Longford town (home)

[thomas72]

HOping we get over a thousand for this game good Friday and all.

BIg performance needed hope we don't bottle it again in a big game in front of a large crowd.

Steven bradly is back I thought he did very well when he came on v athlone its obvious he wasn't fit to start the game hopefully Dominic foley is fit if not I'd start gary sheehan up front with behan.

[Martinho II]

with it being Good Friday I can see us bringing a larger than expected away support.. we brought a larger than normal away support base to galway last weekend..

[Lim till i die]

There's my Holy Thursday gone putting up the segregation chamber. :p

If Dom is fit you're looking at

Ryan

Tracy/Kelly
Purcell
Guthrie
Bhandarkar

Tracy
Gamble
Bradley
Gaffney

Foley
Behan

Which on paper should be smashing them.

Don't think Gary has 90 mintes in him yet, reckon he'll be kept on the bench and sprung with a half an hour or so to go when win, lose, or draw, we'll be hacking the ball in all directions.

Our crowds have been excellent so far this year so I'm going to be optimistic and go for a top of the table clash in front of 1200+ (if it's dry)

As for the result, I can't for the life of me see us winning. Cos, well, we never do do we?! :ball:

[Jofspring]

Draw written all over it. They will be solid enough and we will start to hoof. The crowd will get ****ed off and we will start hoofing more and more getting desperate to score but……………………..






……………i'm going to for once try be confident about the result. 1-0 us with Dom scoring.

att: 998

[Lim till i die]

att: 998

Somebody bring two friends for appearances sake! :p

[CraftyToePoke]

Surely the well attended, key home game, faltering jinx has to be lifted at some stage ...

I am liking Friday for it, win comfortably and in style, follow that with a win in Wexford next week and spend the rest of the season as Champions in waiting, bullying the division.

Don't want to dwell too long on the discontent a 0-1 while by passing midfield would foster.

[Acornvilla]

ah we can't keep a clean sheet to save our lives, I'll be delighted with a draw from a longford perspective. I expected to be at this game, have to work now, balls to that

[sadloserkid]

att: 998


ah we can't keep a clean sheet to save our lives, I'll be delighted with a draw from a longford perspective. I expected to be at this game, have to work now, balls to that

997 then... :confused2:

[Keen2win]

Is Jackman Park a long walk from the City Centre?

[Jofspring]

Is Jackman Park a long walk from the City Centre?

Depends what part of town your coming from but it would be about 5 to 10 minutes max. It's pretty much in town.

[bluewhitearmy]

Cant see us winning this unless Dom is fit. Hopefully Bradley is fit to start he might at least try to keep the ball on the floor with Gamble.
Play how we have in any game except Salthill and can see a 0-0 or 0-1. If we have Dom and actually get it down and play it could see us nicking a win.

[Acornvilla]

Is Jackman Park a long walk from the City Centre?
yeah its easy to get to, just ask directions to the bus station, and from there Jackman's 5 mins away, Lim's a pretty small city anyway handy to get around

[fitzpatrick10]

would be great to have a large travelling support! Be great if we could get a win but ill be a hard task, were finding it very hard to finish off teams, were sitting back too much when we score allowing the other team to control the game, if we keep the foot on the gas for the 90 min we mite just clinch a win.. im saying 2-1 town

limerick 4/6
draw 5/2
Town 7/2

[outspoken]

Ye I agree with Fitzpatrick 10 we are taking our foot off the gas but I don't think the lads will have that mentality against Limerick I reckon WHEN;) they score one early on theyl look for more and I can see us winning this one considering Limerick always seem to bottle these big games so here's hoping :)

Have to say I haven't seen anticipation for a game like this in a very very long time it's great for football in both regions.

[thomas72]

DOminic foley out of fridays game and will miss two more weeks with a knee injury big loss.

[fc hammer]

DOminic foley out of fridays game and will miss two more weeks with a knee injury big loss.

thats a pitty he'll be a big loss in this game..I'd take a chance and start Gary,himself and Denis could prove a handfull for the Longford defence....

