Serbia v Rep of Ireland - Rajko Mitić Stadium, Belgrade (WCQ) Monday, 5th Sept. 2016

[sbgawa]

With the exception of a fluke of a win against germany and a win against the Italian reserves o Neill has been a constant negative in Irish football

[SkStu]

Quinn - really!!!

You know your squad hasn't developed when...

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Takes the goalscorer off..

[Charlie Darwin]

This has been truly dreadful. This Serbian side are a rabble and we're making them look like worldbeaters.

[Paddy Garcia]

Murphy fluffs his lines...........

I think Arter knows where the goal is

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Straight at the f***ing goalkeeper..

Good play by Murphy

[tricky_colour]

Omfg!! ;):D:)

[tetsujin1979]

Undeserved goal, but I'm delighted for Murphy!

[shakermaker1982]

Go for the win! Don't sit back.

[pineapple stu]

As usual Ronnie Whelan is talking out of his hoop. When the forward goes across the defender like that any contact at all and he's going down, and the ref gives it. There was a hand on the back and that is a penalty.
My view too. Definite penalty.


Murphy! !!

[backstothewall]

Mark thé day!

[passinginterest]

It's been such a bizarre game it just had to be Daryl Murphy to score the equaliser. Mental stuff.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

F***ing brilliant goal by Murphy.

He deserves it.

[The Fly]

Yessssss!!!

[SkStu]

Get in!

We'd been so much better since going behind. To TOWKs point why can't we do it all the time? So flucking frustrating.

[sbgawa]

Imagine if o Neill had asked them to play a bit when we were 1 nil up

[tricky_colour]

He can retire now.

[SkStu]

Serbia are filthy. (had to say it again)

[tricky_colour]

OMG!!!

[tetsujin1979]

what the hell was that??

[passinginterest]

This is like watching two under 14 b teams hacking around Bushy park.

[tricky_colour]

come on win it!

[SkStu]

Ah here brutal brutal stuff

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Something needs to change after this game. This performance has been calamitous.

[tricky_colour]

Hope that big spud gets the winner.

[nigel-harps1954]

Anyone else find themselves questioning Ronnie Whelan awarding man of the match to Randolph?

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Anyone else find themselves questioning Ronnie Whelan awarding man of the match to Randolph?

It's probably been his worst performance for us.

[pineapple stu]

So to see this out, it's Clark for long.

Makes sense

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

I think the way we reacted to going behind shows we could have won this game if the tactics weren't so bad.

Please don't start Walters again.

Or Whelan.

[Paddy Garcia]

Anyone else find themselves questioning Ronnie Whelan awarding man of the match to Randolph?

Jeez - first time I've been glad I'm watching on sky!

[SkStu]

Not sure how you can pick a MOTM from that performance for us...

[backstothewall]

Not sure how you can pick a MOTM from that performance for us...

It had to be Murphy!!

[nigel-harps1954]

It really did have to be Murphy.

[The Fly]

Not sure how you can pick a MOTM from that performance for us...

It gets worse - they'll give him a crystal vase in a few minutes.

[tricky_colour]

Well better than losing, but a draw is a decent result all in all, defeat would not have been horrible!

[tricky_colour]

It gets worse - they'll give him a crystal vase in a few minutes.

Well let's hope he doesn't drop it!

[sbgawa]

Imagine if o Neill had asked them to play a bit when we were 1 nil up

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

I can't understand the indifference towards Murphy.

He has been very unlucky not to score until now, Germany and Italy off the top of my head. Won a penalty against Bosnia. Should have had a stonewall penalty against Italy. Sets up loads of chances.

He was arguably our best player against France IMO.

Even aside from the goal tonight, he set up a great chance for Long and was a constant nuisance to their defense - right down to the last minute when he charged down the goalkeeper.

He has been good for us more often than he hasn't.

I'm delighted for him and more than happy for him to be an option for us.

[sbgawa]

Dreadful stuff. If that was a loi match people would be complaining

[johnnyc]

That was probably the strangest game I've seen in a long time. Our constant hoofing, their keeper, Coleman staying on the line, the ref, the pen, their lad smashing it off the crossbar... Bizarre.

[backstothewall]

Bosnia was odd as well. Maybe it's something to do with being in the Balkans

[The Fly]

The Serbian keeper's a turd too. We didn't test him anywhere near enough.

I do agree with Didi though, can't see the Serbs dropping many points in Belgrade.

[backstothewall]

The banging on from the panel about passing the ball is getting boring now. Anyone with a couple of eyes could see that the game was being played on a glorified peat bog tonight. It was a night for getting it forward and trying to win it back in a more dangerous area.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Really feel that game was there for the taking if you put in - and it doesn't have to be Hoolahan - another midfielder in there instead of Walters.

Look how much the game changed when Quinn came on. He easily could've slotted in there.

Fn synonymous with our long ball approach. And he didn't even have the legs to offer proper support to Coleman on the right hand side.

In mitigation:

He did improve in the last twenty minutes when we got back on top.

And he did test the goalkeeper with a decent header first half.

But I stand by what I say.

I feel between the 1st and 3rd minute, between the 50th and 55th minutes and between the 70th and 85th minutes were our best periods.

It was a terrible performance aside from that.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

MON saying the Serbians play in bigger leagues for better teams.

By and large, they don't.

It's not like it's Real Madrid and Barcelona lads playing Rotherham and Bolton lads ffs.

There is marginal difference in the teams they play for.

Making excuses for a tawdry performance.

As Liam said, the conditions were just as bad for the Serbians - and it didn't affect them.

[NeverFeltBetter]

Disappointing, the game was there to be won, Serb's were dire anytime the ball was being crossed in. Seems like a step back from the Italy/France games.

[pineapple stu]

The banging on from the panel about passing the ball is getting boring now. Anyone with a couple of eyes could see that the game was being played on a glorified peat bog tonight. It was a night for getting it forward and trying to win it back in a more dangerous area.
Serbia could pass it about. They'd have been out of sight with forwards who could keep out of each other's way.

[osarusan]

We were really poor, and we always will be against a team that can pass the ball.

Never a penalty though, but they could have had another couple anyway.

I agreed with a lot of what Brady said after the game - we don't have the players, and we don't have a manager who really wants to play that way either, so we should stop lamenting how we don't pass the ball.

[shakermaker1982]

We need to start picking players who are getting game time for their clubs.

We need to stop panicking when we take a lead. Every bloody time we retreat against a half decent team once we go one nil up. Kill them off. Serbia were there for the taking, crowd was on their back and we were content to let them have the ball.

Obviously we'd have all taken a point beforehand but it's a shame we didn't try and go for the 2nd goal.

The Walters penalty, it looked like it was outside the box anyway? The ref was god awful all night.

[DeLorean]

Awful performance but a great result. If we think that they were there for the taking I can't imagine what they thought about us. I'd have taken a draw beforehand but it was an even better result in the circumstances. Delighted for Hendrick (assuming it's not taken off him) and Murphy getting of the mark.