Republic of Ireland v. Wales - Friday, 24th March 2017 - World Cup 2018 Qualifier

[nigel-harps1954]

Was the trumpet pumped through the P.A.?




Yes, and it was getting progressively louder as the night went on. It was horrendous in so many ways.



There was a microphone in front of the band, so yep, relayed around the ground.

The fake cheering at half time was almost as bad.

On a separate note, I missed who took over as captain after Coleman went off. Was it Whelan? (I presume Coleman started as captain, but I only got to the ground at kick off, and didn't even notice until half-time that McCarthy had failed a late fitness test)

I had assumed it was O'Shea. He seemed to take over leadership duties somewhat anyway.

[jbyrne]

Was the trumpet pumped through the P.A.?

��

yes. unbelievable really. i felt like leaving i was so annoyed

[Fixer82]

That's embarrassing. Bring back the bell, all is forgiven

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Seems like Ledley laughing and Taylor smiling.:bad::bad:


Edit : Seen Taylor walking off the pitch apologising to the Irish management. Seemed pretty devastated. Only he knows what he meant to do.

Ledley has just issued a statement defending himself.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/3176541/wales-midfielder-joe-ledley-hits-out-at-accusations-he-laughed-at-seamus-colemans-tragic-broken-leg-telling-trolls-they-need-their-heads-testing/

I knew it reminded me of something, when Ronaldo got caught winking and smiling to the Portuguese bench after contriving to get Rooney sent off.

You have to give him the benefit of the doubt in these situations but you can understand a backlash in the heat of the moment.

[mark12345]

I can't agree. He was so poor on the ball and so immobile. He was sitting on our centre halves. We can never press the ball when he plays cause he does not have the athleticism to cover the ground. If people who love whelan on here for his positional sense mastery want that great but we will never get those high octane Italy performances where we are on the front foot when he plays.mccarthy was a huge miss.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Whelan has no mobility. In fairness to him he does hit a nice pass, but he is as slow as molasses at times. I can see from the original poster's point of view that he is possibly seeing that Whelan's passes mostly found their targets, but it's what he doesn't give you which hurts. Had McGeady or Conor Hourihane been in his shoes I think we may just have seen a different outcome.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

McGeady is more apt to get past a player and whip a cross in than Walters. The counter argument is that Walters is needed for graft.

How many times was Coleman exposed on the right hand side again?

The Georgia game in particular, too, if I'm not mistaken, they had the beating of us on that side for the guts of 30 minutes.

How bad must McGeady be at grafting?

Think we missed a trick with this team selection and slowness to make substitutions again, a bugbear of mine when it comes to MON.

Is Arnautovic suspended for the June game?

[mark12345]

McGeady is more apt to get past a player and whip a cross in than Walters. The counter argument is that Walters is needed for graft.

How many times was Coleman exposed on the right hand side again?

The Georgia game in particular, too, if I'm not mistaken, they had the beating of us on that side for the guts of 30 minutes.

How bad must McGeady be at grafting?

Think we missed a trick with this team selection and slowness to make substitutions again, a bugbear of mine when it comes to MON.

Is Arnautovic suspended for the June game?

Now that you bring up Walters. I think we can do better in the forward line. John would be a nice addition coming of the bench in the final 20/25 minutes, but as a starting striker he is as immobile as Whelan at times. I know he is a fan favorite but he doesn't have the legs for a full 90 at international level imho. We need a forward who can hold the ball up and bring others into the play. The options are (in tandem) Long and McGeady, Long and McClean, Long and Murphy (although he's in a very similar mould to Walters in terms of mobility), Long and Horgan? It's something the manager has to work on.

[mark12345]

McGeady is more apt to get past a player and whip a cross in than Walters. The counter argument is that Walters is needed for graft.

How many times was Coleman exposed on the right hand side again?

The Georgia game in particular, too, if I'm not mistaken, they had the beating of us on that side for the guts of 30 minutes.

How bad must McGeady be at grafting?

