Fixtures, 10th-13th October

[NeverFeltBetter]

Both Dundalk and Cork with handy enough wins tonight against the bottom two, UCD and Athlone having men sent off would have certainly helped. Pats all but in Europe next season now. Limerick jump up two places, could yet finish in the top half. Bray probably safe from the play-off/relegation scrap now.

Run-in for important things:

Dundalk
-Shams (h)
-Bray (a)
-Cork (h)

Cork
-Bohs (h)
-Dundalk (a)

Dundalk and Shams is huge of course, would like to see Rovers win just to make the title race as interesting as possible. Dundalk, going by results against UCD and Athlone, should be able to put Bray away without difficulty, so getting three points out of Rovers would seal it imo.

UCD
-Derry (a)
-Drogs (h)

Athlone
-Pats (a)
-Bray (h)

If any of those two are getting a result out of those games, it'll be Athlone at home to Bray.

[jinxy lilywhite]

Dundalk rover's game it's massive because it's the next game.

One game at a time.

[NeverFeltBetter]

Looking at the last ten games is depressing reading for Students in relegation fight anyway. UCD have drawn 2 and lost 8, and have a GD of -22. Athlone, in contrast, have 7 draws and 3 defeats, and have a GD of -7 in the same period. It'll be scrappy, but I'd say they'll have enough for a safe Bray.

[Dalymountrower]

Dundalk rover's game it's massive because it's the next game.

One game at a time.


Yeah it must be. Trying to find out from this site and xtratime what tonights resuts are. Is there a site taht does that ? Extratime , bizarrely , doesnt,

[oriel]

The win for Dundalk tonight means the worst case scenario for us is, it will go to the last day now.

One game at a time for sure, but two more wins from 3 (and 2 at home) and it's over. We also have safety net of we can actually lose two and still win it, as mad as that seems.

This was a massive win v Athlone. However it's just 3 pts. On to Monday now.

[NeverFeltBetter]

Yeah it must be. Trying to find out from this site and xtratime what tonights resuts are. Is there a site taht does that ? Extratime , bizarrely , doesnt,

They do? http://extratime.ie/fixtures/played/100/2017/ Or go to the front page and click "Recent Games".

Been following them all night.

[Mr A]

Real bummer for Drogheda to lose so late last night. We know the feeling having run Pats so close last week.

[White Horse]

Real bummer for Drogheda to lose so late last night. We know he feeling having run Pats so close last week.

Karma. Any team who sets out be beaten, as was the case last week in Cork last week, gets what they deserve.

[pineapple stu]

Looking at the last ten games is depressing reading for Students in relegation fight anyway. UCD have drawn 2 and lost 8, and have a GD of -22. Athlone, in contrast, have 7 draws and 3 defeats, and have a GD of -7 in the same period. It'll be scrappy, but I'd say they'll have enough for a safe Bray.
The joke at the game last night was that we should all head off to Athlone v Bray on the last day of the season instead of UCD v Drogheda. We seem to spend most of the time looking out for Athlone's results anyway.

[NeverFeltBetter]

What's with UCD though? They've never been stellar in the last few years, but they've usually had more fight than this.

[bennocelt]

What's with UCD though? They've never been stellar in the last few years, but they've usually had more fight than this.

Eh, crap manager?!

[atfconline]

I won't hear a bad word said about Aaron! All these years later, finally doing something for us.

[Longfordian]

I imagine his 11 consecutive defeats when in charge of us gave ye a bit of cheer as well.

[pineapple stu]

Diplomatic answer is we've lost too many players. Down four defenders and three forwards on last year; can't afford that. We've no money, and now our average players (Morrison a prime example) are being nabbed.

Doesn't help of course that Bray sign four players in the transfer window and don't pay them, while we turn down a former player or two who are now helping Athlone improve.

[DRDoc]

Was at the Rovers UCD game the week before last

To say UCD were poor was an understatement.

To be honest it looked like a number of players were not at all trying.

The attitude some of the players showed towards Callaghan and vice versa was shocking.

Heard from more than one person that Callaghan had a real go at them at half time for a minute or two saying his job was on the line - and one of the players responded with "who cares " before Callaghan walked out.