[bluewhitearmy]

thats a pitty he'll be a big loss in this game..I'd take a chance and start Gary,himself and Denis could prove a handfull for the Longford defence....

I can see Scully having his usual big game panic and going back to 4-5-1
I think Foley is a massive loss especially with Behan having a real lack of confidence at the minute.

[fc hammer]

I can see Scully having his usual big game panic and going back to 4-5-1
I think Foley is a massive loss especially with Behan having a real lack of confidence at the minute.

I suppose a share of the points in this one would'd be that bad ,but playing 4-5-1 at home with the players he has at his disposal is not acceptable...

[Martinho II]

I hope to go on Friday.. I think a draw would be a good result.The good news for us is Gillespie will start from the beginning. so normal service should be restored with him kirbs and collie james in midfield..

[joeSoap]

as for the crowd i think they will be lucky to get anywhere near a 1000 because Limerick is not a soccer city and never will be and people should not get hung up on the negative's and be positive if the club is to finally move forward if thats possible. I remember not too long ago when the club had one of its many false dawns tthat we played Monaghan at home on a good friday night in Hogan Park, and the fact that there was a bit of potential there, and it was a good friday where people had nothing to do there was 2,000 people in attendance.

This dawn is not so false, its Good Friday and Jackman is more accessible than Hogan... no reason at all as to why there won't be a bumper crowd.

[Shannonsider]

Limerick to finally put down a marker to other top teams in Div 1 and win on a 3-0 score line, as for the crowd i think they will be lucky to get anywhere near a 1000 because Limerick is not a soccer city and never will be and people should not get hung up on the negative's and be positive if the club is to finally move forward if thats possible.


Don't see why not. Had 820 against Harps and 681 against Salthill so with it being Good Friday and a top of the table game, I would be very suprised if there was less than 1000 at tomorrow's game. Longford seem to be bringing a good few aswell which will help. Going for a 2-1 win to Limerick. Foley missing is a big loss but we will cope. Hoping that Behan scores his first goal of the season aswell.

[blueblood]

I'll be disappointed if we dont win, I know we're not even a quarter way through the season but I'd expect us to be top of the league soon and need to win before we hit a slump and who knows how bad well be. Limerick 2-1 Longford (at least:o)

[theboywonder8]

Limerick to win 2 0,if the manager doesn't panic,has a better squad of players and if allowed play are a far better side than Longford,

[abbeyvale]

Im going with LFC 1-1 Longford

[Minesapint]

Very bad result tonight in front of a big crowd and a great evening for football, how with the squad of players that we have can we not beat longford town at home.

[Bayern Munchies]

Didn't get to go to this as i had my own match, so my post is mostly based on what I've heard about tonight and from my own opinion based on the season so far

But another disappointing result, with the players we have we should be doing so so much better, I can understand losing a game like this where it's a top of the table clash but the fact is we've struggled in almost every game this season so far to be fair and in every game we've played we just seem to play hoofball, and have no interest in trying to get the ball down on the deck and laying it, which with the squad of players at his disposal Scully should be doing.

Alot of the blame has to go on Scully, I'm still baffled as to why he was offered a two year contract last year when he was starting to struggle to get Limerick up. He's brought a certain level of professionalism to the club and we've a lot to be thankful for down to him to be fair but I don't think we can progress much further under him to be honest.

[LK37oldskool]

I like many others have given Scully the benifit of the doubt for a long time but after that display tonight he has to go if we are going to push for promotion. As previous posters have said we have an extremely strong panel and we play hoof football.I'd be happy with hoof football if we were winning but even thats not getting results and we seem to have no plan B.
Scully Out !!!

[thomas72]

same old story big Game att of 1,270 against a title rival and bottle it AGAIN.

but to be honest im not susprised we have been shocking from the frist game this season hoof ball all night ball after ball after ball i was talking to a injuried player tonight and asked him WTF are scullys tactics he told me his tactics are rubbish hit the front man get the midfield up to him quickly for the 2nd ball myself and a few mates could not believe what we were hearing i thought about that is all we do.
the lads with me tonight will not come back again sick of watching rubbish football and listening to people going out the gate they wont be the only ones that wont be back.

pat o sullivan is a good man he spent alot of money on some excellant players but limerick as a club will go nowhere under scully he hasnt a clue the man hides in the dugout when things arent going well he needs to be sacked tomorrow when the season is early if he stays on the committee only has themselves to blame.

the 2nd goal tonight turning your back on the ball thinking its rolling wide not seen the longford player running up behind him kept it in crossed it goal if you did that in 3A on sunday morning you would be hooked. first goal barry ryans fault wouldnt come off his line the cross had no pace on it very dodgy keeper davey deserves his chance.

