The Day Home Farm Scaled the Pinnacle of Irish Football
By Eamon Scott
APRIL 1975 was a tumultuous time in World history – the fall of Saigon and the capture of South Vietnam capital by the North Vietnamese dominated headlines. Elsewhere Bill Gates and Paul Allen incorporated Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico and a certain Robbie Fowler was born in Liverpool. The first digital camera was introduced by Kodak and Art Garfunkel appeared in the chart for the first time in 1975 without his singing partner Paul Simon, topping the chart with ‘I Only Have Eyes for You’.
Closer to home the Irish pound was the currency: a pint of Guinness would set you back 24p (30c) while the average industrial wage was the equivalent of £2,520 (€3,200) and a three bed-roomed semi would cost £13,100 (€16,700).
Up in Home Farm there was revolution afoot but also a strong Corinthian spirit where the amateur approach and ‘love of the game’; was enshrined in the club’s constitution.
In 1972, Home Farm had appointed Willie Phillips as their first ever League of Ireland manager and the following season he was replaced by Scotsman John McSeveney. He had to resign for domestic reasons in his first season and former Everton FC coach Tommy Eglinton stepped
in to fill the breach until ex-Arsenal and Reading player Dave Bacuzzi, who had also been coach at Eton College, was appointed in April 1974.
The club’s ethos of steering clear of the professional code proved a massive challenge to Bacuzzi, who, at 34 years of age, believed he still had ‘a few good years to offer on the pitch’. But the committee members of the club, including those who had founded it in 1928, refused to relent and while Bacuzzi admitted that “It took me a long time to make the decision,” it was the challenge to his coaching ability that won him over and he was later to confide: “I think I made the right decision.”
Home Farm were just three years into League of Ireland football having purchased Tolka Park from Drumcondra FC’s Prole family in 1972. They finished third from bottom with Limerick and Sligo Rovers beneath them in their debut season. The following 73-74 season saw an improvement, finishing tenth of 14 clubs.
The 1974-75 season saw Home Farm drop to 11th spot with Limerick, Shelbourne and Sligo below them. On the goal scoring front in the Bass League, striker Frank Devlin finished in third place behind Brendan Bradley and Mick Leech.
There was little to suggest that Home Farm’s league form would indicate any degree of confidence in adding the FAI Senior Cup trophy to the club’s illustrious history. The FAI Junior Cup had been won in 1954-55 and the FAI Intermediate Cup in 1963, 1967 and 1968, but the FAI Senior Cup looked like a mountain too high to climb. But hindsight suggests that such a scenario was perhaps unfair on the coaching ability of Dave Bacuzzi and the inherent quality in the squad captained by Jack Dempsey.
Remarkably, Dempsey had only come back into the team when defender Tom O’Dea emigrated to the USA. The affable Dempsey was to prove an inspiring character in the dressing room and his leadership and motivational powers extracted the most out of the squad made up of a few mature players alongside several talented but inexperienced teenagers. A director of a fruit company, Dempsey brought a box of oranges to the team’s Saturday training sessions and they proved to be the team’s ‘lucky mascot.’
Home Farm’s first outing in their cup run was a home game against a Dundalk side in Tolka Park on February 18. In a tight game Joe Smith’s 23rd minute strike earned the Whitehall club a ticket into the third round as he finished off a Frank Devlin overhead kick. Bacuzzi had guessed Jim McLaughlin would play only one wide player and the Farm boss encouraged Smith to get forward and he ended up in the right place at the right time to get the famous cup run up and running.
Another Home Draw – this time against Cork Celtic who featured ex-Chelsea ace Bobby Tambling in their ranks – saw the amateurs triumph on a 3-2 scoreline with Frank Devlin finding the net twice and Kevin Courtney also on the mark with a spectacular long distance strike.
That victory set up a semi-final at ‘neutral’; Dalymount Park and once again the blue and white hoops proved victorious with a brace of goals from Tony Higgins and an own goal
enough to see off St Patrick’s Athletic on a 3-2 scoreline once again. Skipper Dempsey had had a titanic battle against former Leicester City striker Peter Jackson and came off the pitch with his head covered in bruises that physio Trevor Enderson had to deal with.
Cup final opponents Shelbourne had received two home draws in the earlier rounds – a two-nil victory over Athlone Town and a tough one-nil success over Shamrock Rovers. For the semi-final, the Reds had to travel to Flower Lodge to tackle Cork Hibs where in a 1-1 draw with Mick Lawlor on the mark was enough to bring the tie to a replay in Dublin on April 9 with a lone Eric Barber strike seeing off Dave Bacuzzi’s old club.
The final was scheduled for April 27, 1975 and in the build-up the Reds were clear favourites with the bookies and the players rumoured to be on £500 a player to lift the fabled
trophy, first won by St Jame’s Gate back in 1922. There was talk of flying O’Dea home from the States but the decision was made to back their inspirational skipper to lead the club in the upcoming decider.
