Wonderful form of Irish players

[richieos]

i think things are looking good for the cyprus match with our key players in great form. hopefully stephen reid will get over his injury, but dunne is playing brilliantley for man city, robbie just got his first for liverpool, duff and given are the only outstanding newcastle players at the moment other than michael owen, and even paul mcshane is looking solid lately. am i wrong in being so optimistic? :D it really looks like we'll have far too much for cyprus
EDIT: how could i forget kevin doyle? 8 goals in 8 games!

[Qwerty]

His agent would say 8 goals in 3 games :)

[jbyrne]

did you see Anorthosis Famagusta win 3-1 in the champions lge last night? id say a few of their players are in good form also. difficult fixture for us

[elroy]

Cyprus football is on a major high at the moment. I dont think we can view this fixture as we would have say 3/4 years ago. This is not going to be easy and a win of any sort will be a good result. In the last three games we have played against them, they have arguably been the better team in each game.

[drummerboy]

Personally I think a 1-0 victory would be a great result for Ireland. Cyprus are the most improved football nation in Europe.

[Sligo Hornet]

Personally I think a 1-0 victory would be a great result for Ireland. Cyprus are the most improved football nation in Europe.

Along with us!;)

[Lionel Ritchie]

Personally I think a 1-0 victory would be a great result for Ireland. Cyprus are the most improved football nation in Europe.

I'll see your Cyprus and raise you a Luxembourg. ;)

[Claret Murph]

I'll see your Cyprus and raise you a Luxembourg. ;)

Fine Richie
If you want to play that game then I will see your Lux and raise again with touch of the Lithuanians or was that something iffy I eat last night .:cool:

[tetsujin1979]

Personally I think a 1-0 victory would be a great result for Ireland. Cyprus are the most improved football nation in Europe.
Montenegro surely?
but I take your point that from where Cyprus have a long history of underachievement, and are now a tough team to play against in Cyprus. Their away record is still pretty woeful though.

[Sligo Hornet]

Montenegro surely?
but I take your point that from where Cyprus have a long history of underachievement, and are now a tough team to play against in Cyprus. Their away record is still pretty woeful though.

Please God we're still saying the same a fortnight today!:)

[Cymro]

Cyprus are crap away from home. You'll get 3 points, just don't expect the same from the away game.

[Wolfie]

Cyprus are crap away from home. You'll get 3 points, just don't expect the same from the away game.

We'll expect nothing. A 5-2 hammering away and a draw at home (no matter how demoralised and unorganised we were at the time) tends to guard against assumption from a fans perspective, at least.

[Paulie]

did you see Anorthosis Famagusta win 3-1 in the champions lge last night? id say a few of their players are in good form also. difficult fixture for us

While the Cypriot team's home form has definitely improved, their away form is still pretty poor. I know they drew with us last year and that they really should have beaten us, but we were pretty much on out last legs under Stan at that stage. The point about Anorthosis Famagusta is not a valid one as there are very few Cypriots on the team. Of the starting eleven last night, just two were Cypriot, with another one coming off the bench. I fully expect us to beat Cyprus at home by a couple of goals. The away game though will be an entirely different matter.

[jbyrne]

While the Cypriot team's home form has definitely improved, their away form is still pretty poor. I know they drew with us last year and that they really should have beaten us, but we were pretty much on out last legs under Stan at that stage. The point about Anorthosis Famagusta is not a valid one as there are very few Cypriots on the team. Of the starting eleven last night, just two were Cypriot, with another one coming off the bench. I fully expect us to beat Cyprus at home by a couple of goals. The away game though will be an entirely different matter.

fair enough but it will still give them a shot in the arm for cypriot football generally. i think some of their players are in the champions lge with non-cypriot teams also

[drummerboy]

Someone remind me, who our last game under Stan at Croke Park was against and what score it was with one minute left on the clock?

[Supreme feet]

Someone remind me, who our last game under Stan at Croke Park was against and what score it was with one minute left on the clock?

The past is where it is. Mick McCarthy's first game in charge was against Liechtenstein, away, in '96. Before the game, we were constantly reminded of how the same opponents, at the same venue, had drawn 0-0 with us only fourteen months previously. The Liechtenstein manager even hinted at a possible victory for his team.

We won 5-0, after going 4-0 up after 20 mins. Different manager, different players, different circumstances. Hopefully history will repeat itself.

[tetsujin1979]

Duff with the equaliser today for Newcastle, Kinnear had picked him out as their main threat before the game, seems to be playing well according to the commentary too

[bmorgan87]

famagusta in the Champions league doin so well is scary...
esp with alot of their players in that team..
BUT.. theyl look at our team and see we have top players playing in top teams..
we have been awful the past few times we played them bcuz we wer playing awful as a team at them times..
but now we are looking like a team that can play football and therefore win confidently 2 r 3 nil!

[irishultra]

bmorgan only 2 of famagustas players actually play for cyrpus i think. the rest are non=cypriots.

[Reality Bites]

Great to see Duffer back in form, he was a constant threat for Newcastle yesterday and to top it off he even made BBC's team of the weeK

[elroy]

Someone remind me, who our last game under Stan at Croke Park was against and what score it was with one minute left on the clock?

Oh god please dont bring it that night again, without doubt one of our most depressing nights when i dont think an Irish footballing public have felt so disillusioned with a team and its manager. The chorus of boo's particularly at half time was unreal.

Anyways, whats the roll call like? S Reid looks def out, finnan and kelly too, anyone else?