[Jofspring]

We where poor the first 15 to 20 minutes but totally took over the game till half time and should have led.

Second half was a disaster. 1 down from a mistake of the keeper and centre back both going up for the same bloody ball and making it easy for the Longford striker.

40 minutes to go and we went into panic stations. Scully was roaring at them to keep it on the deck, knock it around, be confident on the ball and positive on it and giving out to Barry Ryan for just lashing it away but it just seemed to go in one ear and out the other.

Scored the penalty and looked like we would be pushing for the second.

Within 30 seconds of the restart Purcell made a very school boy mistake of not making sure the ball went out. Good cross, good header but felt Barry could have attempted to save it and no one tracked Collie James' run into the box either. He even had time to control it if he wanted.

From there it was more hoof ball and the same nothing results. We never looked like getting the second at that stage in my eyes.

The silence at the end was deafening.

1,200 people in attendance and only about 60 leaving happy.

A few things have stood out to me in both our losses.

1. We panic when we concede. With our experience on the pitch we shouldn't.
2. When we push on up the field we get very exposed at the back and our back 4 looks very very shaky.
3. Sit a midfielder in front of the back four and you have Paudie Quinn out of the game. He should have changed the formation or something to deal with this.

The only positive from it is that when we do knock the ball around we look very good but that doesn't seem to last long in games.

I too have backed Scully in the past but in 3 and a half years nothing has changed. With poorer players or better players it doesn't matter, we see the same football played. Scully has to go. I'd get Pete Mahon in there instead. He knows a few of our players already and is proven to get performances out of teams.

[bluewhitearmy]

I like many others have given Scully the benifit of the doubt for a long time but after that display tonight he has to go if we are going to push for promotion. As previous posters have said we have an extremely strong panel and we play hoof football.I'd be happy with hoof football if we were winning but even thats not getting results and we seem to have no plan B.
Scully Out !!!

Ive supported him too but its time to go. Yet again he has panicked and made a ridiculous team selection the first sign of a big game.
No Bradley even though he was fully fit, Our best right back at right wing, a 17 year old up against Gillespie and there seemed to be no formation.
Bhandarkhar should be nowhere near a LOI team and yet he is the only left back in the senior squad when the u19s left back is twice the player he is.

He should never have been given that contract when he was and it should have never been that length. We wont win any league with him.

[harpin]

first goal barry ryans fault wouldnt come off his line the cross had no pace on it very dodgy keeper davey deserves his chance.

Exactly but he pulls Bandarker and then it turns out to be 3 changes...Kelly left back...Treacy to the right wing and Gaffney left...Scully's a tool "Be Positive" great tactical insight from the man

[bluewhitearmy]

Exactly but he pulls Bandarker and then it turns out to be 3 changes...Kelly left back...Treacy to the right wing and Gaffney left...Scully's a tool "Be Positive" great tactical insight from the man

Thats right footed Kelly at left back and Left footed Tracy at right wing meaning that when they got near the box they couldnt cross it first time.

[ped_ped]

Longford are nowhere near the quality of the Corks, Derrys and Shelbournes of the past few years yet he approaches a game against them like he would against any one of them . . . if we'd kept it on the deck and started with Gaffney and a midfield that occupied the middle of the field there'd've been 1,100+ very happy people leaving Jackman tonight.

Let's leave out the fact that sitting back at home has yielded a win just once over past two years . . .

[fc hammer]

Ive supported him too but its time to go. Yet again he has panicked and made a ridiculous team selection the first sign of a big game.
No Bradley even though he was fully fit, Our best right back at right wing, a 17 year old up against Gillespie and there seemed to be no formation.
Bhandarkhar should be nowhere near a LOI team and yet he is the only left back in the senior squad when the u19s left back is twice the player he is.

