Vinny Perth interviewed by Keith Wallace
25th October 2007
Five cup final appearances, two FAI Cup winners medals, one League Cup winners medal, one First Division winners medal, promotion to the Premier Division, four UEFA Cup appearances, a holder of FAI Cup and League Cup runners-up medals, and a man who has represented the club closest to his heart, Longford Town, over 200 times…impressive CV eh?! And, he’s not finished yet.
Vinny Perth arrived at Oriel Park last January looking for a new home, after, by his own confession, “moping around” following his departure from Longford two years previous. The Dubliner made his debut for the midlanders way back in 1998 after being signed by Stephen Kenny, and achieved unprecedented success at the club. “I was probably one of Stephen’s first signings,” Perth recalls. “I was playing LSL football with Cherry Orchard before that. I had played with a couple of League of Ireland under-21 sides, but I never really settled, so I stayed at Cherry Orchard. I played with them for a couple of years and sort of achieved what I wanted to, so then I went to Longford. There were 50 or 60 people down there for the first game. I ended up playing in Europe for them a couple of times, won three cups and played in five cup finals in the end. You obviously don’t expect it to go that way. It was really amazing. They were crazy times – it was a really, really great experience.”
The Longford Town birth began in 2000, when Perth helped lead them to promotion to the top flight by finishing second to Bray Wanderers. The following season, they consolidated their Premier status by finishing eighth, while they also lined out against Bohemians in the FAI Cup final. They were to suffer the disappointment of defeat there, losing 1-0, but it was in the same competition two years later, when Longford beat Saint Patrick’s Athletic 2-0 in the decider, that Vinny sees as his career highlight. “That was probably my best season, I enjoyed it more than any other in my career. We were very, very good that year – we finished fourth in the league, we got to the League Cup final where Pats beat us, and then we turned around and beat them in the FAI Cup. It was the first time I had ever won anything at that level, so it meant a lot.
“I had always supported Pats as a child, so it meant a lot to me. It was in Lansdowne Road, there was a massive crowd on the day, and it was probably one of the best experiences of my life. We done a couple of psychological things in the run-up to it. We had read a couple of Lance Armstrong books and we had a theme going. It was sort of ‘no chain’ – he used to have that slang – they used to say going up the Alps ‘there’s no chain on my bike’ – he was basically saying it was that easy. We had this massive team bonding, team spirit thing going into the final. We got a bus from City West to Lansdowne Road with a police escort, and believe it or not, it was one of the best bus rides I was ever on – the experience of it was awesome. I just knew on the bus on the way in that we’d win, and although we only won 2-0, we absolutely annihilated Pats on the day. I don’t think I’d ever match that day in my career.”
Those cup runs, in 2001 and 2003, handed Perth the chance to shine on the European stage for the first time, when Longford went up against Litex Lovech (Bulgaria) and Vaduz (Liechtenstein). Both were to end in defeat, but, as he admits, it’s an experience, both on and off the pitch, that the 31-year-old will never forget. “The first time we played in Europe,” Vinny recalls, “we were training on the pitch the night before and there were no seats in the ground. We were training at about 5pm and we went off to the hotel then. We came back the following day and there were 5,500 seats after being put in overnight. That’s why I have such an affiliation with the club, because those seats were put in by people off the street, all the supporters, families came down and drilled holes and put them in. That wouldn’t happen at any of the Dublin clubs certainly. Seeing that happen down there was awesome. Aunties and uncles of players coming down to put seats in – it was amazing. As a kid, you always dream of playing at the highest level, and to play in the UEFA Cup, nobody can take it away from you. You might say you only played in the First Round or whatever, but so what? It’s the UEFA Cup, you always want to aim for the highest level. The Bulgarian side we played, we drew 1-1 with them. It was an amazing experience. They had a couple of players who were in the Bulgarian World Cup squad two years later, so it was one of those experiences that you aim for as a player. We were quite unlucky with Vaduz in 2004. People think because they’re from Liechtenstein, they’re not great, but eight or nine of their players played on the team that were only beaten 1-0 by France a couple of months later. But it was a great experience, it’s great to say that you’ve played in the UEFA Cup – it means a lot.”
‘Vincenzo’ departed after his second FAI Cup win in ‘04 before he could taste more European action against Carmarthen (Wales) the following season (Longford lost 5-2 on aggregate), however, it certainly wasn’t the choice of the midfielder to leave Flancare Park. “It wasn’t my decision,” he laments. “I was there for eight seasons and I would have stayed for the rest of my career if I had to have my way. It was the manager’s decision at the time and they wanted to move things on and bring in fresh blood. The manager certainly felt that I had run my course there. I played a couple of hundred times for them. I sort of spent a year or two moping around after being let go by Longford, because it was a very important club to me and it means a lot to me, because of what we achieved. They went from being a nothing club to constantly winning cups and being up there, and going to Tolka Park and beating Shels in their heyday. We used to go up to the Brandywell and win, and expect to win, where even now teams would go up and be happy with a point. We were about four or five years unbeaten up in the Brandywell – we had that type of team and that mentality. I got on well with the supporters, strangely enough they liked me, they liked my character and that. There are a lot of good people down there, and I just really settled in and made a lot of friends there over the years. There’s a long story behind it, but I was waiting to sign a contract, and in the end there wasn’t one there, so I moved on.”