Think we missed a trick with this team selection and slowness to make substitutions again, a bugbear of mine when it comes to MON.

Is Arnautovic suspended for the June game?

Hopefully. It would be a big loss for them if he was. That game now takes on added significance and the good part is that we should have all our injured players (minus Seamie) back.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Just to confirm Mark, Arnautovic is suspended for the next game.

Did anyone else notice Williams appearing to have a go at Taylor after the Coleman tackle?

That's what it looked like from my vantage point.

[mark12345]

Just to confirm Mark, Arnautovic is suspended for the next game.

Did anyone else notice Williams appearing to have a go at Taylor after the Coleman tackle?

That's what it looked like from my vantage point.

Didn't notice that about Williams, but fair play to him.
Regarding Austria game - if we beat them we're right back on track. Anything other than a win condemns them to also rans. Similar situation for Wales, they need to avoid defeat in Zagreb.

[IsMiseSean]

Does anyone have the game recorded? I'm very curious about how there was only 4 minutes of injury time. There were a number of subs and Coleman was down for quite a while.

Just watched it back. Taylor's tackle happened at 68.11. Play resumed 71.56. There were four subs but only one of them (McGeadys) stopped play. Two during Coleman's treatment and one at HT.
Four minutes was probably fair but he could have stretched it to five.

Anyone know if Taylor could face a retrospective ban similar to what Dele Alli received in the Europa League?

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

O'Shea, Whelan, McCarthy and Walters relieved from squad. No reinforcements..

That's to be expected with O'Shea picking up a knock, Whelan's facial injury and McCarthy's setback.

A bit baffling as to why Long and Doyle are the only strikers and Christie and Ward are only full backs available but we are getting used to nonsense like this.

[mark12345]

Didn't notice that about Williams, but fair play to him.
Regarding Austria game - if we beat them we're right back on track. Anything other than a win condemns them to also rans. Similar situation for Wales, they need to avoid defeat in Zagreb.

Belgrade rather.

[IsMiseSean]

Did anyone else notice Williams appearing to have a go at Taylor after the Coleman tackle?


I don't think he did. From the TV footage, Williams goes straight to the referee to protest the sending off.
He argues his case for awhile then goes and stands over Coleman while he is being put on the stretcher.

[TrapAPony]

Just to confirm Mark, Arnautovic is suspended for the next game..

Stefan Ilsanker too, their defensive midfield regular playing for Red Bull Leipzig. I personally think Austria won't have the bottle for Dublin

[mark12345]

Stefan Ilsanker too, their defensive midfield regular playing for Red Bull Leipzig. I personally think Austria won't have the bottle for Dublin

Not a bad start. And if we have all of our injured lads back then no reason why we can't win this game. It would appear that Austria didn't have too much bottle in facing Moldova yesterday. One of those victories which would have been greeted like a defeat in the local press.

[Diggs246]

When they went down to 10 men, he should have switched meyler to right full and brought on Mc Geady at that stage and really went for the jugular. I fear we may live to regret that. Anyway let's hope Seamus gets back on his feet as soon as possible

[SkStu]

I think Whelan is getting a rough ride here from folks. What he does well, he did really well last night. He kept the ball and kept us ticking over. I think Hendrick was far less effective and didn't provide much of an outlet. McClean was fantastic (didn't realize he was so one footed though) and I thought Walters worked his socks off defensively and supported Long well (although they take up the same positions in an attacking sense). Our back 4 did well overall - Christie showed a little naivety when we were pushing forward, trying to go outside too often although he did win a couple of corners.

Kudos to the Wales player who put a block on McCleans second volley that took it the wrong side of the post - it was flying in. Whelan showed good intelligence to cushion the header over to McClean for the first shot in that sequence.

Happy with the point in the grand scheme but also disappointed we left two points behind us.

I think we realised how much we (and the football world) love Coleman last night. I hope we can win this group for him.