He should never have been given that contract when he was and it should have never been that length. We wont win any league with him.

Nail on the head. Scully out before its too late. We'll get no promotion with him.

[thomas72]

bottom line lads there was a huge crowd there tonight we will be lucky to see 500 600 for the next league game the club needs to act the season has only started now is the time to move and get rid of this bluffer get a guy in that can lead us out of this divsion. iv a season ticket and if i could get a refund i would seriously think about taking it until scully is sacked the football is shocking hit the front man midfield get up and support LOL with a team mostly of ex premier LOI players :confused: i go to all home and prob 3/4 away games if im thinking that what are the guys coming in to have a look at this so called great team thinking ill tell you what FCK that there cat im not going back there.

[Bayern Munchies]

I think we will get 2nd and if we do go up I'm worried that Scully will get a crack at it which IMO he doesn't deserve. Which is the sad thing about it, we'll be going up by virtue of the fact that the quailty in the league this year sin't good at all...and yet we still struggle in the majority of the games...says it all really.

[da bishop]

really poor result tonight,out thought,out fought,and for 60-70 mins outplayed.this squad is certainly not moving in the right direction at the moment given the quality and depth it has,how a player of joe gambles attributes can so anonymous is hard to fathom and once again to see us relying on gaffenys long throws all the time to get us out of jail is becoming an embarrassment,coupled with the obvious lack of shape and balance for most of the second half.this manager has one way of playing,its not pleasing to the eye so to compensate he has to win games in what is the poorest div in years,time will tell on that count.fair play to longford passed it well in the first half and mucked in hard for the last 20 mins when we ....pucked...it at them..thought gillespie very impressive,deserved their win.

[gael353]

4th season in charge, hiding in his dugout. takes off the kids as obviously they made the mistakes :/ never in four seasons won in front of a big crowd. long ball stuff. RB playing at LW, CM playing at LB, F playing as a CM, F sitting on the bench, F sitting on the bench, playing one up front for all 93 mins.

[blueblood]

Lads i'm not a manager or a brain surgeon or in mensa or anything and even I knew scully fcuked up when I saw the team, no Gaffney??? behan up front on his own??? Bhandarker still left full??? it looked like we were looking just not to loose ie. draw??? pure negative again and we played just like that too. Scully cant even do the simple thing which is to know your best team and generally stick to it, its hard enough we've half a new team this season without swapping and changing things the whole time. I think the players sense scully is useless and and it's affecting them. Scully has to go NOW, were only 4 points behind Longford so get rid of him before things get much worse, we're 3rd in the league behind Wexford and thank god Waterford are useless too, I have absolutley no confidence in the man.

[donnrua]

joke of a performance tonight, team were shapeless and void of ideas. Guthrie's distribution from the back was cat(not a particularly good player i.m.o) and don't get me started on Barry Ryan's kicking. Bhandarkar isn't up to the job yet and lets face it Gillespie and Kirby bossed midfield. Playing 1 up front at home with the best squad in the league is comical. as per usual when the opposition play a man in front of the back four Paudie is anonymous and what the hell was Shaun Kelly doing playing in midfield? does Scully have any idea what his best 11 are? I have to agree with fc hammer Scully has to go!!!!!!!

[kingpin4]

How people can blame Scully for that is beyond me. I'm not his greatest fan, but it's 90% the players' faults tonight.
If it was a team of young inexperienced lads, then I'd say he's doing something wrong. Joe Gamble, Pat Purcell, Barry Ryan, Denis Behan, Shane Tracy, Paudie Quinn (i know the last 2 are young, but have both been in England so calling them experienced) were awful tonight. Paddy and Barry cost us 2 goals, Scully can't go play the game for them. Another day, Paddy runs it out, finishes 1 all and we all say 'meh, was ok, could have been worse' ...it's his fault for that goal, but people aren't calling for him to be sacked or dropped.
I was behind the dugout too, he told them get it down and kept giving out when it was hoofed, to me that means they're not his tactics or the way he wants them to play. That's the players not listening to tactics.
Was talking to one of the players afterwards bout the formation, he said it was 4 4 2 but Paudie kept dropping off. Garry was supposed to be in the squad too but got injured doing something else outside of training, Rory was sick during the week so didn't start, Bradley isnt fully fit, was only able for 30 mins. And, personally, from what I've seen with Sean Brosnan, he's useless on the wing, so I can kind of see what he was thinking with Kelly on the right wing, I'd like to hear others' opinions on who else could have played there though.

