LOI Matches 17-18 August

[Charlie Darwin]

The late pen a total Sucker punch after the foundations to win the bloody game had been well laid.
for the Shams opener a lot of Dundalk players that should be wiser were caught total fast asleep.Ref a blind man.Apparently,Robrerta lopes can kick who he f'ing pleases and rob harvey will give him a slap on the arse and say oh darling, see you later.But the marking for the his goal :rolleyes:
That's actually what we sing during the games. "Robrertra Lopes, he/she kicks who he/she ****ing pleases!" In between that and whatever else people want to attribute to us.

[Ezeikial]

Congratulations to Rovers anyway on a big win. Great for them to celebrate only being 24 points off the top.

Rovers have significantly under-performed and some of the pitch invasion supporter celebrations in the recent past have been comical.

But to be fair the supporters who kept faith had every right to celebrate their win last night. There is little sweeter than a last minute winner, particularly when it is unexpected

[placid casual]

Ezekiel discovers magnanimity shocker!
Nice one.

[Asterix]

The late pen a total Sucker punch after the foundations to win the bloody game had been well laid.
for the Shams opener a lot of Dundalk players that should be wiser were caught total fast asleep.Ref a blind man.Apparently,Robrerta lopes can kick who he f'ing pleases and rob harvey will give him a slap on the arse and say oh darling, see you later.But the marking for the his goal :rolleyes:

And apparently dundalk players can dive as much as they want and not get booked.

[hoopy]

Dundalk the worst divers I've ever seen during the Kenny era, but it's just using their 'experience'. O'Donnell and Shields, supposed hard men, among the worse. As usual a big difference in class after a defeat from Dundalk FC compared to Cork. The fact that they're seething makes it all the more sweet.

[PartySaint]

It must be nice scoring late penalties :(

[oriel]

Dundalk could lose to us and still win the league should both of us win all our other games, because of the superior goal difference. Still think we lost the league against pats. It's the hope that kills you.

We still have to go to bohs, rovers and derry, very tough places to come out with 3 points.
Realistically, we have to win every game, can't see us doing that.

Dundalk have two seriously hard away games to Cork and Waterford, margin of error is reduced now to one game then its GD.

I take the point Cork also have 3 tough away games to Derry, Bohs and Rovers though.

Dundalk definitely didn’t deserve to win last night, but that was some start by Rovers, they were at it right from the whistle, it’s a wonder really they have under- performed so much this season. We were only commenting last night watching, that was some MF they had, whilst ours was mostly not involved apart from Shields. I think Benson had his worst ever DFC performance.

Sickening way to lose it, but that’s football, at 1-1 there is always a risk of going behind and even more so when you haven’t played well for the full 90.

[RathfarnhamHoop]

Great to see Pico bounce back after last week. Nice to see the lads show some cajones too after being pulled back.

[sbgawa]

The Rovers midfield has been immeasurably improved by the addition of Watts.
I would also say Manus has helped as they don't spend their time afraid to pass the ball back or lose possession, the confidence coming out from the back is so much stronger it is feeding into the whole team.

[Dalymountrower]

The Rovers midfield has been immeasurably improved by the addition of Watts.
I would also say Manus has helped as they don't spend their time afraid to pass the ball back or lose possession, the confidence coming out from the back is so much stronger it is feeding into the whole team.
Fair play, must have been a nice reward for those who made the journey up.
Makes the league marginally more interesting, particularly third place.
Must be frustrating for Bradley to witness that commitment and then see flat performances against Bohs and Drogs. I
Does that Rovers win deprive Dundalk of breaking the all time unbeaten league record.?

[nigel-harps1954]

Dundalk had a terrible penalty given against them eh?

[sbgawa]

Fair play, must have been a nice reward for those who made the journey up.
Makes the league marginally more interesting, particularly third place.
Must be frustrating for Bradley to witness that commitment and then see flat performances against Bohs and Drogs. I
Does that Rovers win deprive Dundalk of breaking the all time unbeaten league record.?

Yes on all counts id say
Yes on the no new record
Yes I'd say Bradser is frustrated , the drogs match I can put down to being down to 10 men early being a few players down and basically just a bad day.
You boys !! I'd say frustration doesn't come close, its kinda weird , I don't buy the players weren't up for it stuff how could they not be? Its hard to figure.
That's football I suppose.

[joey B]

Don't see the controversy in the penalty,looks a stonewall pen to me.....

[Asterix]

Yeah stonewall peno, dundalk lucky not to get more players sent off the way they went after the ref for the peno and final whistle, disgraceful behaviour.

[DFCForever]

There's a video of last night's highlights, including the penalty incident, on the RTÉ Sport Twitter. Does not look like a penalty to me at all, it is a tight one though.

[Asterix]

Every ref in the world is giving that penalty, Gannon jumps into the challenge and the ball path is line with Finn.