[DannyInvincible]

Daniel Taylor of the Guardian reported (https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2017/mar/25/seamus-coleman-broken-leg-republic-of-ireland-wales) the following in relation to Neil Taylor:


For what it is worth, Taylor looked sickened when he left the pitch and, at the end of the match, when the other players came into the dressing room they found him on the floor, covering his face with his hands.

There's absolutely no way he was smiling.

[KrisLetang]

Player ratings
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/international/ireland-0-wales-0-ireland-player-ratings-1.3024032

Im not a playa i just crush a lot!

[backstothewall]

Couldn't have said it better myself. Whelan has no mobility. In fairness to him he does hit a nice pass, but he is as slow as molasses at times. I can see from the original poster's point of view that he is possibly seeing that Whelan's passes mostly found their targets, but it's what he doesn't give you which hurts. Had McGeady or Conor Hourihane been in his shoes I think we may just have seen a different outcome.

I was losing the rag with Whelan at times. He does offer a lot but there were a number of times last night McClean was in acres of space on the left and for whatever reason, presumably Whelan either being unwilling or unable to make the pass, the ball never went to him.

I would like a look at Hourihane in the Whelan role from the start against Iceland. Possibly with Brady and Hendrick in a 3 man midfield

[CraftyToePoke]

Player ratings
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/international/ireland-0-wales-0-ireland-player-ratings-1.3024032

No mention of Christie in the ratings ? Undermines the credibility of the other verdicts a touch.

[liamoo11]

I wonder what our first eleven is now for Austria if no injuries?

Randolph
Christie Duffy. Clark. Ward

McCarthy. Hendrick

Brady

Mcgeady. Long. Mcclean


Leaves Walters, Murphy, wes, arter as potential impact subs. Arter was very poor in Austria don't seehim starting just now if we have full pick. Hopefully hourihane given his set piece ability plays well against Iceland to be in contention in june

[mark12345]

When they went down to 10 men, he should have switched meyler to right full and brought on Mc Geady at that stage and really went for the jugular. I fear we may live to regret that. Anyway let's hope Seamus gets back on his feet as soon as possible

Exactly what I said at the time, recalling Meyler's performance on the right in Austria.

[mark12345]

I wonder what our first eleven is now for Austria if no injuries?

Randolph
Christie Duffy. Clark. Ward

McCarthy. Hendrick

Brady

Mcgeady. Long. Mcclean


Leaves Walters, Murphy, wes, arter as potential impact subs. Arter was very poor in Austria don't seehim starting just now if we have full pick. Hopefully hourihane given his set piece ability plays well against Iceland to be in contention in june

I would not start Christie. Has had very little game time at Derby and he looked like a bag of nerves last night. Can't see his club situation getting any better before the end of the season. So we need a right back for the Austria game - Matt Doherty is the obvious choice although maybe Meyler should get the start there.
As far as the rest of the team goes I would definitely include Wes. Based on the evidence of last night, Hendrick would be the one to give way.

[liamoo11]

I would not start Christie. Has had very little game time at Derby and he looked like a bag of nerves last night. Can't see his club situation getting any better before the end of the season. So we need a right back for the Austria game - Matt Doherty is the obvious choice although maybe Meyler should get the start there.
As far as the rest of the team goes I would definitely include Wes. Based on the evidence of last night, Hendrick would be the one to give way.

Fair enough but no way wes Brady and McCarthy play in a three. Maybe Brady goes left back back let's wes come into midfield and it's a toss up between arter and Hendrick to partner McCarthy. Can't see Doherty coming in from nowhere in terms of been involved with O'Neill sides to start.

[liamoo11]

Off topic watching Belgium losing to Greece who are down to ten men. Makes what we did last night seem super creative. No invention from Belgians with far better ballers than us

[seanfhear]

Christie was average last night....He does have a long throw in which is handy . I suppose its a bit unfair to judge him on those 20 minutes . Surely Doherty will get into a squad to have a look at .

[elroy]

Really poor game last night but I think that came from both teams been very anxious not to lose. Wales were marginally the better team up to the Coleman injury but I felt we were starting to get on top. We were full of endeavour for last 20 mins and possibly lacked a Murphy like presence up top.

