McGeady's Free kick was criminal.

[Closed Account]

I've defended him to people, talked up his achievements etc, but thats the final straw. If he can't hit that free kick properly then he'll never be a success. I.ll defend any refutations tomorrow when i'm not in the pub and on my phone. But i hope the guy never plays for ireland again....

[rambler14]

He had one thing to do and he fecked it up. He's crap and that moment was just sufficient proof of my opinion of the over-rated little twerp!
Lawrence should not have been taken off no matter how tired he was. His set-pieces are too important to us.

[cestlavie]

McGeady really needs to get the finger out! He needs to deliver in the future!

[theworm2345]

The free kick was terrible, but I don't think its fair to have a whole thread on one play. He didn't let Henry be in behind him, he didn't miss an easy chance. I do however agree he is **** and added nothing tonight but a little bit of hustle (Hunt could've added more and perhaps more ability).

As good as his tactics were, all of Trap's subs were crap tonight and that was evident as went from being on top to roughly neutral in extra time.

[Emmet7]

McGeady cannot cross and he cannot pass.

That has been shown all through the campaign.

Contrast his freekick tonight with the inch perfect free kick of Hunt against the Italians in Croker.

McGeady is completely one dimensional.

He's not fit to lace Damian Duff's boots.

[Emmet7]

The free kick was terrible, but I don't think its fair to have a whole thread on one play. He didn't let Henry be in behind him, he didn't miss an easy chance. I do however agree he is ****.

As good as his tactics were, all of Trap's subs were crap tonight and that was evident as went from being on top to roughly neutral in extra time.

I agree with the substitutions, but like you say it's hard to criticise Trap. He really does deserve a lot of praise and to be honest, if the ball bounced another way or if John O'Shea didn't get injured (not blaming O'Shea who was excellent once again) we wouldn't have conceded.

MsShane is not good enough for these big games.

I think there is also an issue that we need a forwards coach or an experienced forward in the management team. All the management team are midfielders and a goalie.

Is there anyone to give advice to Doyle and Keane on how to put the ball in the net. Don't get me wrong they were terrific tonight, but I just felt once more when we get sight of goal, the clinical finishing isn't there.

What was Keane doing when he tried to bring it around the keeper. For me it's a fatal flaw in Keane and he was guilty of it at Liverpool. It was a stupid mistake from him, trying to be fancy.

[KeepersBall]

McGeady not fit to lace Duffs boots !!!
He wouldn't lace his drinks.

[jebus]

McGeady is rubbish, I've been saying this for the last two years and only in the past few months have people started listening

[Park_Lane]

I've defended him to people, talked up his achievements etc, but thats the final straw. If he can't hit that free kick properly then he'll never be a success. I.ll defend any refutations tomorrow when i'm not in the pub and on my phone. But i hope the guy never plays for ireland again....

Wise up, he came on for the last 15 minutes of a 120 minute game. Mcgeedy will be a decent palyer for us in time just needs to move away from scotland.

[old git]

I've defended him to people, talked up his achievements etc, but thats the final straw. If he can't hit that free kick properly then he'll never be a success. I.ll defend any refutations tomorrow when i'm not in the pub and on my phone. But i hope the guy never plays for ireland again....

extremly harsh on a player brought on for last 15 mins in high pressure game ... . if doyle scored his header / duff scored his chance / if keane did not try to round goalkeeper / if mc shane had attacked ball at back post we would not have cared about 1 free kick.. :mad:

[celticV3]

I'm a celtic fan, think mcgeady has great potential but never showed it in his time on the pitch tonight. He has been poor for celtic and I was glad Lawrence got the nod ahead of him in both legs purely because McGeadys head isn't right at the minute.

This thread is still shocking though. There was a few mistakes made tonight, just because McGeadys was at the end of the game doesn't make it any worse than any other mistake made throughout the game.

[DonnyG]

Do you mean Adrian McGready - or so Setanta sports here in Oz would have us believe.

Personally I'd have preferred for Hunt to have been brought on instead of McGeady who really didn't offer much

[SkStu]

im generally a fan of McGeady from what ive seen but i can see the arguments against him have some merit too though some of Duffs crossing (despite an overall excellent performance) was a bit awry on occasion too. Dont think McGeady is a good impact sub as has been proven over the last couple of games. He needs to start or be introduced very early in a second half. Id have rather seen Hunt in with 15/20 to go if thats the way Trap was going. Lawrence has been fantastic over the last 2 games overall. Good to have a specialist wide right player there at last.

Duff and Lawrence was definitely the right call from Trappatoni in retrospect.

[soccerboy]

the most excruciating irish player to watch,thought hunt would have been a better option!

