Tallaght Stadium. (©INPHO/Donall Farmer)

A spokesperson for the Garda Press Office confirmed that arrests were made at the ground.

The spokesperson told TheScore.ie, “Two people were arrested for public order offences.

“Their names were taken and they were released last night.”

The spokesperson did hasten to add that the remainder of the night, and post-match, was ‘relatively peaceful’.

In follow-up correspondence, the Press Office commented, “A Garda member was thrown from a Garda horse outside a football match in Tallaght on 4 March; the horse had been startled by a firecracker.

“The Garda member was taken to Tallaght Hospital for treatment, not believed to be life threatening. [The] horse is uninjured.”

Rovers won the fixture thanks to goals from Kilduff, Ronan Finn and Stephen Rice. You can read the report and see the goals here.

- Additional reporting by Steven O’Rourke

Oh captains, our captains: 22 reasons why we’ll miss the Off the Ball team

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79 Comments
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    Mute Laurence Cavanagh
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    Mar 5th 2013, 9:16 AM

    It kills me as a Bohs fan but well done beating ignorance and bigotry!

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    Mute Figo murphy
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    Mar 5th 2013, 2:07 PM

    Sectarian chanting from both sets of fans.

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    Mute Micky malone
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    Mar 5th 2013, 9:13 AM

    Get back across the border yas mexicans

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    Mute Fiachra Molloy
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    Mar 5th 2013, 9:21 AM

    The match was held in ‘Mexico’.

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    Mute Dave Grant
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    Mar 5th 2013, 10:21 AM

    I always thought we were the Mexicans in the south. Am I wrong?

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    Mute Fiachra Molloy
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    Mar 5th 2013, 10:33 AM

    You’re not, unless we’re now Guatemalan or something.

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    Mute Simone Fennell
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    Mar 5th 2013, 11:01 AM

    I thought the Canadians to the north were meant to be peace-loving?

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    Mute Paul
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    Mar 5th 2013, 9:16 AM

    Tuned into the match yesterday. Have to say the supporters sounded ridiculous. Singing songs trying to copy English clubs. Pathetic.

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    Mute Gary Mason™
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    Mar 5th 2013, 10:50 AM

    Oh sorry lets make irish football unique and not sing at all, moron

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    Mute Iain_Nabks
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    Mar 5th 2013, 1:36 PM

    Very true Paul. Spent an evening one time listening to Sligo Town Soccer fans singing “I’d rather be a Paki than a Rossi”.

    It’s childish, the kind of people that have to mimic others.

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    Mute David Linehan
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    Mar 5th 2013, 5:40 PM

    Think he wants us singing Up Rovers! Like the GAAliban muck savages.

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    Mute Paul
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    Mar 5th 2013, 8:35 PM

    How about something original?

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    Mute bignazza
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    Mar 5th 2013, 9:52 PM

    Haha pathetic comment, I didn’t realise you had originate from England to sing extremely common chants known around the world. F off and support your plastic league

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    Mute bignazza
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    Mar 5th 2013, 11:01 PM

    To* argument ruined

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    Mute metro101
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    Mar 5th 2013, 9:57 AM

    I wonder what the reaction might be if the tricolour was waved at Windsor Park

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    Mute Stephen Griffith
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    Mar 5th 2013, 11:20 AM

    Before the game they should take both flags and burn them together in front of everyone in the Stadium.
    Then let them play football.

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    Mute Alien8
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    Mar 5th 2013, 11:48 AM

    I remember Spanish flags when Real Madrid played there. They sang in Spanish as well, and guess what – not one report of ‘sectarianism’

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    Mute Andrew Weir
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    Mar 5th 2013, 2:12 PM

    Very different agenda from the small group of linfield “fans” who were trying to incite trouble.

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    Mute Spencer Millard
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    Mar 7th 2013, 1:39 PM

    Nobody would care, it’s just a flag with coloured lines on. The same kind of nationalist nonsense is very rare in the UK – you are more likely to get a kicking for coming from a different corner of the same town than from a different country or ethnic group.