Disappointing result, but I think it's about time the players started taking the blame. Some look like they're just going through the motions, if they are not playing for the manager then yes, the board need to look at that situation then, but based on tonight, sack half the players. They look like they don't want to be there, like they don't want to work hard to get promoted. Why should I help pay their wages if Paddy can't be bothered working a little bit harder to clear the ball?
Just my opinion on it though...

[4tothefloor]

how a player of joe gambles attributes can so anonymous is hard to fathom
It isn't really. Hard to impose yourself on a game when the ball is being hoofed back and forth over your head. With the players we have we should be playing through the midfield. Instead we're bypassing it.



I was behind the dugout too, he told them get it down and kept giving out when it was hoofed, to me that means they're not his tactics or the way he wants them to play. That's the players not listening to tactics.
Well what that says is that as a coach or manager he simply isn't up to it. If the players aren't listening it means he isn't able to impose his authority on the team. If he doesn't want hoof ball he should simply root out the hoofers and drop them. Barry Ryan needs to be dropped. ****e 'Keeper but even worse than that is his constant hoofing of the ball. If that goes against Scully's game plan, he should be dropped, simple as. However I don't believe this to be the case. I've seen enough of Scully's tactics and performances over the years to know that he is a cautious, negative coach. Pat O'Sullivan is wasting his time and money on this guy.

Lets say we do scrape up, does anyone seriously think Scully is going to keep us in the Premier? I don't, so what's the point? We'll need to replace him at some stage so why not now...

[Jofspring]

The more I hear Scully call for it to be kept on the ground etc… the more I feel its just lip service for the fans behind him so he doesn't get the blame. He has had about 3 different squads since he took over and every single one of them have played the same. We had a squad that were on total wages of €2,500 3 years ago and they where playing the same way as the current squad that must be on 4 times that. I don't agree with always blaming the manager but in the last 3 years we have been out done tactically by every half decent manager with a solid team. Mistakes tonight where made by individual players and for those Scully can't be blamed but going forward we don't seem to really look like scoring much. I'm sure any manager that has watched us this year knows the ball will be pumped to Behan who will try hold it up for on coming players. Once that is noticed and counter acted we have no plan b.

I honestly think with that squad there are plenty of managers in this league that would do a cracking job with them.

The strange decisions tonight can't be ignored though. Shaun Kelly on the wing, Brosnan, Coughaln, McGann or Quinn probably could have done decent jobs there. Shane Tracey being swapped wing onto his bad foot, baffling and he started him there against Athlone too. Bhandarkar is yet to have a good game but keeps his place while Shane Tracey has played for Galway Utd (in the premier) and Limerick in that position before and was good there so why not give him a chance and throw into that every single person I talk to says Anto O Donnell is a great left full and far superior to Bhandarkar who is actually a natural winger. David O Leary who was one of our better players last week gets dropped and he brings in McGann, for what reason? Don't get me wrong I think McGann is a decent player. After 5 minutes I said Quinn may as well be taken off because Longford had him sussed and easily took care of him.

We have Barry Sheedy, Cian Collins, Anto O Donnell and a few more u19's that are worth giving a chance to or at least on the bench. I would not be at all surprised to see one or two of them head up to Athlone to Mike Kerley.

[bluewhitearmy]

Talking to one of the players a while ago asked him why they keep hoofing it after being told to keep it down his response was " Why doesn't he tell us that before the game and at half time if thats what he wants" he then told me that they were told to go direct before the game and again at half time do i think Jof is right about it being lip service.