Also felt the way we were set up and our personnel neutralised Wales but also ourselves. We struggled to break through their formation. Only once did we almost create a good opportunity, in the first a one two which nearly saw long through. Otherwise it was mainly hussle and bussle.

Quite affected by Coleman injury. Such a top bloke and player. Hope he gets back on the pitch this year and back to his best.

On we go, in great shape. Austria need to beat us in next game. That may suit our style of play.

[Stuttgart88]

In real time I thought Bale's tackle was the worse of the two and only his name / fame saved him from a red earlier. The Bale tackle was a carbon copy of the one that dislocated my ankle in 2001. I was admiring my own clearance when a guy slid in and took my standing leg from under me.

I actually thought Christie looked ok. Seamus wasn't having a great game.

Midfield 3 disappointed going forward, Whelan took too much out of the ball too often. I expected more forward drive from Hendrick.

Keogh awful on the ball, bag of nerves.

Good team performance defensively, awful in possession until the last 20.

Boarding plane now...

[geysir]

Same here, I thought Bale's tackle was worse, just had less impact, though I haven't seen a replay of it. It was a muck of a game for the most part (mainly down to us). Brady was missed for set pieces/passing ability, and a player like Hoolahan to hold onto the ball for 5 seconds.

When it's straight red tackle that takes a player right out of the game, I think there's case that he could be subbed outside of the 3 sub quota.

[DeLorean]

I would not start Christie. Has had very little game time at Derby and he looked like a bag of nerves last night. Can't see his club situation getting any better before the end of the season. So we need a right back for the Austria game - Matt Doherty is the obvious choice although maybe Meyler should get the start there.

He didn't start Rowlett's first game in charge which might be a slight concern but he played ninety minutes in their previous six games. Hardly that little game time considering he only returned from a couple of months out with injury at the end of January.

I'm all over giving Doherty a chance and he may well be a better option long term but I don't think Christie looked a bag of nerves at all. His worst game for us was against Belarus when the whole team were poor, but he has been very good otherwise when called upon.

[DeLorean]

When it's straight red tackle that takes a player right out of the game, I think there's case that he could be subbed outside of the 3 sub quota.

That's a great suggestion. Don't think I've heard it before but it's actually a no brainer.

[DannyInvincible]

Neil O'Riordan writes that Ronald Koeman had "snubbed" an opportunity to "end the feud" between himself and Martin O'Neill a few weeks ago: https://www.thesun.ie/sport/football/778419/ronald-koeman-snubbed-martin-oneills-attempt-to-end-their-feud-before-seamus-colemans-leg-break/


RONALD KOEMAN snubbed Martin O’Neill’s attempts to bury the hatchet BEFORE Séamus Coleman suffered a horrific double leg-break in Dublin on Friday.

Ireland boss O’Neill had visited his captain to sympathise before he underwent surgery yesterday.

The managers have not spoken to each other, with O’Neill claiming that his attempts to end the feud with Koeman over James McCarthy had fallen on deaf ears.

O’Neill said: “Let me be clear. I asked to speak with Ronald a couple of weeks ago — and he refused to do so, which is fine, not a problem.”

O’Neill is not expecting a further deterioration in relations following on from Coleman’s injury.

He said: “Why would that be? This happens in the game, somebody’s made a bad tackle on a player, and the player’s lost. At club level, I’ve lost players in the past.”

Koeman has yet to contact Coleman but the club have been in touch with the FAI.

And the Toffees boss said: “I haven’t been able to speak to Séamus as yet but he will be aware that the thoughts of his team-mates, the coaching staff, everyone at the club and all Evertonians are with him at this time.

“The medical staff here at Everton are in contact with the medical staff of the Republic of Ireland and we will continue to liaise closely.

“Séamus will face a lengthy recovery period and we will support him throughout this.

“He is a really strong character and he has a great family around him — and we, his extended family at Everton, will be here for him to help him get through this over the coming days, weeks and months.”

