LOI fixtures - Friday 4th and Saturday 5th August

[ToberonaTornado]

Exciting and crucial weekend of Loi football ahead.

Premier Division:

Friday-

Bohemian FC v Bray Wanderers
Drogheda United v Cork City
Dundalk FC v Limerick FC
Finn Harps v Galway United - 8pm
Shamrock Rovers v Derry City - 8pm *live on eir

Saturday-

Sligo Rovers v Saint Patrick's Ath

First Division:

Friday-

Athlone Town v Wexford FC
Cabinteeley FC v Waterford FC
Shelbourne v UCDAFC

Saturday-

Cobh Ramblers v Longford Town - 7:15pm

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

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Premier as it stands 3/8/17

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DGF2BriXoAABIIe.jpg

First Div as it stands 3/8/17

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DF7hDcbXgAI7phV.jpg

[AlanOB]

This may only appeal to exiled Dundalk-ers -- given both the televised game, and the full schedule of live fixtures -- but Limerick Soccer Live will have full, uninterrupted, coverage of Limerick FC's visit to Oriel Park at www.mixlr.com/limerick-soccer-live (http://www.mixlr.com/limerick-soccer-live)

[CorribsideSteve]

Belter of a free kick (or what looked very like it) from Ronan Murray. Will be interesting to see that one on Soccer Republic. 2-1. 12 or so mins left. Harps pushing for a late equalizer now. Mc Court s/o ten mins into 2nd half.

[CorribsideSteve]

3-1 now. mix up at the back for Harps. Murray grabs his second lobbing it into an empty net after Harps should have equalized moments earlier at the other end. Gigantic result for us if it holds out.

[sbgawa]

Rovers picked a great match to put in the worst performance of the season

[CorribsideSteve]

Great result. 3-1 United. Ronan Murray was magnificent. Harps unlucky not to have levelld at 2-1. Not out of the bottom 3 but within a point of Pats. Massive game tomorrow evening between them and Sligo now.

[ToberonaTornado]

Dont know what Neil Mc Donald is at in Limerick(does he?) awful side,poorly set up.Just stone useless!
They missed their pre-match meal and they can use that excuse if they want but i haven't seen a worse side in OP since.........

[nigel-harps1954]

Worst performance of the season by a country mile from Harps tonight. Really brutal.

[MattB11]

Galway full value for the win and could of had another 1 or 2, we were poor and our dodgy defence could well see us playing 1st division football next season, Mcaleer done brilliantly for our goal

[ToberonaTornado]

That's a mental table :D

How it stands in the Premier tonight - Sligo & Pats play each other tomorrow.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DGafk3uXkAQyg5f.jpg

[osarusan]

Woeful from Limerick last night. First 30 minutes were even enough, but once Dundalk scored it was all over.

We never looked like scoring and cannot keep the ball in midfield at all. Our players look like they've never trained together. No real plan or purpose when we get the ball.

It ended up being a training session for Dundalk.

[disgruntled]

Woeful from Limerick last night. First 30 minutes were even enough, but once Dundalk scored it was all over.

We never looked like scoring and cannot keep the ball in midfield at all. Our players look like they've never trained together. No real plan or purpose when we get the ball.

It ended up being a training session for Dundalk.

Maybe Russell wasn't such a bad manager after all ?
At least with him you managed to score once in a while.

[bluewhitearmy]

Maybe Russell wasn't such a bad manager after all ?
At least with him you managed to score once in a while.

I hate this nonsense just cos the replacement is no good it doesn't make the previous manager any good either. No wins in 21 and relegated Russells last full season in prem in case people forget.

[White Horse]

Woeful from Limerick last night. First 30 minutes were even enough, but once Dundalk scored it was all over.

We never looked like scoring and cannot keep the ball in midfield at all. Our players look like they've never trained together. No real plan or purpose when we get the ball.

It ended up being a training session for Dundalk.

The goal was a game changer. Dundalk grew in confidence and it drained away from Limerick. Limerick had some decent spells of quality possession in midfield and Tosi was a handful for Gartland but Ogbene disappointed. I thought he added little.

I was impressed with the right back (Cotter?) until he went off. Hery added to Limerick when he came on, he made a number of penetrating runs that caused Dundalk some problems and should have resulted in at least one goal.

The Limerick side that visited Oriel early in the season looked a much better side. I thought they just lacked a cutting edge up front. This side looks disjointed and almost a patched together outfit. Not a great position to be in at this time of the season with three sides going down.

[osarusan]

The goal was a game changer. Dundalk grew in confidence and it drained away from Limerick. Limerick had some decent spells of quality possession in midfield and Tosi was a handful for Gartland but Ogbene disappointed. I thought he added little.

I was impressed with the right back (Cotter?) until he went off. Hery added to Limerick when he came on, he made a number of penetrating runs that caused Dundalk some problems and should have resulted in at least one goal.

