Standards v The Irish League

[eoinh]

Noticed that Malmo beat Portadown 6-o on agg. last season in the UEFA Cup. Is this indicative of a standards gap between The IL and EL ?

[corkharps]

How many IL clubs would arrive for a game with 11 players? :(

[dortie]

Noticed that Malmo beat Portadown 6-o on agg. last season in the UEFA gap. Is this indicative of a standards gap between The IL and EL ?

Our reserve team stuffed Cliftonville 3-0 in a pre-season friendly :D the gap was evident.

[brendy_éire]

The gap is massive and growing. Any eL Premier Division reserve player would walk into an IL Premier side. And I'd fancy the chances of some of the our First Division teams in the IL Premier Division.

[A face]

Our reserve team stuffed Cliftonville 3-0 in a pre-season friendly :D the gap was evident.

If the two leagues were ever to merge, the IL couldn't really expect to have the same amount of teams in the premier as the eL (if the gap gets any bigger) ...... They have to do something about it.

[southside bohs]

I don't think it's fair to compare results like portadowns and corks.

yes the eircom league is better but i don't think our first division teams would hold down a serious place in the league.

to the derry fans- you Can barely survive in the eircom league and cliftonville are ****e they just escaped relegation in a sixteen team league. i reckon you would finish tenth in that league.

The bottom teams in the eircom league are equal to the irish league teams except linfield,glentoran.

i think the derry fans should get the chip of their shoulders because you always criticise the league. your team got hammered by a cypriot team last year, a team worse than malmo!!

[Duncan Gardner]

I agree with SS Bohs. The Irish League is poor but at least some of the teams are showing signs of ambition. Blues and Glens are capable of giving the Finns a game, Buddha Jeffrey says he expects to win :)

[dortie]

to the derry fans- you Can barely survive in the eircom league and cliftonville are ****e they just escaped relegation in a sixteen team league. i reckon you would finish tenth in that league.

i think the derry fans should get the chip of their shoulders because you always criticise the league. your team got hammered by a cypriot team last year, a team worse than malmo!!

We can barely survive in the eircom premier league 'only over the past 3 seasons' in my opinion due to poor management and tactics. Our team on paper aint worse than any of the others (except for $helbourne who have a quality side). All you have to do is look at results each week in this league.....NONE are consistant. The fact we beat 4th place Waterford 2-0 in thier own patch and lowly Dublin City beat you 4-2 in your own patch proves my point.
The only difference in Derry and Bohs is we dont pay sky high wages to an average team.

Getting away from the topic here, but I dont see your point. I do believe the premier clubs in the EL are far superior, Ive talked too many a player up here who have played in both leagues and they agree.

Yes we do have a chip on our shoulders, so would you too if your club got the treatment we did when we played in that league.

[corkharps]

I agree with SS Bohs. The Irish League is poor but at least some of the teams are showing signs of ambition. Blues and Glens are capable of giving the Finns a game, Buddha Jeffrey says he expects to win :)
Bring them on if they think they're hard enough! :D

[LukeO]

I went to the Ballymena-Odense game on Saturday. I fully expected Odense to win despite Ballymena drawing the first leg 0-0 in Denmark. But I was genuinely shocked by how poor Ballymena were, they couldn't even do the basics. I would be confident in almost any eL First Div side to beat them.

They've got an impressive stand there better than anything in the eL and another decent one opposite it. Very poor attendance, between 1500-1800.

[pete]

Hard i think judge a league on 1 game. Lack of match practice even more likely to affect ballymena than Odense.

[Pablo]

over the las five years theres no comparison between the 2 leagues when you compare european ties.........

[dancinpants]

Bear im mind Drogs are mid-season, but according to elevenaside,they humped Portadown 5-1 this evening

[BobtheDrog]

we played them preseason as well and lost 3-2 not a lot between the sides exept for the fitness levels although it was full strength ports vs reserve drogs and trialists