I'd imagine Koeman is absolutely snapping now in light of what happened with both Coleman and McCarthy.

[DannyInvincible]

More on Neil Taylor: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/03/25/devastated-neil-taylor-unable-speak-reckless-tackle-seamus-coleman/


Chris Coleman has said that Neil Taylor was left “devastated” and unable to speak in the dressing room as the full realisation dawned at the damage his reckless challenge had inflicted on Seamus Coleman.

Taylor himself lost almost a season of his career after breaking an ankle in 2012 and, while there will be little sympathy just now for all the character references that are being provided by his Wales team-mates, he was said to be “in bits” and made an immediate attempt to apologise.

“He’s numb; he didn’t say a word,” said Chris Coleman, the Wales manager. “I was the first one into the dressing room after the game and he was sitting on the floor with his head in his hands. But, no matter how badly he feels, or we feel, it’s worse for Seamus. We’ve just got to hope and pray that it’s not too bad for Seamus.”

Pretty sure I also read somewhere that Taylor shook the hands of numerous Irish players as a gesture of apology whilst upon his visit to the Irish dressing room.

[DeLorean]

Sh!t happens. It was a poorly executed tackle but not a premeditated attempt at injuring or even hurting Coleman. It's just one of those things and Taylor has come out of it looking fairly okay in my book for the amount of remorse he's clearly demonstrated. It's an absolute balls for Coleman, Everton and Ireland but that's life, he's had a pretty good run up until now at least.

Ledley feeling the need to respond to the accusations (from the mentally insane) of him laughing at the outcome of incident leaves me shaking my head in despair at the power of social media these days.

[KrisLetang]

Some say Whelan should have been sent off.
http://www.the42.ie/ireland-wales-world-cup-qualifier-reaction-3307427-Mar2017/

[DannyInvincible]

Some say Whelan should have been sent off.

I'd have had no complaints had Whelan been shown a red card. He appeared to intentionally thrust his elbow towards Joe Allen and it definitely connected with Allen's chin. Video of the incident again here:
https://vid.me/wGw9

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

"What is so funny about that?"

http://www.bild.de/sport/fussball/wm-2018/lachte-waliser-ueber-beinbruch-51016378.bild.html

It doesn't look like a grimace IMO, but I'm not going to judge him. Your face doesn't always react the way you want it to when you receive shocking/bad news.

Unless we develop telepathy we might as well drop it.

I think there was malicious intent in Taylor's tackle but I do think he's genuinely sorry. He made an attempt to commiserate with Keane in particular, but Keane told him to F off.

It's shades of Shawcross/Ramsey. You can't tell me Shawcross didn't intend to "do" Ramsey, but I do think he was genuinely remorseful afterwards.

[DeLorean]

I could never understand the blame attributed to Shawcross to be honest.

[CraftyToePoke]

Did Shawcross cry ?

[DeLorean]

Yeah, he was balling going off the pitch. It was a rough coming together but I'd say Shawcross barely even saw Ramsey coming. No matter how many times I watched that incident I just can't see any intent.

[CraftyToePoke]

See this is it, on TV the other night Taylor spat on the ground as he left the arena, now players spit all the time, and I don't want to crucify him for it, I'm willing to believe the tales of his remorse, but at the time with RTE saying there will be no replays of the challenge etc, that spit moment as he passed the Irish bench, made me want to do the time for his murder.

[backstothewall]

IMHO Taylor was sent off not because of the tackle, but because Coleman broke his leg. If Coleman jumps back up and trots off without any ill effect i'd speculate Taylor probably gets away with a booking.

Players throw themselves into tackles like that all the time. It's incredibly rare for it to go as badly wrong as it did for Coleman. Throwing the book at him for breaking Colemans leg will achieve nothing because no player goes into a tackle worrying about breaking the other guys leg.