The Limerick side that visited Oriel early in the season looked a much better side. I thought they just lacked a cutting edge up front. This side looks disjointed and almost a patched together outfit. Not a great position to be in at this time of the season with three sides going down.


Yeah, the goal changed everything. I get the feeling that Dundalk were nowhere near top gear though, and they would have got there if they'd needed to.

Late on, with Hery on the pitch, we had some possession and a few chances alright, but Dundalk were winding down at that stage. Cotter is a committed lad but he gets caught out of position a lot. Plenty of balls over his head to the winger because he was too central - Dundalk spotted this early on and exploited it all night - we never corrected it.

We are very disjointed, exactly right. No real shape to us, no sense that players are used to playing with each other and know where others will be and where the ball will be going. People just doing individual stuff because of that, need an extra second to work out where their teammates are, and we lose the ball, and so our defence is under constant pressure.

Losing away to Dundalk doesn't bother me too much - you are just better than us - but the way we played makes me worried about the games against the teams we need to be beating.

[RathfarnhamHoop]

Only good thing to come out of that match was seeing that Galway fans are right about Grace he's a great addition on a two and a half year contract too which is great. We really can't finish at all getting in the right areas just not taking our chances

[AlanOB]

Analysis from Oriel Park below...

Dundalk 3-0 Limerick: Lilywhites profit from set-piece largesse (https://tacticstruck2.com/2017/08/05/dundalk-3-0-limerick-lilywhites-profit-from-set-piece-largesse/)

[TonyD]

Massive game tomorrow evening between them and Sligo now.

Indeed. If we win we can overtake Limerick. Lose on the other hand and we're right back in the dogfight.

[wonder88]

Agree that the game tonight is massive, some of us would like a draw. Important win for Galway, hope is still there even after the loss of Grace. For many in Terryland Ronan Murray would be their player of the year.
Kenny Shields has a great record against Shamrock Rovers.

[sbgawa]

Grace was superb last night. Looking forward to seeing him again.

[brendy_éire]

Rovers picked a great match to put in the worst performance of the season

Ah, ye's were worse in Maginn earlier in the year now. Also, Bradley thought you played well for sixty minutes (http://www.extratime.ie/articles/19540/stephen-bradley-if-we-play-like-we-did-for-60-minutes-of-that-game-well-get-results/).

Rovers had a decent number of shots, but little on target. Derry were good for the win, probably not by two goals though.
McEneff had a good finish, albeit with plenty of space, not good enough defending. McNamee's was lovely, landed bang in the centre of the net. We haven't scored one of those in quite a while, I don't think.
If you'd believe our management, our game plan was to let Rovers have possession in 'safe' areas of the pitch, take our time with the ball, then really push on after 65 minutes, which is basically when we scored. Not sure if I buy that, as the first goal was a bit against the run of play.

Grand eight point lead between third and fourth now, but still 21 points available for Rovers, so it's not over yet.

Other wee notes from the game, the applause from the Rovers fans in the fifth minute for McBride was great. Really appreciated.
Chincinski had a cracker save from a free in the first half, but should he have come up for the corner that led to McNamee's goal? Was it Bradley's call? Also, after the save from the free, was there a decent penalty shout for a pull on McEneff (I think)?

[TonyD]

Chincinski had a cracker save from a free in the first half, but should he have come up for the corner that led to McNamee's goal?

I thought the same watching on the TV. It's the kind of thing you maybe do when you're inside the last minute and it's all or nothing. There were still one or two minutes of added time I think, so potentially still the chance to rescue a point . McNamee took it really well, very composed.

[sbgawa]

27 points to play for but still probably not enough. We were poor imo but either way we need to start stringing a few results together. Good place to start today !

[brendy_éire]

27 points to play for but still probably not enough. We were poor imo but either way we need to start stringing a few results together. Good place to start today !

Ah, yes. Slightly more than seven games left! Definitely enough points to play for.
I'd also say Rovers were better last Friday than tonight.

[sbgawa]

Think you'd be alone there

[sbgawa]

Reckon the league next year is shaping up to be competitive.

[Candystripe]

Reckon the league next year is shaping up to be competitive.

If Derry can actually hold on to there current team/squad we could be up there especially with the fact that we'll be back at the new Brandywell.

[sbgawa]

Corks difficulty in replacing Maguire is that from a LOI standpoint he is irreplaceable, there is simply not another striker in his class around.
Dundalk could strengthen and I expect Rovers to do the same.
Derry if they keep there squad together (as said above) will be there or there abouts and Waterford could be a threat as well, they are potentially the best funded team in the league.

[nigel-harps1954]

Corks difficulty in replacing Maguire is that from a LOI standpoint he is irreplaceable, there is simply not another striker in his class around.
Dundalk could strengthen and I expect Rovers to do the same.
Derry if they keep there squad together (as said above) will be there or there abouts and Waterford could be a threat as well, they are potentially the best funded team in the league.

There we go...finally someone said it.

Just like Limerick last season...

[sbgawa]

Happy to help😀