Who will win the 1st division

[Martinho II]

That was an important win but we are still only 4 ahead of second place. We need to keep it up......nerves were jangling in the last 15mins but i thought it was a great game to watch. Ref was poor as is the norm.

On a side note I thought the chant:

"Shelbourne do football teams...Fingal do wheelie-bins"

was very witty. the simple ones are always the best!

I read in one of the papers during the week the bohs fans had a very witty chant towards red bull salzburg during the week..

it went on the lines " you're just a **** vodka mixer!"

[boris]

as previously said, after last night its shel's league to throw away this year. good game with plenty of niggle. could have been so different had the penalty gone in and maybe a red card for deleney. not saying it should have been as it would have ruined a good game, but i wonder if thats what shels fans are giving out about the ref for :p

seriously shels players wanted it way more, often going in and winning possesion they never should have won. too many of our players not committed. if that doesnt change soon another year in the first division will be out lot. thought the crowd would be bigger from both sides with so much riding on the game. as for the chanting remember....

"tolka park is falling down" still rings true!!!

[OneForTheFuture]

[/QUOTE]thought the crowd would be bigger from both sides with so much riding on the game. as for the chanting remember....

"tolka park is falling down" still rings true!!![/QUOTE]

Couldn't hear that surprisingly enough.........the both of you should speak up in future so we can admire your originality when it comes to terrace chants..... it's almost as original as that old peanut from Station road last seaon:

"Dermot Keeley is a h......ual, he has aids and can't get rid of it"

WTF!

[stann]

and can't get rid of it"

This bit shouldn't be funny but it's tea>>nose>>keyboard here. :D
So far wrong it's almost endearing. :D

[Poor Student]

I'd be tempted to say it's Shels' title to throw away but there is still a lot of football to be played in this season's title race. They clearly are favourites and you'd feel with their experience at this level and last season's drama they'll be spurred on to keep on top, however they're still only similar in ability to their other title contenders and could potentially drop a lot of points. Unfortunately UCD would need the consitency of our first third of the season to catch the and I can't see that coming back. It's hard to know what to make of Fingal, the talent exists there to go on a long winning/undefeated streak at any time but they just don't seem up to it. If Waterford win today they're best posed to challenge Shels.

[higgins]

Can't believe that people think Shels are going to walk the league now with half the season still to go :)

All it will take is a defeat to UCD, Watrford or Fingal and it's all to play for again.
Too much football left to play to get excited yet.

Remember Dundalk last year!!

I've missed a lot of games this year but from the few I did see we're not exactly playing well. Lots of wins in the first half of the season came by good luck alone from what I can tell.

Give it another 10 games and see where we are.

[CSFShels]

Originally we weren't playing well, but were still winning games, but came unstuck against the 2 good footballing sides in the division. Now we are playing well, like alot of people predicted we would start to do, and we've beaten everyone so far in this series, and it'd be surprising if we didn't end up coming out of the 2nd series with a 100% record now, Athlone, Harps, Longford and Kildare, just don't hold the same level of fear as our recent fixtures against Limerick, UCD and Fingal did.

As was said before, anything can still happen, but with new signings coming in to make the team even stronger, I'd have to rule out Fingal catching us, because we'd have to drop more points in the last 16 games of the season, than we did in the first, with Waterford, UCD, and Fingal only left to play once more. Essentially we could lose all 3 games against those, win the rest, Fingal could win every single game left this season, and we'd be champions.

UCD are a tricky 1 to predict, they're closer to us than Fingal, but its hard to predict them putting a really long run of wins together, long enough to make the comeback, and win this league. They'll probably have to beat all 3 of the other big 4 in the division in the last series, and I can't see any of the 4 doing that in the business end, and not to mention, they still have Waterford to play in this series of games. I'd give UCD a better chance of catching us than Fingal, but still pretty unlikely.

Waterford have to be the biggest threat, but then alot will depend on how they do in this match they're playing at the moment, nil all at present, a draw would put them in an even worse position pointswise than UCD. They've only 1 win from games against the big 4 this year, against 4 for Shels, and 2 for UCD and Fingal. They still have UCD to play in this series and you could imagine both sides dropping points in this one. They've signed some good players in the window and are in with a real chance, but I can see them coming unstuck against Shels, Fingal and UCD.

