Twas the night before Christmas and nothing was stirred...

It is actually the night before the CSKA game

Nietzsche wrote “Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of Man”. It sorta sums up how I feel at the minute. Do I dare to hope about tomorrow night, or should I resign myself to the fact that the every statistic says that we are probably heading out? Derry people don't do accepting the way the things are very well. We tend to go “Batter On” and do what suits us, not what people tell us to do.



I know there will be be few raised eyebrows but we have to look at the other side of the house to take our inspiration for what we need to do tonight. This weekend the Apprentice Boys will march around the walls of the City to celebrate the fact that the walls of the City were not breached in over hundred days. It wasn't easy, there was a lot of hardship but those involved held firm when everyone else thought all was lost. We'll have to draw on that spirit tomorrow night. Tear up the formbook, throw out the history books, crumble up the oods from the bookies. If we don't believe we can win this game then we have lost the battle before we even take the pitch.

Is it going to be easy? No. In fact it will probably be the most difficult game for some of their players in their careers to date. However do you think that Tommy Stewart wants to be back playing the likes of Dungannon or Institute instead of tomorrow night's opposition? No. You want to test yourself against the biggest and the best. Tomorrow night is a chance to do that. They mightn't have the names round Derry that the likes of PSG but that doesn't make them any easier to beat. They are a very good team and we will need a brilliant performance and a large slice of luck to even give us a chance tomorrow night. I love good performances but I would trade the moral victory for a horrible game and a famous result.

Tomorrow night isn't about League points, or a title challenge. It isn't about a derby, a relegation battle or a visit from a Dublin club. It isn't about the Bohs, Shels, Harps or Rovers. There will be no Ian Stokes, no Richie Winter, no Terence Moyne. There will be no Pat Fenlon, no David Jeffrey, no Paul Doolin. It doesn't matter how far behind we are after tonight, or how many times we have each team home or away. Tomorrow night is European football.

We dream about nights like these ones. As a location we are nothing more than a limpet on the arse of Europe, holding on to the very corner of the continent. No one knows us, no one rates us. However we have another chance to make Europe sit up and take notice of this little Candystriped limpet. We have a chance, and that all we can ask for. No one hands us anything here, no one makes it easy for us but we're still hear. The Irish League sides have bowed out with a record of P8 W0 D1 L7 F4 A32. Half of the League of Ireland representatives are already out. Ourselves and Pats are left flying the flag and let's hope that both will advance to the draw tomorrow.

So starting from now, let's get the build up start. Send that text to everyone badgering them to come to the game. Have a juke on YouTube at the old favourites. Stick that DCFC playlist on your iPod on. Tomorrow. The day. You wake up with that feeling in your stomach. No one else will understand it, people will make some crap joke about you having swine flu. Don't worry, we'll all have the same feeling. It might be August, bring your scarf and your gear to work. Radio on in work? Fry their heads texting in requests for any Derry City related songs. Steal all the work papers, read all the previews. Check and recheck the message board. People might ask you for inconveniences such as work to be finished before you head off for the match. Do these people not know what is happening tomorrow?

This is no paparazzi driven, media hyped pre-season friendly tournament. This is no Audi Cup, no Community Shield or no Beijing Memorial Tournament. Others will be getting worked up by who they can get in their Fantasy Football side for their last 9 million. Tomorrow night isn't fantasy, tomorrow night is reach out and touch it stuff instead. We'd like a bit of fantasy football right enough but tomorrow is about making it happen. We don't care about Alonso to Madrid or Van Der Sar's finger, leave that to people who believe Andy Gray is a modern day prophet.

You might see a few other heads in work who are heading to the game. You might be wandering round the town over your lunch and you'll see the faces. You might nod, nothing will be said, but you will both know. You might work with a few fellow City heads and you might have a chat about it at half time. You'll worry, you'll be nervous, you'll be agitated. People around you who support a team by watching a 2D image beamed from miles away won't get it. Sack them, these feelings would be wasted on them.

Wherever you are heading to the game from be it London, Dublin, Belfast or the top of the folly, the buzz will be there when you are ready to go. I'm already working out just how early I can manage to extricate myself out of work in Dublin tomorrow to maximise my time in Derry before the game. We spare a thought for the exiles. I know how grim it is to be trapped, away from home on nights like this. Whatever about being in Derry, people elsewhere definitely don't understand. We'll do our best to convey the atmosphere to you via iCandy.