[wonder88]

Are UCD paying players? I know this used to happen years ago; when they won the cup with Alan O Neill in goal etc, but I understood that team was made up of students and amateur ex-studends.

[pineapple stu]

Heard from more than one person that Callaghan had a real go at them at half time for a minute or two saying his job was on the line - and one of the players responded with "who cares " before Callaghan walked out.
That's worrying. And would entirely explain why the players came out so early for the second half, and then had the rest of their team talk on the bench with the coach.

[strikeforce]

Dundalk rover's game it's massive because it's the next game.

One game at a time.
Dundalk should win this handy enough.... sure Rovers are terrible at the moment, easy 3 points for Dawk.

[Ezeikial]

Dundalk should win this handy enough.... sure Rovers are terrible at the moment, easy 3 points for Dawk.

I hope you are right, but I suspect that it will be a tough challenge.

3 points from Rovers would mean that the league could be effectively wrapped up with either a win over Bray on Friday or a draw against Cork at home the following week.

[dundalkfc10]

I hope you are right, but I suspect that it will be a tough challenge.

3 points from Rovers would mean that the league could be effectively wrapped up with either a win over Bray on Friday or a draw against Cork at home the following week.

Rovers are still waiting for confirmation on whether Ronan Finn is suspended tomorrow, Only in LOI

[Straightstory]

Karma. Any team who sets out be beaten, as was the case last week in Cork last week, gets what they deserve.
I doubt very much if Drogheda set out to be beaten against Cork. Would the players care that much about Dundalk? I doubt it. Rather bizarre paranoia on your part. I think Dundalk will win the league anyway - and well deserved.
A great game in United Park against Pats. Both sides played good football. Some marvellous goals too.

[Acornvilla]

We enjoyed our trip to Donegal. Made too much noise and obscured an old ladys view of the match so had to be moved. Some bunch of rebels.There was only about 100 of us but that probably made up 1/3 of the crowd.Delighted for Bennion, got to save a penalty in (probably) his last ever LOI match, some hero!

[dundalkfc10]

I doubt very much if Drogheda set out to be beaten against Cork. Would the players care that much about Dundalk? I doubt it. Rather bizarre paranoia on your part. I think Dundalk will win the league anyway - and well deserved.
A great game in United Park against Pats. Both sides played good football. Some marvellous goals too.

Totally agree, anyone who watched trhe Drogheda Cork game could see they never went out to lose the game! They could have sneaked an unlikely equaliser near the end, thats not a team who sets out to lose to me!

[Louth4sam]

Delighted for Bennion, got to save a penalty in (probably) his last ever LOI match, some hero!

Always liked Benno, solid keeper apart from his kick outs. Very unlucky not to have been kept on when we were promoted. I actually have his first division winning jersey somewhere in the house.

[Longfordian]

Solid for us apart from his kicking as you say. Has a great record of saving penalties for us too.

[PartySaint]

Solid for us apart from his kicking as you say. Has a great record of saving penalties for us too.

He was great at saving penos for us as well, shi*e keeper tho

[Martinho II]

We enjoyed our trip to Donegal. Made too much noise and obscured an old ladys view of the match so had to be moved. Some bunch of rebels.There was only about 100 of us but that probably made up 1/3 of the crowd.Delighted for Bennion, got to save a penalty in (probably) his last ever LOI match, some hero!

was wonderin why we were moved. whoever that is involved in the stewardin of harps should be shot as they wouldnt let us across over to join the rest of the stand. their excuse the guards were concerned about the conduct of the town fans! for feck sake we arent even hooligans! after five mins we got moved eventually!

[atfconline]

Callaghan banned from the dugout for the next 3 games, don't know if that's a good or bad thing!

Didn't he start this season with a ban too?

[pineapple stu]

Aaron?

Yeah, he did. Was a hangover from his time at Bohs.

[Town Legend]

The long season has taken it's toll on the Oriel Park pitch, amount of divits on it is unreal. The ball does like to bobble an awful lot on it!

