LOI fixtures 10/11 & 13th March 2017

[ToberonaTornado]

Premier Division

Friday

Bohemian v Bray Wanderers

Dundalk FC v Limerick FC

Sligo Rovers v Saint Pats Ath.

Drogheda United v Cork City 8pm *Live on eIR sports

Finn Harps v Galway United 8pm

Shamrock Rovers v Derry City 8pm

Monday

Galway United v Shamrock Rovers 7pm

Bray Wanderers v Drogheda United

Cork City v Sligo Rovers

Derry City v Dundalk FC

Limerick FC v Bohemian

Saint Pats Ath. v Finn Harps

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First Division


Friday

Athlone Town v Longford Town

Cabinteeley FC v Wexford FC

UCDAFC v Waterford FC

Saturday

Cobh Ramblers v Shelbourne FC 4PM
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Refs - http://www.extratime.ie/articles/18479/match-officials-appointed---week-3/

Betting Coupon - http://www.paddypower.com/football/football-matches/ireland

[ToberonaTornado]

Refs - http://www.extratime.ie/articles/18479/match-officials-appointed---week-3/


Monday

Limerick v Bohemians
Markets Field, 7.45pm
Referee: Anthony Buttimer
Assistant 1: Dermot Broughton
Assistant 2: Trevor Conlon
Fourth Official: Marc Lynch

[blueblood]

Monday

Limerick v Bohemians
Markets Field, 7.45pm
Referee: Anthony Buttimer
Assistant 1: Dermot Broughton
Assistant 2: Trevor Conlon
Fourth Official: Marc Lynch
Fcuk sake Limerick off to a flyer in the league v sligo then problem after problem.....

[dong]

Can't overstate the importance of these two fixtures. If Robertson can't secure even a point I feel he has to go. The squad he has assembled is so poor though it's difficult to see how much anyone could improve them.
Last two main appointments have been poor for the club, bordering on disastrous if things continue as they are.
I've always been of the opinion that it only takes a couple of bad decisions to ruin a club in this league and I fear we have run out of road this time.

[DannyInvincible]

Derry team news for the game against Rovers this evening: http://www.derrycityfc.net/2017/03/defensive-concerns-for-shiels/


Shamrock Rovers v Derry City, Tallaght Stadium, 8pm

After the abandoned fixtures against Limerick on Matchday 2, City are back on the road this week with a trip to Tallaght to face Stephen Bradley’s Shamrock Rovers.

The Hoops lost out to Dundalk on the opening night, before getting the 3 points and the bragging rights in the big Dublin derby against Bohemians last week. City and Rovers tussled in both League and Cup last season, with City pipping Rovers to third spot in the league.

Kenny Shiels was hit with the news that Conor McDermott picked up a knocked in the reserve fixture over the weekend and will now be ruled out for up to five weeks. Speaking to the media this week Shiels outlined that lack a natural right back, City may have to change their formation this week. The Candystripes did experiment with a three man defence in pre-season but with injury problems during the build up to the season, there was precious little game time for McBride, Barry and some of the other defenders to play together in this formation. Scott Whiteside may get the nod on the right hand side, but with most of his game time as a centre half, the manager wasn’t committing to any final decisions.

Elsewhere, Rory Patterson and Ben Doherty remain unavailable for City, but both players have returned to light jogging this week and may be available for the Drogheda game on Saturday week. Shiels played a two man attack at home to Limerick, with Curtis and Boyle interchanging up front. Boyle of course bagged a brace on the opening night whilst Curtis hit the equaliser last Friday before the floodlight failure. Another option for Shiels may be Mikhail Kennedy, who played and scored for the reserves this week and seems to have recovered from the knock that he picked up immediately after signing.

Rovers have a plethora of big names, not least their close season captures. Ronan Finn, David McAllister and Darren Meenan were amongst the headline grabbing additions in the close season for the Tallaght outfit. Stephen Bradley will be hoping to reverse the trend from last season when City were unbeaten against the Hoops, winning 2 of the league encounters and drawing the other.

[Lim till i die]

Big game for Dundalk tonight.

They will have picked up some experience in Europe but they won't have faced a side with a record as phenomenal as Limerick.

