April 8-12 Fixtures

[ATFC-1887]

In fairness it's better than Ballybofey's! So if you're calling for us not to get a licence over our pitch then Harps wouldn't get one either!! I'd say if you looked back over the years the amount of called off in Ballybofey would exceed that of Longford.
As much of a "dislike" i have for Longford, i have never found the pitch the be anyway bad. Always actually thought of it as a good surface. Far far better than Ballybofey anyways.

[Longfordian]

I'm giving Nidge the benefit of the doubt here, I think he was joking. Our pitch usually holds up well.

[nigel-harps1954]

I'm giving Nidge the benefit of the doubt here, I think he was joking. Our pitch usually holds up well.

I'm glad there's at least one person got it.

[Town Legend]

Have to say the pitch held up pretty well after all the water that was lying on it. On the game, less said about it the better. Dundalk, if bothered, could of scored 8 or 9. Hit the upright twice in the first half and should of scored another 3. They can say they never got out of second gear but for the first half hour of the second half they never got out of neutral...thank god. We were just woeful. I said before the season that we'll concede lots, score very few and finish 12th. Unfortunately I'm been proved right. A dodgy keeper, a full back four missing, no bite or creativity in midfield and no natural goal scorer. Derry next week.....time to prove me wrong!

[Dalymountrower]

Grim in Bray.Awful pitch, about 200 home fans
They deserve to go down

[Martinho II]

there was none of that in Killashee at all. There was a hail shower in Ballymahon for a few mins when I was at a match. Was it in Longford Town with this thundery rain?

[Martinho II]

Long season ahead for Longford. Always nice to meet up with some good football people. There is a sense of resignation about the place.

totally agree with you. resigned with the way the team are going, resigned with the boards love of Tony Cousins and resigned with the way the board is running the club and resigned with the way the board makes life hell for Section O and resigned with the amount of good Section O lads that have stayed away due to the clubs ineptitude of idenitying the wrong culprit when the flares were lit at the FAI semi final!

[Martinho II]

no think we deserve to go down more than Bray. dont forget with three weeks to go from end of last season we were close to being relegated. Limerick should have stayed up and we should have being relegated.

[dundalkfc10]

Lads its only April!

[Yossarian]

Longford are by far the worst team we have played this season and I think there will be plenty more of these scorelines and relegation based on that performance last night. We could easily have won 10 nil if we had a decent striker, McMillan missed some very straight forward chances and Kilduff didn't offer much at all.

[White Horse]

Longford reminded me of ourselves in 2012. The thing that is different is that I didn't detect the same anger from the supporters.

Perhaps that has passed and the people who remain just accept their fate.

However, the rut that Longford is in can be fixed. We finished second in 2013.

[Ezeikial]

Longford reminded me of ourselves in 2012.

That's exactly what struck me last night too.

It is not a nice feeling getting hammered 4-0 at home clear in the knowledge that the gap between the two teams is enormous






However, the rut that Longford is in can be fixed. We finished second in 2013.

The first step is to avoid relegation. Unless a miracle happens, the team that took the pitch last night have no chance of doing that.

[Town Legend]

Lads its only April!

We know it's only April but the majority of us had major doubts over the quality of our squad long before a ball was kicked. If you were in Longford last night you'd know we are in deep trouble already. Cork demolished us 6-0. We beat Wexford away in our first game, how we managed that I still do not know. Wexford dominated possession that night by at least 75%-25% and the only two chances we got we scored from. Bray drew with us in Longford and again we were lucky when a clearance from Cherrie hit O'Sullivan and rebounded into the net. The teams we had in the First Division in 2013 and 2014 would beat our current team. Our only hope is the break come July and that we can sign 6 or 7 decent players from somewhere. But we know that's not going to happen.

[outspoken]

Longford reminded me of ourselves in 2012. The thing that is different is that I didn't detect the same anger from the supporters.

Perhaps that has passed and the people who remain just accept their fate.
.

This is what worries me the most. Maybe the reaction would be different if that was bray we lost to last night but if we are going to even try and compete against the likes of cork and Dundalk when they visit CCS then maybe we deserve to go back to the boneyard.

[Martinho II]

Lads its only April!

dont care. I have bein goin to matches since early 90s and like to think that I can judge a mood of a club.. we are a mess of a club on the field and off the field. there has never bein such a divide between the club and its supporters.. noone knows what goes on these days. no AGM since 09.