Following that, Perth considered retiring from the game at the age of 28, but after recovering from the shock of being released by Longford, despite taking part in their pre-season, he decided to keep playing and joined his childhood heroes, Saint Patrick’s Athletic. “I considered retiring a lot,” he admits, “because the league has moved on so much in the professional area in the Premier Division, and because I had had a lot of success, I just felt it was getting too quick for me in the Premier. I was worried about staying on and letting myself down, and because of that, I had considered giving it up. For the first week after leaving Longford, I was that down and upset about it, I was definitely retiring. But as time went on, I felt I still had something to offer, so I then went to Pats. They were struggling for money and players at the time. I spoke to a friend who knew Johnny McDonnell and he had asked the friend about me, so I decided to stay on in the league and I went up and signed for them. I spent a season and a half with them, but I never really settled at the club. I was actually more worried about Longford’s results on a Saturday night than Pat’s on a Friday night. Longford still means that much to me, it really means a lot, so it just got to me and I sort of wasted a year and a half. I left Pats because they had also moved on to where they are now; they were full-time and I couldn’t commit to that, I was only part-time with them. It just wasn’t really working out, I was in and out of the team. I had helped them stay up the year before, but they had got some money and they had signed a couple of better players, so I started to struggle to get into the team. I wasn’t sure what to do then, but Shamrock Rovers came in for me, and they were going well in the First Division, so I decided to just go on-loan to them until the end of that season.”
That four-month spell brought with it a First Division winners medal as Rovers claimed the title by a single point from Dundalk, but is Pat Scully as difficult to work under as it would appear from reports? “Yes and no,” Vinny says. “A lot of the things he done are very good, but a lot of the other things he done lets himself down. I would still have a lot of time for him, but some of the things he done were crazy, and if you ever went into management, it would be hard to do some of the things he does. But, having said that, some of the other things he does are so good, like they are where they are now, and the majority of that is down to him.
“I got injured towards the end of the season with Rovers, but I think I was a big part of what they achieved there. I played really well for them, but I ended up getting injured and I just couldn’t get myself fit to play any part in the end of the season. I left then because I was just out of contract and they were moving up to the Premier Division. I hadn’t played for the last couple of months of the season, and it had run its course. It wasn’t a club that I had got affiliated to too closely, because it’s difficult to. I would say Dundalk is a bit more like Longford than Rovers is. There are some wonderful people at Rovers, but there is a bigger element who aren’t nice people – I’d say that openly to anybody. There are some wonderful people down there keeping that club afloat, and it’s a pity that a big majority of people spoil what some of them are doing.”
By the time the IAG D-day came around on 11 December, three weeks after Rovers had secured the title, Perth was a free agent, though, he admits that the decision to deny Dundalk a place in the top flight doesn’t make sense. “I was following it very closely. If you’re into League of Ireland, you know what’s happening. I’m not saying this because I’m playing with Dundalk now, but it didn’t and doesn’t make any sense to me at all. It was a ludicrous decision. I’ve been at some big clubs, I’ve been at Pats and Rovers in Dublin, and I think this club has the makings of being bigger than them all. I think Rovers are a massive club, unfortunately they really are a big club, but I think this club could be bigger. You only have to look at what has happened down the road at Drogheda – I think we could be much bigger than Drogheda here.”
After being released by Rovers directly following their league celebrations in Cobh, Vinny once again considered hanging up his boots, however, John Gill had different ideas. And, not for the first time, the manager lured a player out of retirement to sign on at Oriel Park. “Obviously, I had a good relationship with John over the years,” Perth says, “so he knew what type of person and player I was. I think he felt I’d add to the squad. I had considered retiring at the end of last season, I just wanted to do my badges, but I met him a couple of times and he convinced me to come up and stay on for a year or two and keep playing. I think John tried to sign me everywhere and I kept turning him down, so I couldn’t do it to him this time. I tried my best but he talked me into it.
“I suppose that’s why I feel I’ve let not just him, but I’ve let a lot of people down around here. It has been the worst season of my career – I haven’t shown people what I can do. This season has been so hard. I’ve never claimed to be the best player or even a very good or good player, I just give 200% to everything I do. I think that’s why, at any club I’ve played with, a lot of the fans would like me. And I haven’t been able to do that here, because I haven’t been able to get injury free. I honestly, hand on heart, feel that I’ve let people down. Even last Friday week in the game against Finn Harps, that hurt me so much, because it was a defeat and who it was against, and because I didn’t affect the game as much as I would have liked to. It’s hurting me, it’s hurting me big time. I’m not that type of person who comes to a club and doesn’t care about it. I obviously care about Dundalk, I think this club deserves to be in the Premier Division. I don’t know how to put it into words – I’d be very upset about how this year has gone, and I honestly believe I’ve let people down. I’m just hoping that, now that I may have got myself fit, I may be able to show people in these last seven games what I can do and pay them back a little bit, and that’s what I hope to do.
“My plans for the future are very unclear, because, ultimately, this has been a disastrous season for me. I’ve let people down, so I wouldn’t expect John to be chasing me back down the M1 looking for me to sign again in a hurry. I’ve got seven games to prove to people what I can do, and after that, I’ll see what happens. I love football more than anything in the world – if I’m not training or playing, if there’s an eircom League or LSL match on, I’m at it. No matter what happens, I will get involved in coaching or managing at some stage at some level. That’s what I want to do, but I’m not over the hill yet – I’ve still got something to offer if I can get myself fit. I just don’t know what the future holds; unfortunately, things have gone wrong for me this year.”