[azizi]

as far as im concerned you can blame henry for being a cheat all we like.we would have taken it if the goal went in down the other end.what sickens me more than anythuing is seeing the dreadful defending of mc shane for the goal.if a junior player did that in a local league game he would have been taken off.the lad is nowhere near international standard.felt so sorry for st ledger,dunne,and o shea who were all brilliant on the night and i think kevin kilbane had one of his better games in a while for ireland.it baffles me how some of these lads can pick up 20k a week in england yet cant cross a ball or defend basically.all the irish starting 11 did very well in my opinion.thought andrews was good and harassed the french all night,but im sorry gibson and mcshane aint going to get you over the line to get to a world cup.i must say i like mcgeady,he gave fresh legs towards the end but agree totally with a previous post that he has a brutal cross.he cant beat the first man.out of all the chances and whatever else last night i think paul mc shanes defending is what cost us the chance to make world cup.

[boovidge]

It's incredibly harsh to have a thread dedicated to one bad free kick. That said. Lawrence should certainly be first choice winger. Excellent performance again.

[Fixer82]

It was a vital free kick and only kept in by a stretching Richard Dunne. i like McGeady but I think Hunt would've been a better option. Still I've no big gripe with Trap throwing McGeady on. My big problem is that he didn't have Steven/Andy Reid or Steve Finnan on the bench to replace the two injured lads....

Gibson not experienced enough and McShane is simply not a right back, he's a centre back....

nearly men yet again!

[Wangball]

Really? We're blaming McGeady now? Why don't you all take a long hard look at your golden boy Duff and that chance he had in the first half, he puts that away and extra time becomes irrelevant, or Robbie Keane who could of/should of scored a hat trick, or Richard Dunne who missed the ball into the box.....McGeady is an easy target and its pathetic that you've singled him out, its not as if he had to wrestle the ball from anyone else to take the free kick either

Its not McGeady's fault Trap took our best set piece taker off just as we had an important free kick to take.....football is a team game, one player didn't lose us the game

[Maroon 7]

Bit ridiculous in fairness to pick one overhit free-kick to have a go at a player. It's like something the English tabloids would do. There were probably 20+ more significant events that happened in the game.

[Nedser]

Is there anyone to give advice to Doyle and Keane on how to put the ball in the net.

How about the coaching staff at their clubs? It's not up to the management of an international team to coach basic skills of the game. They don't spend enough time with them apart from anything else.

On McGeady - it shows just how much some people have it in for him when someone thinks his poor free kick was one of the most noteworthy aspects of last night. We missed 4 clear cut chances long before McGeady came on (Doyle's header in the 1st half, O'Shea's chance from the corner, and both Duff and Keane when clean through on the keeper in the 2nd half). If just one of those chances had been converted we'd be through, and McGeady would never have made it onto the pitch. France didn't have a single chance that good over the whole 210 mins of the tie, yet scored twice (ok only once legitimately, but still).

I agree McGeady hasn't done much for Ireland yet, but you can't blame him for last night's outcome.

[Leeside Swagger]

He has potential but is highly overrated, he really needs to move to one of the top leagues to help him develop. At one stage last night he broke down the wing, beat the first man, had an opportunity to cross but he decided to try and beat another and lost it. He seems to make the wrong decision more often than not imo.

[Fixer82]

We missed 4 clear cut chances long before McGeady came on (Doyle's header in the 1st half, O'Shea's chance from the corner, and both Duff and Keane when clean through on the keeper in the 2nd half). If just one of those chances had been converted we'd be through


well said. I especially think O'Shea shouldve gotten his on target. I thought Robbie did the right thing taking it around the keeper, touch was just a tiny bit too heavy. Duff's was a great chance but straight at the keeper. He can't score outside the box. If it was two more inches forward he might've got it in :)

[Den Perry]

He has potential but is highly overrated, he really needs to move to one of the top leagues to help him develop. At one stage last night he broke down the wing, beat the first man, had an opportunity to cross but he decided to try and beat another and lost it. He seems to make the wrong decision more often than not imo.

A thread on this may be a bit harsh, but that free kick was going to be our last chance and it was scandalous. How any professional footballer could make a mess of such a free at such a time is just down to lack of concentration...and there is no excuse for lack of concentration.