Personally I can see us maybe rolling over tonight. It's early days and it's important for the good of the game in this country to keep the league competitive. If the Dundalk players put in the performance of their lives I see them winning to be honest.

I think the meeting between the two sides later on in the season in oriel will have a far greater bearing on which one are champions at the end of the season.

[Lim till i die]

Also Dundalk are hosting Limerick.

shamrock are playing derry.

And eirsport screen drogheda v cork?!

Two teams of cloggers launching missiles at one another in the estadio del pi$$. What an advert for the league that will be :bulgy:

[PartySaint]

Relegation 6 pointer in the Showgrounds

[White Horse]

Two teams of cloggers launching missiles at one another in the estadio del pi$$. What an advert for the league that will be :bulgy:

This made me chuckle. :)

Some good matches on tonight. Apart from our game, the one that interests me in the visit to Tallaght of Derry. I expect fireworks at that one.

[Duggie]

ireland playing wales tonight aswell will affect crowds no doubt. sligo rovers hardly ever play on a friday night. Typical

[ToberonaTornado]

DundalkFM will be providing commentary on the Dundalk v Lims match @ http://www.dundalkfm.com/

John Murphy is 102 lads so take it easy on him.Ex player,ex manager captain and Ireland international.

"JOHN IS GOOD"

Repeat every 5 minutes before the game begins.

[nigel-harps1954]

I believe BBC Radio Foyle is covering Harps v Galway live.

Drive 105 usually covers Derry home games live, not sure about away fixtures though.

[ToberonaTornado]

I believe BBC Radio Foyle is covering Harps v Galway live.

Drive 105 usually covers Derry home games live, not sure about away fixtures though.

YUP - as a radio affionado i can confirm that Drive 105 cover every Derry game home and away.MariborKev from here even commentates the odd match.Great service from those lads.

[joey B]

Radio Foyles doing the Derry game according to their Twitter.

[nigel-harps1954]

Radio Foyles doing the Derry game according to their Twitter.

I see that alright. Seems it's just regular updates from Finn Park.

[TonyD]

Pats 1 down in Sligo. Uh oh. We really are having a bad time.

[Longfordian]

Davy O'Sullivan with an El Clasico hat trick tonight. What a man, LTFC legend.

[micls]

City 2-1 up in Drogheda. Very harsh red for Drogs early in the half when it was 1-1

[passinginterest]

Tight game in tallaght. Derry missed a sitter in the first minute. Rovers had a lot of the play for the next half hour without creating much and Derry went close again near the end of the half. Looks like Clarke might have done his collarbone after about 35mins and he was bizarrely left on despite being in clear difficulties.

[patrickccfc]

City 2-1 up in Drogheda. Very harsh red for Drogs early in the half when it was 1-1

Thought it was very harsh alright. We'll take it though, 3-1 up

[SeanDrog]

Sending off killed the game

[thomas72]

How did limerick perform dundalk fans??

[ger121]

Taking a leaf out of the Limerick book. I think we can push on now and win the League.

[total hoofball]

Never a red for Drogheda, another game ruined by stupid LOI refs like Derek Tomney

[Philosophizer]

I thought derry were impressive tonight. Seemed to have slightly more control in the middle, and created the better chances.
Schubert got himself a second yellow for kicking the ball away, but derry were even more impressive with 10. They were camped on the edge of their box for 20 mins yet restricted rovers too one chance in all that time. Heard one observer on the way out say they're worse than Fenlons team. I wouldnt go that far but they dont seem to have improved since last yr.

[Jofspring]

Taking a leaf out of the Limerick book. I think we can push on now and win the League.

Easy tiger. Ye have the 2017 champions on Monday away from home.

[SeanDrog]

Never a red for Drogheda, another game ruined by stupid LOI refs like Derek Tomney

So disappointed , I was looking forward to the game all week but the sending off just killed it. Once we equalised we looked like we were coming more into it after a slow nervous start. I couldn't believe the red card.

Oh how this leagues officials can frustrate a supporter. I'd say the game must have been a bore fest on the tv.

[nigel-harps1954]

Galway pretty much robbed of a win tonight. Harps absolutely miles away from it. Horrible performance.

[ToberonaTornado]

How did limerick perform dundalk fans??

