TBC

Played: 3 Won: 0 Drawn: 0 Lost: 3 Goals For: 0 Goals Against: 4 Goal Difference: -4 Points: 0. Early days though they are, the League of Ireland table makes pretty grim reading for supporters of 12^th-place Bohemian Football Club, or The Big Club as they are more commonly known - a reference to the fact that they are easily one of the biggest clubs in Dublin 7. And things may get even worse before they get better for Aaron Callaghan and his band of amatuer men, as this Sunday Liam Buckley takes his swashbuckling, tiki-taki, Total Football Saints to the Leo Burdock Arena for what once would have been a top-of-the-table clash.

TBC HQ, Zurich, Switzerland

The Big Club (or TBC) have fallen on hard times of late, something about which this blog is loath to gloat. By now, TBC had hoped to be playing their home games in a purpose-built, 10-000-seater stadium on the outskirts of Newry, with a budget hefty enough to sustain a squadful of Michael Keanes. But external factors have put paid to those particular (pipe) dreams and despite the earnest and meticulous work of the democratically-elected board, TBC find themselves without a pot to piss in (proverbial or otherwise), thanks to a combination of global warming, the credit crunch, and 9/11.

One of TBC's celebrity supporters, Dennis The Little Cunt

Not, however, that it’s all doom and gloom round Phibsboro way. On the contrary, former Saint Aaron Callaghan has patched together a squad of players so reasonable in talent that Paddy Power and Boyle Sports have both installed TBC as even-money favourites for the 2012/2013 Leinster Senior League Saturday Major division. Off the field, meanwhile, TBC continue to innovate, with each season ticket holder receiving one free Leo Burdick chip to wear on their shoulder, and every home game there’s a signed shirt up for grabs to anyone who can name more than 6 of their starting XI.

Former Big Club Striker Andrei Pereplyotkin

Of course, there hasn't always been such a contrast in fortunes between the two clubs. Although the echoes of 'one, two, three, four; one, two, three, four...five-nil' have long since subsided in Inchicore, and it's not so long ago that Saints fans looked on enviously as TBC were signing the likes of Republic of Ireland legend Gareth Farrelly and Championship Manager 4 sensation Andrei Pereplyotkin, the clubs have been close rivals on the pitch as well as off it more often than not. And this blog, for one, will miss that rivalry when it's gone.