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    Mute Marty bird
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    Mar 5th 2013, 10:10 AM

    Both set off fans are THUGS

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    Mute Gary Mason™
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    Mar 5th 2013, 10:54 AM

    Such a head in sand point of view, the majority of fans of both clubs are decent people whatever their religious or political views

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    Mute David Linehan
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    Mar 5th 2013, 5:49 PM

    Sad narrow minded little man.

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    Mute Jon Hope
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    Mar 5th 2013, 9:42 AM

    Just kind of feel sorry for these guys. Their supremacy complex doesn’t really wash on either side of the border anymore. It’s a shame really because the Taoiseach actively tries to reach out to the DUP etc when he’s up here. These folks really show the type of people he’s getting into bed with.

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    Mute Frank2521
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    Mar 5th 2013, 9:32 AM

    If the Irish flag was only to be raised in the south of Ireland on the same amount of days as the British flag up north it show some solidarity to the government up north. I would ban all flags as historically they only caused death and terrorism. As Irish people we have little to be proud of — just look at what our politicians, church, councillors, bankers, unions and corrupt individuals have managed to do since the foundation of our state. Is there anyone proud of any politician in Ireland. They all took the money and watched the corruption.

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    Mute Fiachra Molloy
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    Mar 5th 2013, 9:35 AM

    People cause death & terrorism, not flags. If you banned flags they’d just find something else to fight over.

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    Mute Barry
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    Mar 5th 2013, 9:47 AM

    Exactly Fiachra Molloy,

    Flags are not the issue, its merely an excuse.

    As we’ve seen the previous excuse for century’s has been religion, hell thats still the excuse for many in Northern Ireland.

    People just use stuff like this as an excuse.

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    Mute Brian Canavan
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    Mar 5th 2013, 9:49 AM

    Little to be proud of as Irish people? How about our poets, writers, music and musicians, actors, directors, athletes, our world renowned fare, our sense of humour. That is a silly comment

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    Mute Brian Ward
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    Mar 5th 2013, 10:11 AM

    Why not ban team colors as well as historically the only cause trouble at football matches!

    As for solidarity with NI, what respect was shown by “Loyalist” protesters when they burnt the Tricolor outside Belfast city hall and when they burn them on their bonfires on the 12th?

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    Mute Peter Daly
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    Mar 5th 2013, 10:51 AM

    What an ignorant post.

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    Mute Seán T McAuliffe
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    Mar 5th 2013, 11:13 AM

    The union jack is not the national flag of NI, the Tricolour is our national flag, big difference

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    Mute Cathal Lynch
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    Mar 5th 2013, 11:15 AM

    Frank, I must say that your comment is the most ridiculous that I have ever read on this website!

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    Mute Iain_Nabks
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    Mar 5th 2013, 1:38 PM

    Frank.

    You have some profound issues surrounding your identity. No matter how much you wish you were not, you are still an Irish man and to the loyalists that you try to impress or the English Nationalists, you will always just be a bogwog or a Mick.

    Learn to be comfortable in your own skin.

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    Mute David Linehan
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    Mar 5th 2013, 5:39 PM

    Get a grip, Irish and proud. Your views are what’s wrong with modern Irish society. No pride.

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    Mute Patrick Lyons
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    Mar 5th 2013, 6:23 PM

    Frank I do not think that it is a question of pride. To be Irish you must learn how to hate (as long as the hatred is directed towards the correct target).

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    Mute David Linehan
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    Mar 5th 2013, 6:54 PM

    What planet do you live on? Read a history book once in a while, then come back and hopefully your brain does not produce the garbage you’ve just written.

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    Mute John Turkey
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    Mar 5th 2013, 1:58 PM

    The article title is very misleading. In all probability these people weren’t arrested for raising the Union Jack flag, but for violent behavior. But you fooled me into clicking on the story, so well done I guess.