[IrishRossi]

We enjoyed our trip to Donegal. Made too much noise and obscured an old ladys view of the match so had to be moved. Some bunch of rebels.There was only about 100 of us but that probably made up 1/3 of the crowd.Delighted for Bennion, got to save a penalty in (probably) his last ever LOI match, some hero!

was a great day in donegal the bits i remember, i know i fell over the wall early in the 1st half

[Calcio Jack]

Is Mrs Kenny losing her nerve ... Going to be a nerve wracking last couple of games... Think the pendelum has swung slightly towards Cork but expect more twists

[Bubba]

League had just got very very interesting

[patrickccfc]

God that was hard to watch at times, rovers missing the peno and O'Donnell hitting the post.. we still need to beat our bogey team this year bohemians which will no doubt be another cagey game. Would be amazing to take it to the last game for a real humdinger up in oriel

[adamd164]

The Rovers!

[White Horse]

That could be a very important point. I thought we had a lot of scoring opportunities as the game went on.

However, Rovers should have got all three points when they got the penalty. I was very surprised at Brennan's lack of composure.

[adamd164]

In reality , a draw or a rovers win was the exact same outcome because of our goal difference - either way we have to win our 2 games to win the league. The penalty miss is meaningless.

[White Horse]

In reality , a draw or a rovers win was the exact same outcome because of our goal difference - either way we have to win our 2 games to win the league. The penalty miss is meaningless.

Lets see how you do against Bohs before concluding that a league point is meaningless.

[Calcio Jack]

That could be a very important point. I thought we had a lot of scoring opportunities as the game went on.

However, Rovers should have got all three points when they got the penalty. I was very surprised at Brennan's lack of composure.

In fairness to Brennan wasn't a lack of composure his foot went from under him (similar to John Terry in Champions league final)

Anyway big test for Kenny and indeed Caulfield over next two games makes for a great finish to the season

[adamd164]

Lets see how you do against Bohs before concluding that a league point is meaningless.
What I'm saying is Dundalk are nailed on to beat Bray. That means nothing less than 6 pts for us will do. Given that, a draw tonight was as good as a Rovers win for us.

[White Horse]

What I'm saying is Dundalk are nailed on to beat Bray.

Nice of you to say so, but nothing is nailed on.

[oriel]

We certainly didn't deserve to win the match and probably did just enough to earn the draw. I thought it was a bad game overall, and we never got going all night apart from opening 5 or 10 mins and parts of the second half. We just couldn't get behind the Rovers defence, maybe it was nerves, but that was definitely the worst we have played at home all year.

On to Bray now, 3 points is the focus and if we get that, Cork will know anything less than a win for them and it's over, but it's looking increasingly like the last day now, and if that happens the hope for us is we surely can't play that bad again.

[adamd164]

Fair enough!

Anyway, a good night for us. 2 wins for the league. Some on here were predicting dundalk would sail to the title. Hasn't happened.

[jinxy lilywhite]

That was never going to happen. It's a league ffs.

Our destiny is in our own hands. Same as corks. Bray up next. Not looking any further than that

[Pablo Escobar]

This is the first time that I've started to believe. We couldn't pick a trickier game than Bohs, given our record this year, but a sell-out with the cross hopping will make it very difficult for them.

I feel now how I felt before we won the first division against Shels, and with our record against Kenny on final days.......it's bound to end in tears......

[Aaron]

This is the first time that I've started to believe. We couldn't pick a trickier game than Bohs, given our record this year, but a sell-out with the cross hopping will make it very difficult for them.

I feel now how I felt before we won the first division against Shels, and with our record against Kenny on final days.......it's bound to end in tears......

Aye thanks for that....:(

[JC_GUFC]

Delighted it looks like going to the final day. A huge boost for the league.

Only downside is that it clashes with the 2nd leg of the playoff so I won't get to see it!

[Pablo Escobar]

Delighted it looks like going to the final day. A huge boost for the league.

Only downside is that it clashes with the 2nd leg of the playoff so I won't get to see it!
That is ridiculous planning by the league. Should we be surprised?

[desaintsno.12]

Jesus Rovers and Dundalk are very mediocre sides. Makes this year all the more frustrating for us.

[PartySaint]

Jesus Rovers and Dundalk are very mediocre sides. Makes this year all the more frustrating for us.

Yep we're by far the best side in the league.