Dundalk played well 1st half.2nd half was a total load of tosh and if yous had a decent striker maybe draw but worst 2nd half i;ve wvwr seen.was waiting for pinball wizard to come on the pa.

[White Horse]

How did limerick perform dundalk fans??

Limerick controlled the midfield for most of the game, Duggan was outstanding and Clarke was very good on the left. Limerick just lacked something up front to take advantage of their possession in midfield.

Despite having less possession in midfield, Dundalk created quite a number of chances.

I also thought Limerick should have had a penalty in the first half.

We were fortunate to get the three points.

[shep]

Limerick were very impressive. They came and played to win,with no respect for Dundalk. Big 3 points for ourselves and I can see Limerick having a decent season if tonight is anything to go by.

[joey B]

Galway will be wondering how they didn't win,desperate performance from us and real concerns about our ability to compete looking at how we played tonight.

[oriel]

Agree with most comments above, Limerick are a decent side and moved the ball around very confidently in the first half. Dlk prob should have gone in front after 1 min but Limerick caused our defence plenty of problems in the first 45 and in the absence of O'Donnell, Shields & Mountney we were second best in the midfield for periods. It was a superb goal from McEleney, worth waiting for in Soccer Rep, but overall Limerick will be disappointed not to have taken something from the match based on their first half display.

If they continue putting in displays like tonight, there should be no reason why they can't challenge the top 4.

It certainly wasn't a vintage Dundalk display, but we'll take the 3 points. Extremely happy to get them.

Edit. Forgot to say Shane Duggan no 8 for Limerick had a good game, I was impressed by him, one of the lads at the match wad saying his dad Ger was a great player for them in the early 80's. I remember the name ok.

[MattB11]

Galway will be kicking themselves after that, battered us in the second half and hit the woodwork 3 times , our defending was comical at times though, McCourt made his first start, got an assist and got injured.

[geysir]

I saw the Oriel pk game on the no commentary fuzzy betting video stream, it looked an impressive performance from Limerick, who deserved something from the game. The Limerick goalie came close enough with a header at the last play of the game, - spirited.
I couldn't make out who was who for Dundalk, how did Clifford play?

[Duffman]

Big game for Dundalk tonight.

They will have picked up some experience in Europe but they won't have faced a side with a record as phenomenal as Limerick.

Personally I can see us maybe rolling over tonight. It's early days and it's important for the good of the game in this country to keep the league competitive. If the Dundalk players put in the performance of their lives I see them winning to be honest.

I think the meeting between the two sides later on in the season in oriel will have a far greater bearing on which one are champions at the end of the season.

All comedy aside they are a much better team than Rovers 2 weeks ago! Limerick will be fine

[Candystripe]

Hard to believe that Limerick ain't top of the league.

Meanwhile Derry City have six points away to Bohs and Shamrock rovers.

[gael353]

Happy with the performance last night of de blues. Thought Lee Jay, Duggan had good games but the stand out was Tommy Robson. My player of the year already. Great strike for the goal, but how in gods name did Harvey not give us a penalty in the first half?
Our fitness has much improved on last season but its how we play against more agricultural teams in the coming weeks will define our season

[DannyInvincible]

McNamee missed a superb one-on-one chance for Derry after only 16 seconds; he really should have put it away, but somehow placed his effort straight at Chencinski (who struck me as Rovers' most earnest player as the game drew to a close). Nevertheless, Derry had the better of the chances throughout the game. McBride wasn't having the best of games but redeemed himself with a goal which came from congestion in the box after a corner.

Rovers really lacked a cutting edge, even when Derry were reduced to ten men. I feared the worst when Schubert received an oddly-delayed red card after kicking the ball away; he "crossed" the ball after passing over the end-line. He knew what he was doing and it was a silly thing to do, but I think a red overall was a bit hard on him considering his initial booking was for jersey-pulling. The fact that the ref only sent him off well after he had committed the second offence compounded the sense of harshness. It was as if the home crowd's jeers had influenced the ref's decision, but I guess them's the rules and all that... Derry's defending was nevertheless organised and composed after the sending off.

Great three points in the end. Six points and a one hundred per cent record from two games away to Bohs and Rovers is an impressive start to the season.