Work done, you're on your way. Be it to Waterloo Street, the Oak or straight to the game. Get the colours on, get the music blaring. If you in Waterloo Street, get the chants ringing out. This is our City, this is our team, this is our night. Moreso, we could convince a few floating fans or tourists to come along to the game. Whatever about the result, if this game doesn't sell out there should be serious questions asked. Those will be other questions for another day.

Get there early. We need a big one. No, we need a massive one tomorrow night. We need to make the sound of 2,000 to sound like 20,000. At this point I think it is apt to reiterate some of the points made pre Riga.

“We are Derry City. Everything else in your life may change but you'll always be a City fan. You may waver at times, you may wonder you do it at times, but you're always a City fan. You might be driving back from Cork/Waterford/Dublin after a defeat and moaning, but you're always City. You always look at the fixtures to see how you can fit it round holidays. You'll text home or seek an internet cafe for the results. People ask you who you support, you say Derry. You don't have to think about it, there is only one answer. People ask you who you really support and you think “What does this clown mean” and just go, Derry. Tomorrow night is a chance to enjoy yourself, throw off the shackles of the rest of your problems and just go mad. Let the Premiershite brigade wet themselves over another weekend of televised bollix. Brandywell, 7pm, that's what it is all about.”

Sing until you are dizzy, clap your hands until they are raw. It is up to the manager to decide what way we play it, how much we push it or how much patience we exert. There will be times you won't want to sing. There will be times you will think you can't sing any more. Your head should be aching, and you should be incapable of any speech. Just sing. That's it.

It is all about the pride and the passion, the ninety minutes. 11 heroes from the edge of Europe against a side that could buy and sell us with loose change. None of that matters when the players take the pitch tomorrow night, it is just 22 players and 90 minutes. Names, reputations and the like mean nothing tomorrow night. We need a win and we need a clean sheet. The opposition is frankly irrelevant, that's what need. Yeah, it would be easier if we were playing Finn Harps but we aren't. Suck it and breathe it in. This is what it is all about.

Players and supporters: don't leave anything behind. No regrets. Tomorrow morning, next week, next month; don't find yourself stopping and thinking “I could have given something more”. Leave here tonight knowing there was nothing more you could have done for the team. So no-one else gets it. No one else gets why you bust you balls and your wallets to follow a team all over the country in a League that no-one cares about. Well tomorrow night you will be with 2,500 others who understand. We all do the same. It matters.

There will be a winner and there will be a loser tomorrow night. CSKA, the media, the bookies all expect that the CSKA jolly will continue to the next round. Let tomorrow night be the night that bring another big name to their knees in the Brandywell. I mentioned the Apprentice Boys earlier in the piece. Well tiocfaidh ár lá. Let tomorrow be that day.

Choose to forget the Irish League.
Choose rebirth.
Choose 1985.
Choose Declan McDowell.
Choose EMFA in the snow.
Choose Da Gama and Da Silva.
Choose red and white convoys.
Choose tea and soup at half time.
Choose Cork at Flower Lodge.
Choose a mass exodus for a cup final.
Choose Jim McLaughlin.
Choose the Treble in '89.
Choose the Jungle.
Choose Punts and Euros.
Choose Storky scoring against Benfica.
Choose trying to pick Liam Coyle's best goal.
Choose Sunday at the Brandy.
Choose scoring a 100 goals and coming second.
Choose Roy Coyle kicking Turlough O'Connor up the arse.
Choose owning the League Cup.
Choose McNabb and "Miss it" Blisset.
Choose Derry City 3 Celtic 2.
Choose outsinging every team we ever play.
Choose beating Finn Harps.......every time.
Choose winter football.
Choose summer football.
Choose Coyle putting Puyol on his arse.
Choose Cardiff, Lisbon, Arnhem(twice), Sofia, Maribor, Nicosia, Gothenburg, Gretna, Paris, Pyunik, Riga, Sofia.
Choose planes, trains and automobiles to get to the game.
Choose to back Stuarty to score that penalty.
Choose to hate Shane Curran and Tom McNulty.
Choose beating Sligo after going 4-0 down.
Choose being two kicks from two doubles.
Choose the League in '97.
Choose the Dublin mafia.
Choose the Undertones in Squires.
Choose DCFC Online.
Choose Brandywell Pride.
Choose to abandon your barstool.
Choose the League of Ireland.
Choose face paint and tickertape.
Choose City till you die.
Choose sing songs and ding dongs.
Choose to walk a million miles for their goals.
Choose your Teenage Kicks.
Choose Derry 2 Finn Harps 1.
Choose the game to end all games.
Choose God to score.
Choose to think that it's destiny.
Choose red and white.
Choose Candystripes.
Choose Derry City F.C


Hit them Derry!