However to call for him never to play for us again is way over the top.As well as having ability, the abuse that lad took for choosing us entitles him to his place in the squad

[Ozymandias]

can't believe there is a thread on this..we played excellent ..should have won the tie..robbed/cheated by henry...but to blame one free kick..the free kick was poor...but Duff missed a one on one..so did Robbie...Doyle should have stuck his head on a lawrence cross ,O Shea should have scored

start threads on those as well while your at it

our team deserve nothing but praise not vitriol on one incident to single out one player

[disabledrog]

hes an average player in a **** league,he cant pass cross shooy r take pens,he muck and the most overhyped over rated in the irish squad.
i said it years ago when the blog here was"mcgeady the next ronaldo"wat a joke and people actually commented on how good he is!!the bigger people hype him up the bigger the fall is

[Leeside Swagger]

However to call for him never to play for us again is way over the top.As well as having ability, the abuse that lad took for choosing us entitles him to his place in the squad

I think he should and will play for us in the future but for now Lawerence is the better option by far. The abuse he gets is unfair but it doesnt entitle him to anything. If he thought it was that bad he would have left Scotland by now.

[noisecontrol]

Just something I thought when it happened...but could Shay have come for the free kick???

It travelled a hell of a long way and was in the air for a good while...also note how close to the goal it dropped...

[tricky_colour]

Is the kick available online anywhere?
I missed it cos of trouble with streams.

[Den Perry]

I think he should and will play for us in the future but for now Lawerence is the better option by far. The abuse he gets is unfair but it doesnt entitle him to anything. If he thought it was that bad he would have left Scotland by now.

Sorry, probablt put that acroos the wrong way. of course that doesn't entitle him to a place in the squad. Just felt a bit guilty for being so harsh on him I suppose...but that free kick was infuriating. He had to get it right and made acomplete balls of it

[rambler14]

He plays on the left, he plays on the riiiiiiiight, that boy McGeady he's a big pile of sh!te!

[Murfinator]

No surprise McGeady being the best player in Scotland is a testament to how bad their leagues are. He's never done it at international level or against any halfway decent champions league side.

He's still young and he can make it but right now he's a headless chicken who run, dribble and that's about it. He has zero match intelligence.

Hunt would have been a better option to bring on. imo Duff > Lawrence > Hunt > McGeady at the moment.

[Dodge]

can't believe there is a thread on this..we played excellent ..should have won the tie..robbed/cheated by henry...but to blame one free kick..the free kick was poor...but Duff missed a one on one..so did Robbie...Doyle should have stuck his head on a lawrence cross ,O Shea should have scored

start threads on those as well while your at it

our team deserve nothing but praise not vitriol on one incident to single out one player

Agree with everything but the bit in bold. Not sure we should unconditionally praise those who missed sitters (or McShane who let Henry walk past him for that handball incident).

Some excellent performances, and a great team effort but players made costly mistakes. MCGeady's awful free wasn't one of the top 4/5 errors though

For the record I think McGeady's a good player. Still has time to develop. He was in competition with lawrence for that final spot, and Lawrence was the best player on the park last night IMO

[Guts&Glory]

Agree with everything but the bit in bold. Not sure we should unconditionally praise those who missed sitters (or McShane who let Henry walk past him for that handball incident).

Some excellent performances, and a great team effort but players made costly mistakes. MCGeady's awful free wasn't one of the top 4/5 errors though

For the record I think McGeady's a good player. Still has time to develop. He was in competition with lawrence for that final spot, and Lawrence was the best player on the park last night IMO

Henry getting passed McShane only mattered because Henry handled the ball twice to keep the ball in play rather than the ball going over the endline had he not handled it.

[Acornvilla]

Henry getting passed McShane only mattered because Henry handled the ball twice to keep the ball in play rather than the ball going over the endline had he not handled it.
mcshane should have cleared it end of story..........
i actually doyler should have been replced not lawerence!
dolye was playing out of his skin but was wreckes all he could do was loose the ball or fall over for the final twenty odd mintes i think best or stokes could have made a big diffrence against their backline

[thepiedpiper]

How about the coaching staff at their clubs? It's not up to the management of an international team to coach basic skills of the game. They don't spend enough time with them apart from anything else.

On McGeady - it shows just how much some people have it in for him when someone thinks his poor free kick was one of the most noteworthy aspects of last night. We missed 4 clear cut chances long before McGeady came on (Doyle's header in the 1st half, O'Shea's chance from the corner, and both Duff and Keane when clean through on the keeper in the 2nd half). If just one of those chances had been converted we'd be through, and McGeady would never have made it onto the pitch. France didn't have a single chance that good over the whole 210 mins of the tie, yet scored twice (ok only once legitimately, but still).

I agree McGeady hasn't done much for Ireland yet, but you can't blame him for last night's outcome.

Excellent post. McGeady was superb in both games against Georgia and did very well when he came on against Bulgaria away and had good game against France home so some of blame being given to him is just unfair in scheme of things