[pineapple stu]

How many points clear were Shels last year?

On us, I think we've turned a mini-corner. We'd been struggling for a few games, but since Finn was sent off against Shels, we've been playing much better. We were missing our keeper, a centre half (the find of the season for us), a centre mid (our captain and best player) and a centre forward (our top scorer) against Wexford, but still ground out a nice win against a reasonably good side who'd already beaten us in Belfield. Wexford were also a physical (but fair) side, but we coped much better against it than other teams recently, which was a good sign too.

We do need to start scoring a few more goals though.

[Schumi]

How many points clear were Shels last year?

They couldn't blow it two years in a row though.

[pineapple stu]

I like your jinxing. :)

[Schumi]

Ssh. Don't tip them off.

[Sam_Heggy]

and we've beaten everyone so far in this series, and it'd be surprising if we didn't end up coming out of the 2nd series with a 100% record now, Athlone, Harps, Longford and Kildare, just don't hold the same level of fear as our recent fixtures against Limerick, UCD and Fingal did. .

Harps are a much better side of late and will cause ye problems, I just hope for your sake that Keely doesn't take other sides as lighlty.
We are 6 league games unbeaten now having played UCD and Fingal during that run.

[GalwayRed]

How many points clear were Shels last year?

We were never really clear at any stage last year. I think after we beat Dundalk in Oriel we had a good run where we got ahead of them for a couple of games. At that time we might have got up to a 3 point lead (5 tops) Straight after the mid season break though we forgot how to play football and spent the rest of the season chasing them. We caught them late in the season but never got more then a point or two ahead of them at that stage.

[pineapple stu]

Thought youz were seven points clear at one stage?

[GalwayRed]

Thought youz were seven points clear at one stage?
No we were never that far clear. That dosent sound right.

[GlasnevinRed]

Thought youz were seven points clear at one stage?

We were definitely 7 (or more) behind at one stage but never that far ahead.

[pineapple stu]

Just done some rough calculations off soccerbot, and it seems yez went nine points behind after losing in Oriel in September; biggest gap I see for Shels is three at the end of June.

[OneForTheFuture]

I do think we were nearer 10 ahead with dundalk having 2 games in hand, and that was after us beating them in Oriel " the home of football".

[GalwayRed]

I do think we were nearer 10 ahead with dundalk having 2 games in hand, and that was after us beating them in Oriel " the home of football".
I think we only narrowed the gap to 2 points behind them after beating them at oriel but pineapple stus estimate of a 3 point lead being our highest sounds a lot closer to the mark then being ten clear with 2 games extra played.

[OneForTheFuture]

Never argue with a student....

Its how I remember it anyway:eek:

[CSFShels]

Last season bears no significance anyways. When you've kept all the good players from your team that came within a minute of winning it last season, added David Cassidy, Kevin Doherty, Richie Baker, Derek Doyle and Peter Hynes to your first team, and gotten the usage of David McAllister for a full season instead of just from July onwards, its fairly natural that the side is gonna be a great deal better than last year, and we have been. Don't mistake my confidence for arrogance, I know it could all fall apart, I'm just really really confident. There are no Keddys or Freemans in this team who couldn't be arsed. These are 11 men who will run their socks off for 90 minutes for the win.

[Hairy Bowsie]

Lets also not forget Crawley

[brianw82]

1-0 to Shels.

[Hairy Bowsie]

What?

[OneForTheFuture]

1-0 to Shels.

Is that an update from Friday coming in on Monday mornings wee hours?:D

[CSFShels]

Tis the very accurate prediction for every game we play for the rest of the season:D

[oriel]

Keep up the good work Shels, my double of bohs/shels looking better by the week !

[Raheny Red]

Keep up the good work Shels, my double of bohs/shels looking better by the week !

As it does for Paddy Madden

[Lamper.sffc]

Nice to see shels draw this weekend and lose ground to the chasing pack and to a last minute goal as well:D

Good performance by us today against Longford

[CSFShels]

Ah sure we were always going to drop points eventually, lets just hope its a small blip and we get back to winning ways against Harps and Longford. If not, maybe the race is back on.

[roinuj]

unless shels hit a bad patch i cant see them getting caught,
waterford united to finish 2nd.

[Blue-Army]

I presume there will be at least one extra automatic promotion place now? Maybe 2 depending on how Bohs finish the season.