[Nesta99]

POLICE were called to Derry's Brandywell Stadium on Friday night after trouble flared ahead of Derry City's clash with Shamrock Rovers.

It is understood that there were skirmishes just before Derry's game with the Dublin club with a small number of fans throwing bottles and stones at commerical and residental properties on the Lecky Road.

One woman who witnessed the incident, but who did not want to be named said: "The Dublin fans chased young Derry City fans through the Brandywell."

http://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2016/04/08/news/trouble-flares-at-derry-s-brandywell-during-clash-with-shamrock-rovers-480059/?param=ds12rif76F

Was it the same woman as quoted last time I wonder, poor little Derry fans involved:rolleyes: and those nasty Dubs. Maybe they though twice about chucking stones at buses after. Anyone who thinks that because a few of these Derry fans will quieten down now that they have been on a receiving end of a kicking is probably wrong. They will just have greater numbers next time round in attempt of retribution. There is some satisfaction that they might have been put in their box on Friday, hence a very rare time that the Rovers fans involved can avoid the usual riticism.

[White Horse]

Spoke to a couple of Cork City fans yesterday. They appear to be taking a home draw against Wexford ridiculously seriously.

A couple of weeks again, they were "champions-elect" after eeking out a win in Oriel Park. Now, everything is a shambles.

Are Cork fans always so up and down?

There is a long way to go and all teams are still finding their rhythm.

[El-Pietro]

Its a worrying result but I wouldn't panic.

We didn't wake up until about 60 or 70 minutes. I can't believe we didn't score more than once. We must have had 20 or more chances in those 20 minutes. For some reason Beattie was playing at right back, but was acting as an additional right winger. Dunleavy was pushing on at left back as well which meant we were overloading their full backs in 2 on 1 situations. We effectively had a 3-4-3/3-5-2 towards the end of the game with Bolger the third defender, and even he was in a relatively advanced role.

I thnk it was just one of those nights, our passing was a little off all night, I've never seen so many passes fall a yard or so behind the intended recipient. In the box things just weren't clicking for us. Our final ball let us down, but we were also unlucky in that nothing was fallign right for us.

Credit to Wexford. They surprised me, I knew that they had done well against Rovers and Dundalk but I still thought we'd get the three points at home relatively easily.

[D24Saint]

Any word on how the Finn park pitch is looking.

[nigel-harps1954]

Any word on how the Finn park pitch is looking.

How brown is muck?

[oriel]

Its a worrying result but I wouldn't panic.


I thnk it was just one of those nights, our passing was a little off all night, I've never seen so many passes fall a yard or so behind the intended recipient. In the box things just weren't clicking for us. Our final ball let us down, but we were also unlucky in that nothing was fallign right for us.

Credit to Wexford. They surprised me, I knew that they had done well against Rovers and Dundalk but I still thought we'd get the three points at home relatively easily.

From what I saw of the second half (when the stream finally worked) for Wexford v Dundalk, we were very lucky to get the win that night.

Still very surprised to hear Cork only drew though especially at home, but you get these games during any season, other matches you can batter away at teams and it just won't go in. As a poster said further above, it is only April.............for all teams.

[Sam_Heggy]

Any word on how the Finn park pitch is looking.

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpl1/v/t1.0-9/12938129_10209404887056324_7764361718418484339_n.j pg?oh=34e790db0dfa1e7b81d83da6044f442f&oe=577A3E90

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-0/p280x280/12963624_10209404887816343_7993102192940489547_n.j pg?oh=bba428efd7ea4495ca153cff23cacb8c&oe=577DD6F7

Both pics taken today. Will probably cut up and be fairly soft but not bad for being under water 10 days ago.....

[nigel-harps1954]

Unbelievable.

Just unbelievable.

[Lim till i die]

Watched a bit of athlone shelbourne.

Long oul year ahead in athlone. :bulgy:

[White Horse]

Good result for Pats in Donegal tonight. Only 5 points between Derry / Dundalk at the top and Cork in 6th place.

Could be a very competitive league this year.

[nigel-harps1954]

Harps absolutely battered Pats. Brush made a howler for the first, second from nothing and it completely knocked the stuffing out of Harps.

Steep learning curve for this squad at Premier Division.

[nigel-harps1954]

Harps absolutely battered Pats. Brush made a howler for the first, second from nothing and it completely knocked the stuffing out of Harps.

Steep learning curve for this squad at Premier Division.