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    Mute Sean Beag
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    Mar 5th 2013, 9:51 AM

    Where they arrested for raising the flag as the headline seems to suggest?

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    Mute Declan McCabe
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    Mar 5th 2013, 9:58 AM

    I was thinking that myself actually. Displays of flags at matches are hardly unique either. “Irish fans brandish Tri-colour in flag shocker”

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    Mute mattoid
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    Mar 5th 2013, 10:26 AM

    Don’t know what chanting went on between the respective sets of supporters, but displaying a flag at a soccer match could hardly be described as ‘bigotry’!

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    Mute David Linehan
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    Mar 5th 2013, 5:46 PM

    They were hostile to the Garda when confronted over trying to knock down the other flag poles, one with the tri- colour.

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    Mute Ian Macdonald
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    Mar 5th 2013, 10:38 AM

    Pathetic tribalism . Feck all to do with football.

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    Mute Dermot Lane
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    Mar 5th 2013, 1:05 PM

    But football supporters are tribal, that’s the case wherever it is played in the work. And not only soccer, Gaelic football and hurling provoke huge tribal rivalries at club and county level.

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    Mute Gearoid Murphy
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    Mar 5th 2013, 6:00 PM

    Difference between Gaa and rugby fans to soccer fans is that gaa and rugby fans can have a chat and a laugh with eachother after the game.. Eg. A cork and kerry man or a munster and leinster man are in the pub having a pint with eachother while the Pats and Bohs fans are outside beating the head off eachother

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    Mute Kev O Dowd
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    Mar 5th 2013, 2:43 PM

    Get off the barstool! Support your local football

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    Mute FreeThinker
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    Mar 5th 2013, 4:28 PM

    No.

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    Mute Shane Ellis
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    Mar 5th 2013, 4:58 PM

    I kicked my local football into my neighbours garden and she won’t give it back!

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    Mute Kev O Dowd
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    Mar 5th 2013, 5:01 PM

    Well if its the “local football” she’s entitled to play with it too every so often

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    Mute Declan Watters
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    Mar 5th 2013, 9:31 PM

    Well said mate!!! Koh or loi-ing ;-)

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    Mute Ronan O Connor
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    Mar 5th 2013, 1:19 PM

    It’s only a flag so what’s the big deal? Tri-colours are seen each week in Old trafford,Goodson park,anfield,……

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    Mute Gary Mason™
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    Mar 5th 2013, 6:01 PM

    Thats more shameful

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    Mute John O'Mahony
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    Mar 5th 2013, 1:46 PM

    Garda horse startled by a firecracker ? Methinks there’s a gap in training there.

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    Mute Fiachra Molloy
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    Mar 5th 2013, 5:41 PM

    There’s no gap in training; the horses have all been exposed to this sort of thing in exercises, but there’s no way of predicting how every animal is going to react every time a banger is thrown at it.

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    Mute David Murphy
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    Mar 5th 2013, 6:41 PM

    It would want to be careful alright. That horse could find its way into a lasagne if it doesn’t remember its training better.

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    Mute Brian O' Rourke
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    Mar 5th 2013, 2:54 PM

    God. They’d be lost without their flag. Bless

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    Mute Tommy C
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    Mar 5th 2013, 4:18 PM

    Most irish football fans support British teams anyway so why not fly the Union flag?

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    Mute FreeThinker
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    Mar 5th 2013, 4:30 PM

    Yeah, it’s quite funny how so many Irish people claim to hate the Brits while supporting UK teams and buying their kits. Hypocrites.

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    Mute Jason Naughton
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    Mar 5th 2013, 4:44 PM

    Exactly. And these people are obsessed with English teams not just supporting them.

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    Mute FreeThinker
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    Mar 5th 2013, 5:18 PM

    Indeed.