[osarusan]

I think Dundalk fans are actually being a bit generous to us. We had a lot of the ball in the first half alright, but only across our back 4, and Dundalk were happy with that because when we tried to get it forward we'd lose it every time. We were desperately looking for space between Dundalk's lines, not in front of them, and that was how Clarke got dispossessed for the goal. Cracking strike too.

Still, we were still in it until the last kick, and had Dundalk under serious pressure at times, but never managed to fashion even on real goal-scoring opportunity. We did have a great shout for a penalty in the first half too after Tosi looked like he was bundled over going for a cross.

Lots of positives for us to take from the game, and away games to Dundalk won't be the ones that our season is judged on.

[outspoken]

Davy O'Sullivan with an El Clasico hat trick tonight. What a man, LTFC legend.

The man needs a statue outside the ground

[xRedmanLFCx]

Agree with most comments above, Limerick are a decent side and moved the ball around very confidently in the first half. Dlk prob should have gone in front after 1 min but Limerick caused our defence plenty of problems in the first 45 and in the absence of O'Donnell, Shields & Mountney we were second best in the midfield for periods. It was a superb goal from McEleney, worth waiting for in Soccer Rep, but overall Limerick will be disappointed not to have taken something from the match based on their first half display.

If they continue putting in displays like tonight, there should be no reason why they can't challenge the top 4.

It certainly wasn't a vintage Dundalk display, but we'll take the 3 points. Extremely happy to get them.

Edit. Forgot to say Shane Duggan no 8 for Limerick had a good game, I was impressed by him, one of the lads at the match wad saying his dad Ger was a great player for them in the early 80's. I remember the name ok.

Very good assessment of the game. Very even game, separated by a wonder strike from McEleney. Dundalk certainly aren't the team they were last season, but only Cork might stop them from a 4 in a row.

Very happy with how Limerick played, although we did struggle to create any clear cut chances. Top half is the minimum expected now. Also to back up the previous comment, Tommy Robson at left back is a serious player for Limerick.

[Louth4sam]

Happy with the performance last night of de blues. Thought Lee Jay, Duggan had good games but the stand out was Tommy Robson. My player of the year already. Great strike for the goal, but how in gods name did Harvey not give us a penalty in the first half?
Our fitness has much improved on last season but its how we play against more agricultural teams in the coming weeks will define our season

Myself and a few of the lads around me were checking the program to see who he was. Looks a fantastic player.

Looked a stonewall penalty to me but a mate behind the goal said it wasn't I suppose we'll find out on Monday night. Dundalk also had what looked a definite penalty turned down in second half so they evened out I suppose.

[White Horse]

Dundalk also had what looked a definite penalty turned down in second half so they evened out I suppose.

I must have missed that. What was the incident?

[Jofspring]

Tommy Robson is on loan from Sunderland. Was captain of their youths and got a start last season against watford in the premier.

[oriel]

I think Dundalk fans are actually being a bit generous to us. We had a lot of the ball in the first half alright, but only across our back 4, and Dundalk were happy with that because when we tried to get it forward we'd lose it every time. We were desperately looking for space between Dundalk's lines, not in front of them, and that was how Clarke got dispossessed for the goal. Cracking strike too.

Still, we were still in it until the last kick, and had Dundalk under serious pressure at times, but never managed to fashion even on real goal-scoring opportunity. We did have a great shout for a penalty in the first half too after Tosi looked like he was bundled over going for a cross.

Lots of positives for us to take from the game, and away games to Dundalk won't be the ones that our season is judged on.
Maybe on reflection, Limerick did have the ball down and passed it only at the back. They still did well.

[White Horse]

Maybe on reflection, Limerick did have the ball down and passed it only at the back. They still did well.

They passed it well in the middle third as well. It is the last third where they struggle.

[Martinho II]

The man needs a statue outside the ground

thats the first ever man to have scored in an el Classico derby! here here!!

[patrickccfc]

thats the first ever man to have scored in an el Classico derby! here here!!

All the rest been scoreless draws?

[atfconline]

Let's just assume he meant to say first hat-trick, in that case it looks like they'll be erecting a statue to Athlone Town's Brian Duff so. 15/09/85. That's nice of them. :)