[mastermind1]

Wasn t at the game last night so can't comment on it. But from seeing quite a few game s so far its obvious that scullys tactics are terrible. We can blame the midfielders all we want but if the ball is bypassing them then they might aswell get rid of gamble, bradley etc. They are told by their manager and coach to take 2 or 3 passes and den get rid of it. Shocking stuff really, don t think i ll bother coming from ennis to the games anymore till he gets sacked. Its embarrassing to watch at times. Rant over

[kingpin4]

After sleeping on it and thinking bout it more, I still blame the players last night for that. The tactics excuse is poor, because they're not 15 year olds. We have strong experienced players in the team and squad, if they're not happy with tactics, you'd see them change it. they're not stupid like, Joe would pick a 5 yard pass over hoofing it, you can see it with Bradley too when he came on. Tried to keep it down and pass. The problem then lies with the defence, they won't play it to the midfielders and instead kick long for Denis. And if you think about the start of the season as a whole, Paddy has been awful, Andrew has been awful and Guthrie/ Corie have been doing (reasonably) ok.
I get the impression Scully has told them to get it down to the midfielders, but they get the ball, play it back to Barry and it's kicked long again. I don't know how much blame can be put on Scully when he's screaming at them to keep it down and giving out about Barry going long.
Paddy needs to get himself right though, he escapes criticism far too often.

[fieldofmarkets]

Its true that if our defense did not let in two howlers we win the game 1-0............but we can't be relying on semi professional players never making mistakes and nicking games by a goal all season. The entire league knows we have significantly the strongest squad in the 1st division but right now we will not beat Longford to the title and we are not even a lock for second. We should be playing in a manner that relies on what our competitive advantage over the other squads is. Good players...so let's have them play. We rarely do play, so despite what Scully is heard shouting during games, it means we are not working on it during training. Is it possible to win a league by direct balls? Can stay up successfully or even finish a decent mid table alright...but can't dominate or win a title I would think.

We don't need new players...the change we need is obvious.

[bluewhitearmy]

After sleeping on it and thinking bout it more, I still blame the players last night for that. The tactics excuse is poor, because they're not 15 year olds. We have strong experienced players in the team and squad, if they're not happy with tactics, you'd see them change it. they're not stupid like, Joe would pick a 5 yard pass over hoofing it, you can see it with Bradley too when he came on. Tried to keep it down and pass. The problem then lies with the defence, they won't play it to the midfielders and instead kick long for Denis. And if you think about the start of the season as a whole, Paddy has been awful, Andrew has been awful and Guthrie/ Corie have been doing (reasonably) ok.
I get the impression Scully has told them to get it down to the midfielders, but they get the ball, play it back to Barry and it's kicked long again. I don't know how much blame can be put on Scully when he's screaming at them to keep it down and giving out about Barry going long.
Paddy needs to get himself right though, he escapes criticism far too often.

As one of the players said himself he says that in the dug out in front of people but before the game and at half time the players are told go direct to Behan...Whats the point telling em one thing before the game the opposite during the game and then back to the first thing at half time. Terrible terrible management and i was backing Scully up until very recently. I talked to 3 players lastnight 2 that played in the game 1 that didnt and none of them are happy with Scully.

[passandmove]

Ya lads i was at the game last night,same old story big game limerick lose.The distribution of our goalkeeper and two centre halves was shocking.The 2 biggest things any manager will ask for is time and money,pat scully has been given more than enough of both,fans are the heartbeat of any club and any person i spoke to last night wants him out,the only bit of value i got last night was watching k gillespie play.

[donnrua]

Fair enough individual errors cost us the 2 goals but the fact that we created next to nothing over the course of the match and had most of the team playing out of position as well as a few players that should be nowhere near a league of Ireland side does not show our manager to be any great footballing mastermind. Some have said that they were behind the dugout and heard Scully lambasting the players for not doing what he wanted, lets be clear on one thing that team on the pitch last night was Scully's team, outside of Paddy I believe that every player was signed by Scully and if he cant get HIS players to do what they are told to do the blame rests on Scully's shoulders. Straight from the 1st whistle Longford played all the football and it still took Scully an hour to make changes and even then there was no improvement.