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    Mute David Linehan
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    Mar 5th 2013, 5:54 PM

    Yep, this is modern Ireland.

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    Mute Patrick Lyons
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    Mar 5th 2013, 1:40 PM

    I have seen the Irish tricolour at several grounds in GB. It did not make the headlines anywhere – is this strange?

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    Mute Lord Loverocket
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    Mar 5th 2013, 1:57 PM

    Nope

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    Mute #Tag
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    Mar 5th 2013, 2:43 PM

    Maybe because we don’t go to cause trouble?

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    Mute Paul Darby
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    Mar 5th 2013, 6:02 PM

    Not pulled up on a flag pole.These punch of clowns are a disgrace,to compare them to irish fans who travel over to england to watch their teams play, it just really shows you for the closet bigot you are.Imagine the headlines and outrage there would be if rovers fans did the same thing at windsor park,

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    Mute Dave
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    Mar 5th 2013, 2:33 PM

    There’s a good vid on you tube showing the behaviour of one group of Linfield fans, including an assault on a Garda. The hatred was pretty obvious, but all told, it was harmless enough. Personally couldnt care less about the flag – my identity isnt threatened by it!

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    Mute fuzzy ledden201
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    Mar 5th 2013, 11:22 AM

    Frank are you intoxicated

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    Mute sean
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    Mar 5th 2013, 2:38 PM

    Rovers and linfield causing trouble , never !

    Organisers of the 2nd leg should simply ban away fans ……………….anyway the rovers fans whom want to go to windsor really need there heads examined …….not worth it

    Realistically the setanta cup should be scrapped , the NI teams are absolutely brutal

    11
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    Mute David Linehan
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    Mar 5th 2013, 5:52 PM

    I’m going, ordinary decent fan, why should a small minority ruin it for me and the majority alike, never been to Windsor, it’s rare you get the chance. Can’t wait.

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    Mute sean
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    Mar 5th 2013, 10:25 PM

    i went to see dundalk play linfield windsor in setanta cup , it was scary , I did not feel safe at all ,
    good luck ……………….it’ll be another easy win for you ,they are terrible

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    Mute FreeThinker
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    Mar 5th 2013, 2:38 PM

    Football, the great distraction.

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    Mute Tom Collins
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    Mar 5th 2013, 5:14 PM

    Primitive idiots the lot of them

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    Mute David Linehan
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    Mar 5th 2013, 5:56 PM

    The irony of your comment, considering your primitive narrow minded outlook.

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    Mute Tom Collins
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    Mar 5th 2013, 6:49 PM

    Explain your judgement if you will

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    Mute Tom Collins
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    Mar 5th 2013, 6:54 PM

    The lot of you are like dogs barking at each other from different back gardens. Rise above it. Watch football for the football and don’t be dragged down to the gutter. It is you sir that has the narrow mind and you that can’t control the primitive nature that lies in all of us. Irony indeed

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    Mute David Linehan
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    Mar 5th 2013, 6:59 PM

    “Primitive Idiots the lot of them”- I’m a Rovers fan, enjoy every game without hassle, like the majority in attendance. Unless I’m mistaken into thinking you meant the handful of idiots causing minor trouble.

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    Mute David Linehan
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    Mar 5th 2013, 7:04 PM

    I rest my case, tarring everyone with the same brush seems primitive to me.

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    Mute Tom Collins
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    Mar 5th 2013, 7:17 PM

    You don’t have a case David. If you actually read the report you will see that it was minority sections of the supporters. “Idiots all” comment is therefore OBVIOUSLY directed at them. If you can’t understand that we’ll there is no hope. So by you NOT GETTING IT IN THE FIRST PLACE you have caused an argument that if you had given a little more thought to could have been avoided. I’m delighted to see your an honest fan it’s just a pity you painted me with your own brush!

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    Mute Clare Boyne
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    Mar 6th 2013, 8:15 AM

    *Goes back to stitching the FLEG*
    KOH! ;-)

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