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Irish visit at Tingbjerg Ground

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A group of groundhoppers from Ireland visited Tingbjerg Ground yesterday, where they witnessed a 4-1 victory. We spoke to one of them about his experience of the match.

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After the match, we sat down with Irishman Barry Worthington, whose surname is the same as a beer company in England, and had a little chat about him, why he was at Tingbjerg Ground today and what he got out of the match against Karlslunde.

Barry is from Dublin and has been a supporter of the Dublin club Shelbourne FC since 1982. If you're not familiar with Shelbourne, don't worry… we've done our research.

Shelbourne FC was founded in 1895. They have won the Irish Championship 13 times (most recently in 2006) and the Irish Cup 7 times (most recently in 2000). Last season they were in the 1st division but after winning the division they are back in the top Irish division.

Shelbourne has participated in the European tournaments several times and has met Danish teams twice. The latest was in 2006, when they met OB in the Intertoto Cup (no longer exists). Here they were beaten 1-3 overall. In 2001 they met Brøndby in the qualifying round for the UEFA Cup. Here it was a total defeat of 0-5 over two matches. But it was this particular showdown that started it all for Barry Worthington and football visits in Denmark.

Because in 2001 he made the trip from Dublin to Brøndby to see his team, and he fell in love with Brøndby IF. The following year he moved to Copenhagen, where of course he got a job at the bar The Dubliner.

Since then he has traveled around the world to watch football and although he no longer lives in Denmark, he still visits the country 2-3 times a year. He often see a match further down the ranks followed by Brøndby's match on Sunday.

On this trip, the choice fell on Brønshøj Boldklub. "Brønshøj is not just a football club. It is all its own and has a very special character. It is a real club with atmosphere and people whose heart really beats for the club. I've been to stadiums where you wanted to leave after 20 minutes because there was no atmosphere. This is not the case in Brønshøj. Here it's an event to go to football", explains Barry in his explanation of why Brønshøj should be seen this time.

However, it wasn't just the atmosphere and the match itself that Barry enjoyed. He was also quite excited about the quality of the turf. "It's an incredible pitch for a club in the fifth best tier. It had not looked like that in Ireland. Brønshøj is also a club which is organized to be higher up in the ranks. But big credit to those who look after the pitch", said Barry about the condition of the pitch.

We were happy to welcome Barry to Tingbjerg Ground for the first time, but he has promised us to come back.

Luk