If we want to stamp those sort of challenges out it isn't about stiff punishments for people who break another guys leg. It needs to be about stiffer punishments for the guys who don't hurt anybody, get up, take their booking and think no more about it. I'm sure Neil Taylor feels bad enough already

[BonnieShels]

I'm tired of this intent shoite being bandied about. Everyone who goes out on the pitch has a duty of care to the other players. Taylor had a duty of care not to recklessly challenge in the fashion that he did and the same goes for Bale.

Taylor should have the book (or whatever way UEFA/FIFA keep their rules bound) thrown at him. But likewise to anybody who tackles that way whether causing injury or not.

When you look at the tackle there is absolutely no need for a challenge of that fashion to be made. Also as I was saying to my brother the other evening, it's probably the nature of the player, that Seamie is that he went for that ball full-blooded rather than pull out at the last second. But alas...

There was another dangerous incident after the red card involving Bale which to my mind would have been a second yellow if the Taylor incident hadn't happened. And that's completely ignoring the fact that he should have seen red for his challenge on JOSH.

As I've said before, in hockey there is no intent adjudged for high-sticking (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-sticking); if a foul is committed in soccer the "I didn't mean it" defence shouldn't come into it. If Seamie doesn't break his leg I'm still sending Taylor off.

[paul_oshea]

Didn't notice that about Williams, but fair play to him.
Regarding Austria game - if we beat them we're right back on track. Anything other than a win condemns them to also rans. Similar situation for Wales, they need to avoid defeat in Zagreb.

Ya id say they will avoid that fairly handy, seeing as they wont be going anywhere near there :/

[paul_oshea]

I think Whelan first half v Whelan 2nd half was very different. One of my mates at the game when he met us later that night goes, "it was a great game, whelan was sh1te". People seem to see snippets and judge the whole game on their most recent/freshest memory. The last 20 mins were good, from an entertainment perspective but the football was poor. Whelan was much better in the second half and spread the ball about, just not as quickly or not cross-field like he could have sometimes. I think he always showed and kept us going forward especially in the last 25 mins. A bit harsh on him, no doubt if we had joe allen or pirlo we would have been much better but none of our other midfielders would have done much better than he did 2nd half.

I doubt this was noticeable on the TV but Long was pushing their defenders all night long, and it was so blatant before crosses that i couldn't understand the ref wasn't signalling against him. One such time prevented us from scoring as keogh had expected the defender to clear it, long pushes him in the back gets up and misses it and puts keogh off. He could have had 2 yellows easily for the consistent professional fouling.

We really missed a robbie friday night, the ball fell in the box 4 or 5 times and easily cleared by Wales, they were the goals robbie scored and the naysayers went "ah sure it was a tap in". Its hard to demonstrate or respond to those people and convince them, but I convinced them friday with the evidence on show, Walters and Long were always a couple of yards from the action, even with the crosses their positioning was poor. Robbie had that knack of being in the right place at the right time. McGeady overhit two crosses and i thought ye clown, but as a good winger does ye put it in and hope someone gets on the end, but there was only long at the backpost both times, no one in the middle where a striker should be. I was hoping on 70 he would bring on Doyle, I think doyles positioning for crosses is better than Walters or long. I honestly think he would have got onto one of those crosses.

I thought christie was ok, i thought mcgeady was ok, but as usual he overplayed it on a couple of occassions. I think people are exaggerating how good he was, he was ok, he was his usual self, some overhit crosses and some over exuberance leading to lost possession.

Ward gifted them a couple of opportunities(on another day we would have been punished) and only for McCleans covering bale would have exposed us far more in that game, McClean was phenomenal covering for Ward and tracking back. It gave ward the option of going forward more often too, certainly more than coleman did on the night.

I think I said it before but limit the space bale has to run into and you stop wales. For a team like ireland(and portugal :) ) thats easily done as its how we generally setup. BUt against an attacking team its not.