[TonyD]

Very happy with the three points, but I'm not fooled by it. Sounds like we weren't great again. We've a fair bit to do.

[D24Saint]

Don't know how harps didn't get something out of the game especially after their second performance but I'll take it, Goals change games Brush made a mess of the corner and it changed the game.

[Sam_Heggy]

Pats had all the ball in the first half but didn't trouble us.
Every time we got the ball into the box though Pats were all over the place.

Second half was one way traffic, how we didn't score is a complete mystery.

Not disheartened though, any points against the top teams are a bonus. Our league is v Bray, Longford, Wexford and Sligo. If we average out 11 points per series of games we won't be far off staying up, that has to be the aim.

[Dodge]

Harps absolutely battered Pats. Brush made a howler for the first, second from nothing and it completely knocked the stuffing out of Harps.

Steep learning curve for this squad at Premier Division.
Was it half an hour before Harps had a shot on target. Could have been 2 down at that stage with Byrne's opening minute effort and a clear pen not given

Had 15 minutes of flurry before Pats scored but game over when the second went in

(That's a mates response. Said Pats the better team for most of it (in a very poor game))

[Sam_Heggy]

Was it half an hour before Harps had a shot on target. Could have been 2 down at that stage with Byrne's opening minute effort and a clear pen not given

Had 15 minutes of flurry before Pats scored but game over when the second went in

(That's a mates response. Said Pats the better team for most of it (in a very poor game))

Pats had a chance in the opening mins but poor finish. Pen appeal was very debatable, looked more of a dive to me (and obviously the ref)

Pats honestly didnt get out of their half until a booted clearance was knocked out for a corner. A easy catch normally for Brush was dropped onto a Harps head and in for an og.

I guarantee Pats would have been delighted with a point before the OG.

[nigel-harps1954]

Was it half an hour before Harps had a shot on target. Could have been 2 down at that stage with Byrne's opening minute effort and a clear pen not given

Had 15 minutes of flurry before Pats scored but game over when the second went in

(That's a mates response. Said Pats the better team for most of it (in a very poor game))

First half was pretty poor from both sides.

Second half one way traffic. Pats corner came from nothing, Brush made a meal of it and bounced it off a defender into the net. Second goal again out of absolutely nothing, through ball, slot under Brush.

They were Pats only two clear chances of the second half. Harps hit the crossbar, and couldn't finish in the final third.

Your mate needs to double check his eyesight if he thinks Pats were the better side for any more than maybe 15 minutes tops, and I say that without any hint of bias and with total honesty.

[venkman]

Worrying run of results for Harps. Decent result for Pats

[D24Saint]

First half was pretty poor from both sides.

Second half one way traffic. Pats corner came from nothing, Brush made a meal of it and bounced it off a defender into the net. Second goal again out of absolutely nothing, through ball, slot under Brush.

They were Pats only two clear chances of the second half. Harps hit the crossbar, and couldn't finish in the final third.

Your mate needs to double check his eyesight if he thinks Pats were the better side for any more than maybe 15 minutes tops, and I say that without any hint of bias and with total honesty.

Thought we were slightly the better side in the first half , Conan Byrne should have scored early on.The second half was mostly harps they had a great chance off the bar but we got the break with the og.Id say dropped points like tonight could cost harps at the end of the season.

[joey B]

Really unlucky not to take something tonight,Pats could have been 1 up after a minute but did very little after that and played long balls all night for Fagan to run on to and somehow managed to be 2 up,I've seen them twice in 3 days and they look like a side who are not quite sure what they're trying to do or how they want to play.

We lacked a finish again after showing real fight in the 2nd half even after going 2 down, we really need to start taking our chances because hard luck stories doesn't keep you in this division.

[Dodge]

Kev McLaughlin the Derry reporter says Pats shaded the first half. Goal was scored on 69 so maybe Harps dominated for 20 minutes? Hardly the battering spoken of in the first post

That's football though. All about goals. They're the only stat that matters

[D24Saint]

Seeing a game is different to only hearing about it second hand, we got the win but the first goal was pure fluke but I'll take it.The second half was mainly harps & they should have got something out of the game.They didn't & that's their problem but I won't delude myself that we were brilliant just because we got the three points in a low quality game.

[sulywaterfordfc]

Bad weekend for us. Dropped points in both games. Need to start picking up points at home - none from our two home games. We've been poor at home the last couple of years needs to change. We've Shels at home Friday and to make matters worse we've struggled in the last 15 years to beat them. Probably won won 4/5 games against them in that time. They always seem to get a result against us no matter what.