[DmanDmythDledge]

I presume there will be at least one extra automatic promotion place now? Maybe 2 depending on how Bohs finish the season.
I doubt it. Cork will probably be considered the automatically relegated team. And rightly so imo.

[blue til i die]

I doubt it. Cork will probably be considered the automatically relegated team. And rightly so imo.

Yeah, spot on. Cork would go down as the automatic relegated team!

[roinuj]

Yeah, spot on. Cork would go down as the automatic relegated team!

cork wont be going down!!!
they are going out.
there will be two places up for grabs in the prem.

[blue til i die]

cork wont be going down!!!
they are going out.
there will be two places up for grabs in the prem.

Whether they go down or out of business, they'll still more than likely be counted as a relegation place, with the next two bottom teams in the play off.

Cork would go down, who ever wins the first div would go up, and then the play off for the other spot!!

[Blue-Army]

Ah you never know with the FAI.

John Delaney might do us a favour...again. :)

[blue til i die]

Great result tonight, crucial we didnt drop anymore points.

Hopefully harps will take something from shels on friday :rolleyes:

[stann]

cork wont be going down!!!
they are going out.
there will be two places up for grabs in the prem.

No there won't.
Cork, if they do go out, will be considered the last placed team in the Premier. Only one team will then be in danger of going down, via the play-offs.
As a Waterford fan you shouldn't need to be told this, considering that the same thing happening to Dublin City a couple of years back would have saved us from the direct drop at the time, putting us in the play-off spot (if the final standings had any meaning ahead of the IAG results), rather than create an extra promotion place.
Who Cork's demise might save from relegation, if anyone, is Kildare. Presumably, if the FAI want to keep the numbers, they'll leave Kildare in the first and promote an A-league team into the vacated space.

[roinuj]

No there won't.
Cork, if they do go out, will be considered the last placed team in the Premier. Only one team will then be in danger of going down, via the play-offs.
As a Waterford fan you shouldn't need to be told this, considering that the same thing happening to Dublin City a couple of years back would have saved us from the direct drop at the time, putting us in the play-off spot (if the final standings had any meaning ahead of the IAG results), rather than create an extra promotion place.
Who Cork's demise might save from relegation, if anyone, is Kildare. Presumably, if the FAI want to keep the numbers, they'll leave Kildare in the first and promote an A-league team into the vacated space.

erm :confused: ok then.
sorry boss.

great result for the blues last night over harps,
this has shels looking over their sholders again.
COME ON YE MIGHTY BLUES

[christo]

Who Cork's demise might save from relegation, if anyone, is Kildare. Presumably, if the FAI want to keep the numbers, they'll leave Kildare in the first and promote an A-league team into the vacated space.

Just 21 more clubs and we'll be the best in Ireland :D

[Schumi]

Just 21 more clubs and we'll be the best in Ireland :D
Don't put yourselves down, it's only 20 more that you need.

[Lamper.sffc]

Good win for us this weekend. I hope this is the start of a run for us. God knows we need it.

[christo]

Don't put yourselves down, it's only 20 more that you need.

I hear Salthill are doing well in the A championship

[Lamper.sffc]

Fair play to athlone. They have done us some favours in the last couple of weeks. Hoping kildare and Longford can do something similar today.

[Sam_Heggy]

Massive, huge, enormous game in Finn Park tonight, winner takes all. I can honestly say that the team that gets beat tonight will not win the league and the winner will be 3 points better off in the league.
The size of this game can not be under-estimated.

[Battery Rover]

Fair play to athlone. They have done us some favours in the last couple of weeks.

Yep we have done favours and are playing you in cup and league over the next two weeks so look out.

[atfconline]

I wouldn't be fearing too much if I were SF. Aggregate score from the five meetings between the sides so far is 9-0 to SF. Never even managed a draw.

[blue til i die]

Our next three home league games are UCD, Fingal and Shels, and with tonights 1-1 with shels, these games could go a long way to deciding who goes up!

[CSFShels]

Yeah I'd be much more worried about the poor result tonight, if the next 3 series of fixtures didnt involve UCD/Waterford, Waterford/Fingal, Fingal/UCD, can't see anyone taking 6 points from that so we should still have a 4 or 5 point cushion going to Waterford.

But nonetheless, very poor result tonight.