Bray missing three

[pineapple stu]

Bray have three players suspended for the big match on Friday night, including Eddie Gormley. The other two are Keith Long and Colm James. UCD have a full squad, including Tony Mac, who is expected to be back after a slight injury which kept him out of the last two games.

Gormley could be a big loss for Bray - usually one of their top creative influences. Bit of a boost for us, I hope!

[Roo69]

Missing one of Gormley or James i think we could cope with but both is a different story, Gormley's still showing he's still got it in pre-season, but i dont think he'll complete that many 90 minutes this season. James is the future ! super player, strong as an ox (for his size !) good in the air, great shooting, great tackler. One of the best midfielders in the league in a couple of years i reckon

Porb. starting line-up

O'Connor

Tresson
Lynch
Charles
Farrell

Quinn
McGuinness
McGraine
Gifford

Grogan
O'Brien

With Ryan, Lawless, O'Hanlon, Lawlor, Fitzpatrick all pushing for places. Fox is out until may.

[John83]

Probable UCD lineup:

Gallagher/Quigley
Gannon McAuley Foley Davey
Sullivan McNally McDonnell O'Donnell
Doyle Martin
Possibly Finn in the middle, with McNally dropping into centre half beside McAuley.

[Aberdonian Stu]

I reckon because of McDonnell's minor injury worry they'll place McNally behind him to have a stronger defensive player and perhaps drag in Finn to compensate for Tony's knock.

Personally I feel that the Seagulls have shown more in pre-season so the important thing is to focus on getting the simple things right and look to build with Sullivan down the right flank and to try and match them on the left. Micko's usually at his most effective at the other end of the season so the ideal situation would be to try to play a more power game (run like feck) down the left.

[pineapple stu]

Stephen Fox and John Flood are both missing as well. We've signed James Timmons permanently.

[pineapple stu]

Originally posted by Aberdonian Stu
Personally I feel that the Seagulls have shown more in pre-season

Have they? Draws against Waterford and Rovers, hammerings by Everton and Shels and defeat to the Irish schoolboys? I think that's slightly worse than what we've had.

[Aberdonian Stu]

Well first off the odds are we'd be hammered by Everton, and in our current state Shels too.

The draws with Rovers and Waterford match up favourably when you consider our performance in losing to DC United (they're trying to tap into the American market), Dwogheda and de Town.

Admittedly I didn't see the town, dwogs, or pats games but from what I have seen, including the quite frankly lacklustre performnace against a bunch of barely above superleague standard players from the AUL, we haven't looked like a team gunning for promotion.

Throw into the mix the fact that we're playing in Bray and the chances of taking three points fromn an opening day encounter with them aren't great.

Focus on the simple things and hope for the best.

[pineapple stu]

Originally posted by Aberdonian Stu
Admittedly I didn't see the town, dwogs, or pats games

We were noticeably better in each game. Pat's and Longford will be up at the right end of the Premier table next season, as opposed to Waterford and Rovers (and DC and Dwogs), so the draw in Richmond was the most impressive result of the lot I reckon.

Yeah, we'd have lost to Everton as well. Just had to add in an extra hammering! Not sure we'd have lost 4-1 to Shels though - only a couple of months wince we drew 0-0 there. We've only lost Cawley, Jennings and Rooney from that match, with Jennings and Rooney being adequately replaced.

Game will be 1-1, which I hope is consistent with my prediction in the prediction league!

[Roo69]

Originally posted by pineapple stu
Have they? Draws against Waterford and Rovers, hammerings by Everton and Shels and defeat to the Irish schoolboys? I think that's slightly worse than what we've had.

Yeah we have actually, the team has got better and better by the match, really looking forward to the season with the way things are going for us.

We should have beaten Waterford and Rovers, Againist Shels the game was played in GALE froce winds - 11 subs made. Everton where lucky to score 4, but a heavy defeat was expected and we had virtually our U21's out againist the FAI Schools Team.

The new lads who have come in have preformed very well, and out of the players missing i think our biggest loss is Foxy, wont be back till some time in May.

[Roo69]

Originally posted by pineapple stu


Yeah, we'd have lost to Everton as well. Just had to add in an extra hammering! Not sure we'd have lost 4-1 to Shels though - only a couple of months wince we drew 0-0 there. We've only lost Cawley, Jennings and Rooney from that match, with Jennings and Rooney being adequately replaced.


What about the lads gone to Drogs ?

[John83]

Originally posted by Roo69
What about the lads gone to Drogs ?
A crap striker (Rooney), a youth player who was on the edges of the team (McWalter - unless I've got his name wrong again), and a defender who only made a few squads because of injury crises (Donnelly - who's at Athlone on loan).

None of them would be guaranteed a start today if they were still on the books here.

[Roo69]

Originally posted by John83
A crap striker (Rooney), a youth player who was on the edges of the team (McWalter - unless I've got his name wrong again), and a defender who only made a few squads because of injury crises (Donnelly - who's at Athlone on loan).

None of them would be guaranteed a start today if they were still on the books here.

Saw Rooney a few times last term and thought he was half decant ! he's certainly doing the business in Pre-Season !

Are both the Martin Bro's still there ?

[pineapple stu]

Originally posted by Roo69
Are both the Martin Bro's still there ?

Robbie is, Johnny's not. Robbie's gotten three goals in pre-season - more than he's scored in each of the last two proper seasons!

[pineapple stu]

Originally posted by John83
a youth player who was on the edges of the team (McWalter - unless I've got his name wrong again)

Podge's still with us. Gav Whelan's gone to Drogheda. Good player, but fairly injury-prone.

[John83]

Podge's still with us. Gav Whelan's gone to Drogheda. Good player, but fairly injury-prone.

I'm going to continue making that mistake until Podge gets match fit. Or dropped for Gannon. :p

[Schumi]

Hopefully the latter will happen at least.