- As soon as we went three up Friday things started going wrong. Lead cut to 3-1 and a man sent off just before half time. As if missing out captain, number one keeper and manager weren't bad enough. We missed numerous one-on-one's in the second probably should have put it to bed. When Athlone pulled it back to one goal we suffered a double whammy and our keeper got injured (second choice) which led to us having to play our third choice keeper. And from there the feeling and expectation of an equaliser was there and of course it happened. Ultimately the red card just before half time cost us the win. We should have won it handy.

- Tonight was just a bad night overall. We never really got going. Didn't play near the level we're capable of. Our passing was poor all night, O Leary and O Brien didn't have the affect we would of liked. We conceded two badly defended goals. We equalised thru Philly Gorman two minutes after Cobh went 1 up. Hard defeat to take. Was expecting us to win. Should have gotten something from it but unfortunately didn't. Gorman went off injured too which didn't help matters. Officiating was awful all round too. Worst I've seen this season for a game involving us.

Its typical of the LOI that tonight was just our second home game after three aways on the bounce in the league. And we're at home for our next two league games too.

Attendance - 420. Expected it to be half that tbh. So wasn't too bad. Our attendances been 720 & 420 this year. Shows the affect of a game been on a Monday over a Friday. I'm hopping the attendance is 500+ Friday a home to Shels.

[Charlie Darwin]

Cheers, means a lot. 5 lads in the army, 4 at college, 2 working in Lifestyle Sports, 1 working in Woodies and the rest in different jobs. All playing for expenses and the love of the round ball
No postmen? You'll never get on 101greatgoals with a set-up like that?

I wasn't in Derry but sounds like Nutsy was apoplectic with the performance. With the gurriers we have in the team, there should be no excuse for the lack of fight. Here's hoping there'll be a huge reaction at Bohs, but given our recent record they really have our number. This time last year, Drennan was a huge loss going to Dalymount but this year I'm hoping he doesn't play. Strange how things go.

[Charlie Darwin]

Bad weekend for us. Dropped points in both games. Need to start picking up points at home - none from our two home games. We've been poor at home the last couple of years needs to change. We've Shels at home Friday and to make matters worse we've struggled in the last 15 years to beat them. Probably won won 4/5 games against them in that time. They always seem to get a result against us no matter what.

- As soon as we went three up Friday things started going wrong. Lead cut to 3-1 and a man sent off just before half time. As if missing out captain, number one keeper and manager weren't bad enough. We missed numerous one-on-one's in the second probably should have put it to bed. When Athlone pulled it back to one goal we suffered a double whammy and our keeper got injured (second choice) which led to us having to play our third choice keeper. And from there the feeling and expectation of an equaliser was there and of course it happened. Ultimately the red card just before half time cost us the win. We should have won it handy.

- Tonight was just a bad night overall. We never really got going. Didn't play near the level we're capable of. Our passing was poor all night, O Leary and O Brien didn't have the affect we would of liked. We conceded two badly defended goals. We equalised thru Philly Gorman two minutes after Cobh went 1 up. Hard defeat to take. Was expecting us to win. Should have gotten something from it but unfortunately didn't. Gorman went off injured too which didn't help matters. Officiating was awful all round too. Worst I've seen this season for a game involving us.

Its typical of the LOI that tonight was just our second home game after three aways on the bounce in the league. And we're at home for our next two league games too.

Attendance - 420. Expected it to be half that tbh. So wasn't too bad. Our attendances been 720 & 420 this year. Shows the affect of a game been on a Monday over a Friday. I'm hopping the attendance is 500+ Friday a home to Shels.
Fourth-choice keeper with Birdsall ineligible too. What happened there?

[Dodge]

Seeing a game is different to only hearing about it second hand, we got the win but the first goal was pure fluke but I'll take it.The second half was mainly harps & they should have got something out of the game.They didn't & that's their problem but I won't delude myself that we were brilliant just because we got the three points in a low quality game.

To be fair, no one said Pats were brilliant.

[PartySaint]

Pats had all the ball in the first half but didn't trouble us.
Every time we got the ball into the box though Pats were all over the place.



That basically sums up our season so far.

Not really sure how we're only 3 points off Dundalk, we're a mid table team. Thank Christ for Christy Fagan.