Tales From The East Stand

We've got one of the worst games of all time against Derry and one of the most interesting editions of the Members Corner ever with Lighting Designer Steve Douglas joining us in the Lair. Steven has toured with the Killers, Hozier and The Corrs for many years and worked with a number of famous performers all over the world.

It's the beginning of the 2000s series with Brian McKenna and Tony O'Dowd, who was a goalkeeper at the club for the five seasons covered in another special show recorded at the Four Provinces Pub. From Santry to Bertie turning the sod to Odra and a dry cleaners' bill, we've got it all in this deep dive into Hoops history.

We talk the win in Drogheda with Ed McGinty's injury-time penalty save, and, in an international week there's another double author feature with "Shades of Green" by Chris Lee, and "Lansdowne Road", co-written by Gerrard Siggins. The 30th anniversary of the Lansdowne Road Riot passed by recently, so Ger, along with four Rovers fans - Bill Gleeson, Phelim Warren, Graham Merrigan and Con Murphy - recall the events of that day against England.

We talk our first league win of the season against St Pat's, and although we're a week late for International Women's Day and World Book Day, Hannah Dunne interviews Rovers players Melissa O'Kane and Fiona Owens ahead of the women's team's first home game in Tallaght on Saturday, and there's a double author feature with two Rovers fans who have written non-football books. With Friday's trip to top of the table Drogheda, Dr Thomas Tormey, who has been Historian in Residence with Louth Library Service since 2021, tells us about "War and Peace in the Wee County", his year-long 90s series with Juz on the podcast, ranking our best ever European results and more. First, Karl catches up with his old primary school classmate Aaron Rogan, author of "Punters", a book about the rise of Paddy Power and the online gambling industry.

We talk the St Pat's and Sligo games, Rory, Roddy and Ian Harte. There's an interview with St Pat's fan 'Dodge' as Rovers look for their first league win of the season on Friday night.

We've a lot to catch up on but the first hour and a half relates to tonight's game against Shelbourne at Tolka Park, with some chit chat about recent podcasts, the LIST OF HATRED, starting XI and predictions and an interview with League of Ireland legend Mark Rutherford, who played for both clubs. There's penalty shootout heartbreak in our Conference League knockout tie with Molde, a Dublin Derby loss at Lansdowne Road and then a home game against Cork that was rained off. Our other interview is the curious case of the Scandinavian Hoops, a Rovers supporters' club based in Norway.

It's the fifth and final part of our 1990s series with Justin Mason and Tommy Tormey. We relive the 1998/99 season, with a guest appearance from Jim Conroy about being Turkey in the summer of '98. We talk the FAI Super Cup, Jason Sherlock's helicopter, the hole in the net at Oriel Park and more, before a new era under Damien Richardson in Santry begins. On the topic of programme notes...Con Murphy reads a sample from Rico.

There's a preview of the Molde tie with Norwegian sports reporter Vegard Flemmen Vaagbø, a round up of all the news since Christmas and a Chelsea, theatre, quiz and car themed TFTES Hotline, with Gary O'Neill among the 10 callers.

It's our first podcast in two months and we've got Stephen Jones' review of our Civic Theatre Show, and a double author feature. Eamonn Donohue (Cabra Cadabra, 2015) becomes our first novelist to be interviewed, and we round off our look back at Stamford Bridge with Nik Yeomans, whose new book is called Blue is the Colour: The Complete History of the Chelsea Shirt.

Our Christmas Show special guest is Dunster, just days after his 50th birthday and seeing his brother elected to the Members Board, joining us in the Lair to look back at the Rapid Vienna and Borac games and plan our trip to Stamford Bridge on Thursday. We announce our three Rovers players/staff for the TFTES Live Show at the Civic on January 11th, there's a replay of a Leo O'Reilly interview about him scoring twice for Rovers against Chelsea in 1955, and a chat with George Cronin, Glenn's dad, a supporter of both the Hoops and the Blues since the 70s.

We've got news on our return to the Civic Theatre on January 11th, Phelim Warren's report on the Rovers in the Community Project (from 49 mins), Goran Arbutina on everything you need to know about Thursday's opponents Borac Banja Luka (1 hour 33 mins), and two TFTES Hotlines ahead of Saturday's Member's Club AGM, with four of the six candidates up for election - Ciaran Kane, Colm Nolan, Sean Blake and Denis Donohue - calling in (the hour mark). Later, eight fans share their Vienna experience: Brian & Liz McKenna, Anto Proctor, Albert McCready, John "Dikie" Doyle, Aidan Maher, Eamonn MacConville and John Byrne (2 hours 37 mins).

We've got a round up of the news the last couple of weeks and journalist Anna Konovalova has everything you need to know about Rapid Vienna ahead of Rovers' trip to the Austrian capital.

We talk Rovers getting 7 points in group stage football after the win over Welsh champions TNS, and Mark Langshaw, author of 'A League of Our Own: The Cymru Premier Story', tells us about the only book written about domestic football over there. Plus: the karma of Derry losing the FAI Cup final to Drogheda, with Dave Webster returning to the podcast for a chat about a fairytale end to his 17-year career.

We reflect on the last day of the league season which saw the title go to Shelbourne, and we're joined by John Lumley from TNS ahead of Thursday's Conference League group stage game in Tallaght.

We're Zoomin' on Halloween to talk the wins in Belfast, with the Graham Burke Show, and Dundalk, which takes the title race down to the last day. Harry Moore hosts the quiz final between Gary O'Neill and Conan Noonan in front of the players and staff at Roadstone.

We're back with a stuffy Drogheda recap with a Dylan Watts thunderbolt, Sean Hoare vs Conan Noonan and Gary O'Neill vs Pico Lopes in the quiz semi-finals, and Larne marketing officer Chris Liddle helps us look ahead to Thursday's European trip to Belfast.

We have 300th episode reaction and three match reviews, against Pat's, APOEL and Shelbourne, with the Jack Byrne mic drop, pro wrasslin' and an unpredictable title race.

To celebrate 300 episodes of TFTES, we do things a little differently in part four of a long-running 1990s series with Justin Mason and Tommy Tormey, as we invite lots of guests up on stage at the Four Provinces. Brian McKenna has the honour of being substituted for Pat Byrne, general manager in that 1996/97 season, and they're followed by former teammates Tony Cousins, Derek Tracey and Tony O'Dowd. Hoops fans Mick Kearns, Bill Gleeson, Mick McCarthy, Eoghan Rice and Paul Donohoe round out our guest list to chat about Europe, podcast and 90s highlights.

We talk that penalty in Derry and the wand in Tallaght, before the September edition of the TFTES Hotline with nine callers and ten topics. Plus there's news on our upcoming 300th episode, and an APOEL preview with the help of John Leonidou and 'This Is Mappa' podcast.

There's back-to-back wins over Sligo and Galway, Dundalk nearly going out of business, Aaron Greene vs Conan Noonan and Sean Hoare vs Johnny Kenny in the quiz quarter-finals and the return of 'In Memoriam', as we pay tribute to Maureen Connolly and Anthony McDonald once again and hear touching memories from eight new sons and daughters.