I remember thinking halfway through the 2nd half, i've seen this ireland team before, more recently than I realised. It was the rugby team, we were showing lots of possession but were impotent. LIke the Wales rugby game we just lacked any sort of attacking intuition. It was drop it in and hope for the best. We could have played on for another 2 hours and I still wouldn't have seen us scoring. I initially thought that Wales were setup very well, and they were very compact, but defensively they were a bit panicky and rushed. A bit more composure, a bit more patience and we might have done something. Instead we went gung-ho with 20 mins to go. We had 20 mins, settle and play a bit. And then the eejit fans behind me shouting get it in the box, get it in the box, i assumed i was in with a load of foot.iers. The last thing we wanted to be doing was that, we had been doing it all night with zero effect.

I dont agree with this win at home draw away, it doesn't happen that way a lot of the time. You win the games there for the taking, and Serbia was the one that we could have won, their defence is not getting any better either. We really have to go at them when they come to Dublin they will wilt if we do, but I fear we wont and they will nick a goal first. I still feel most teams will negate eachother, if we can beat austria they will have lost belief and interest by the time they play Serbia and Wales again which is a bit of a worry. I really hope we are in plain sailing when the return fixture against Wales comes around. A draw against Austria and a wales win in serbia is wishful thinking, but it would be a good set of results for us.

[paul_oshea]

Sh!t happens. It was a poorly executed tackle but not a premeditated attempt at injuring or even hurting Coleman. It's just one of those things and Taylor has come out of it looking fairly okay in my book for the amount of remorse he's clearly demonstrated. It's an absolute balls for Coleman, Everton and Ireland but that's life, he's had a pretty good run up until now at least.

Ledley feeling the need to respond to the accusations (from the mentally insane) of him laughing at the outcome of incident leaves me shaking my head in despair at the power of social media these days.

I heard it from a different perspective, Bales yellow gave them license to tackle anyway they wanted afterwards and know they'd only get a yellow. It's a fair point. The ref had let a lot of other stuff go before that.

On the ref I actually thought he did well he let it go as "2 british teams" playing football but let some stuff go that he shouldn't have.

[paul_oshea]

Did Shawcross cry ?

Did Stutts cry? I can imagine him looking around like a duck, all proud of himself thinking how great he was, looking forward to regaling in the clubhouse post match to his team mates, and ringing his wife and parents to tell them also.

[OwlsFan]

Just hoping that Coleman's injury isn't on a par with Jim Beglin and and Jimmy Holmes. Just sickened coming out of the ground.

One of the worst Irish home performances for a while. Absolutely no tempo and Randolph used to take about 5 minutes for every kick out. Worse than some of the Trapp home performances many here have written about in the past. Our tactic seem to be: nullify Bale and hope to nick one from a long punt to Long/Walters. We paid the Welsh way too much respect, possibly because they got to the Euro Semi-Finals but that didn't make them the 4th best team in Europe any more than Lincoln City getting to the last 8 of the FA Cup made them the 8th best team in England. Much of our success in the past has been about tempo and the crowd being the 12th man as a result, like in the last 15 minutes of the game. It was almost funereal up to that with Hennessy not having to make a save of any note whatsoever. We didn't try to win that game, despite what Roy Keane said, until they were down to 10 men and even then McGeady came on too late. The warm up routine was all about quick snappy passing. I don't know why they bothered. I had predicted the team that started and a win for Ireland because the Welsh are no great shakes. But we stood off them to deny space to Bale and that was the game plan. As the home team we should have dominated Wales at least in the possession stakes. Joe Allen, a failed Liverpool player who like Whelan plays in an average Stoke side, was allowed run the game.

All that said, we didn't lose and we're 4 points ahead still of them but Serbia were always going to be the main threat and now we're behind them, albeit only on goal difference. Which means we are going to have to beat them at home. We'll probably have to win in Georgia as well so huge pressure.

As regards the trumpet over the PA, I didn't hear it. The "band" was directly opposite me for most of the game so just heard them and not the PA. Sign of the times when bands are required to get the crowd going. The support in the last 15 minutes was tremendous but when it started singing a "team of Gary Breens" after 30 minutes I knew we were in trouble.

So: Paid the Welsh too much respect. Very saddened by Seamus. Happy to be joint top but "team of Gary Breens, please....".