Home Farm however, was about to write the most celebrated day in the club’s history. Superbly prepared and coached by Bacuzzi, the youthful Home Farm amateurs turned in a
stunning performance and claimed the trophy for the first time thanks to Frank Devlin’s seventh minute half-volley from close in. Frank would go on and claim the Man of the Match
award.
Writing in The Irish Press the following day soccer correspondent Mel Moffat wrote: “They won it hands down on merit as their seemingly ceaseless energy made Shelbourne look like
a limp and tired outfit.”
Such was the superiority of Home Farm’s play that goalkeeper Jim Grace was really only troubled twice in the game – a Vinny McKenna shot in the first half and an Eric Barber header in the second half that brough out a brilliant reaction save from Jim Grace. By that stage Home Farm should have been out of sight such was their dominance.
Added Moffat: “It was only shocking luck that prevented them from handing out a hammering to Shels, who looked a little bewildered and a whole lot disorganised as Farm’s
front runners tore huge gaps in the defence and Joe Smith completely snuffed out the midfield threat of Mick Lawlor.
Home Farm hit the bar twice -one of them agonisingly ran across the goal-line and refused to go in – and many times were clean through but couldn’t hit the target.’ Speaking post-match Frank Devlin claimed that David Hughes’ header which came off the post and ran along the line had actually crossed it for a second goal but referee Paddy Mulhall waved play on.
Regardless, in front of 9000 spectators there was no denying Home Farm and the iconic picture of captain Jack Dempsey raising the FAI Cup aloft to the delight of their many fans, which also included club founders, Brendan Menton and Don Seery, is indelibly etched into the memory.
The 500/1 outsiders had made a mockery of those odds and had taken the game to Shelbourne from the first whistle. In the first eight minutes Home Farm forced four corners and from the last of these taken by Joe Keely, Shels netminder Willie Byrne came to punch clear but only succeeded in directing the ball to Tony Higgins and his downward header found Devlin to blast the ball to the net from five yards out.
Peter Byrne in The Irish Times referred to Home Farm’s remarkable progress from no-hopers when the competition began to produce a result that ranked among the great FAI
Cup upsets.
From the outside that might have been the optics but the victory was carved out of a belief in team-work that had been instilled by Bacuzzi. Dempsey, the elder statesman at 30, missed the Cork Celtic game with a groin injury but insisted: “We don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t win the Cup as Dave Bacuzzi has instilled great confidence in all the players, especially the younger players.” The average age of the team on the day was just 21.5 years, with Martin Murray at 16, being one of the youngest, if not the youngest, player ever to win a FAI senior cup medal.
In the final, Home Farm refused to sit on their lead and time after time carved Shelbourne wide open.
David Faiers writing in The Evening Herald commented: “A side of much greater verve and skill too on the day, Home Farm gave an object lesson in teamwork to prove the contention
of inspiring manager Dave Bacuzzi that the only difference between part-times and amateurs is that one group gets paid and the other does not.”
The fairytale and impossible dream had come through and Home Farm had claimed the most prized trophy in Irish Senior football.
The post-match celebrations in the Clare Manor Hotel went on into the early hours with champagne freely flowing as the club celebrated a famous win.
Noel Dunne in The Irish Independent wrote: “These Whitehall Whizz-Kids did not just win this game – they owned it and made a mockery of the supposed ‘professionalism’ of their
opponents. Shelbourne were sickened by the seventh minute goal from 23-year-old Frank Devlin, became progressively more ill, and eventually died a lingering death.”
Peter Byrne in The Irish Times heaped praise on Dave Bacuzzi for his footballing nous and getting his tactics spot-on. He wrote: “Through it all ran the unmistakable strategy of Dave Bacuzzi in his first year as manager of Home Farm. He called most of the shots that mattered and eventually reduced the Shelbourne challenge to a situation in which desperation superseded inspiration.”
There’s only been 18,262 days since that momentous day back in April 1975. The world has changed dramatically in the intervening time but for those of a blue and white persuasion who were playing or in attendance at Dalymount Park that April Sunday in 1975, the memory is as fresh as ever when Home Farm scaled the pinnacle of Irish football by claiming the FAI Senior Cup.
It’s a signal honour that places the squad and management in the pantheon of club greats and fifty years on, the current management, members and players Home Farm are proud to welcome back and honour the cup winning squad of 1975.
Along with Dave Bacuzzi, the names of Jim Grace, Joe Smith, Brian Daly, Dermot Keely, Mick Brophy, Jack Dempsey, David Hughes, Joe Keely, Tony Higgins, Frank Devlin, Martin Murray, Tom O’Dea, Noel King, Donal Cregan, Cormac Breslin, Mick O’Grady and Kevin Courtney have rightly earned their place of permanent honour in Home Farm Football Club. Their tale has been an inspiration and will continue to be so for future generations.
Your work is done. We thank you!