[Ezeikial]

It hardly matters whether it was "stonewall" or "soft" or "definitively no peno" - it was given and scored. For the little that it is worth, it is clear to me from the video that the ref got it wrong

It's possible that it could make a difference in the final league title shake-up, but I am hopeful / confident that it won't. Keeping Bradser in a job could be the hidden benefit of it all

It's also worthwhile noting that this win has closed the gap between Rovers and the top of the table only 24 points - compared to the 2017 gap of 22 points behind the league winners

[sbgawa]

That magnanimous new EZ didn't last long :)

[sbgawa]

Just saw the replay on rte.
Gannon went to clear the ball and took Finn out as he tried to take it. Was one of those fouls where T yhe forward came in quickly and was clobbered not intentionally but cleaned out nonetheless. Def peno ez is right it doesn't really matter it's done.
Kenny will expect a reaction in limerick.

[Ezeikial]

It was a penalty because Harvey gave it. He is fast becoming the new Buttimer and will make many more rash decisions before the season is done.

It's like a lottery with him - some madcap decisions will go with your team, some will go against you. You just hope that they will not be match defining. One was last night and Rovers got the benefit

The achievement in getting the win against the odds in Oriel can't be understated, although it may help those who want to be deluded into thinking the Bradley project is making progress

[Asterix]

The only big decision Harvey didn't get right was not sending mcgrath off for his challenge on Bolger. Penalty was the right call.

[CorribsideSteve]

A penalty for me. Based on the highlight clip, a loose first touch from Gannon put him in trouble and he had to lunge to try and get the ball. If Gannon traps the pass he was given and cleared, all would have been well with 30 secs left to play. Brave call from the ref but pretty sure he got it right.

[Longfordian]

I can definitely see why he gave it, having just one look at it. Looked a definite penalty to me in real time. Slow motion might show the defender getting a nick on the ball but he was diving in and I wouldn’t have argued too much about the decision. Well I would but I shouldn’t..

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

Greg Bolger interviewed on LOI Weekly after the game didn’t think it was a penalty and he was right beside it. Still appealed for it.

[RathfarnhamHoop]

I must say the absolute meltdown from some Dundalk fans on twitter is quite funny to watch. The owners comments didn't age too well either

[Asterix]

I must say the absolute meltdown from some Dundalk fans on twitter is quite funny to watch. The owners comments didn't age too well either

I saw one on twitter trying to say Harvey is a Rovers fan(every ref in the league is apparently). They were given 27 free kicks on Tuesday most of them for dives but feel the ref was against them.

[Ezeikial]

I must say the absolute meltdown from some Dundalk fans on twitter is quite funny to watch. The owners comments didn't age too well either


I saw one on twitter trying to say Harvey is a Rovers fan(every ref in the league is apparently). They were given 27 free kicks on Tuesday most of them for dives but feel the ref was against them.

It's really impossible for most people to be able to engage or relate to this vague generalised stuff, that is supposedly posted somewhere on the internet. Probably best to respond on the platform itself.

On Robert Harvey, I know nothing about him other than he is a poor referee. I suspect it is incompetence not bias.

[sbgawa]

He was poor on T ghe night we were giving out about how inconsistent he was and the amount of nothing challenges that he gave as frees. We had him down as a homer. I don't believe in bias or conspiracy he just had a bad night......until the last minute :)

[Charlie Darwin]

It's also worthwhile noting that this win has closed the gap between Rovers and the top of the table only 24 points - compared to the 2017 gap of 22 points behind the league winners
To be fair, it was only 22 points because of Cork's spectacular collapse. Not that Bradley is doing a great job or anything, but we're doing slightly less bad than last year overall.

[Ezeikial]

To be fair, it was only 22 points because of Cork's spectacular collapse. Not that Bradley is doing a great job or anything, but we're doing slightly less bad than last year overall.

Fair point that last years gap could have been much bigger if Cork had maintained form.

Rovers have a much better squad (with presumably much higher investment) this season yet have less points per match average currently than last season

2018
33 - 54 (1.64)

2019
29 - 46 (1.59)

The results are going backwards, and the primary reason is pretty obvious

[sbgawa]

Yes its obvious we should be at least 12- 15 points better if we had a competent goalkeeper for the first 20 matches of the season.
Our record since that got sorted is 19 points from 24 (2.4 points per match).
I assume that's what you mean :)

The manager signed Tomar and Horgan so he has to accept that but the cathostrophic loss of form for both of them was bizarre.
At a different level it reminds me of Karious at Liverpool or Jim Leighton at Man Utd (for the older posters) both outstanding goalkeepers or they never would have made it to that level but when the head gos with keepers its meltdown.

Hopefully we can sign a couple, get Clarke back and push on.
Heard a rumour of someone from DFC coming to Rovers at seasons end..............

[dundalkfc10]

Yes its obvious we should be at least 12- 15 points better if we had a competent goalkeeper for the first 20 matches of the season.
Our record since that got sorted is 19 points from 24 (2.4 points per match).
I assume that's what you mean :)

The manager signed Tomar and Horgan so he has to accept that but the cathostrophic loss of form for both of them was bizarre.
At a different level it reminds me of Karious at Liverpool or Jim Leighton at Man Utd (for the older posters) both outstanding goalkeepers or they never would have made it to that level but when the head gos with keepers its meltdown.

Hopefully we can sign a couple, get Clarke back and push on.
Heard a rumour of someone from DFC coming to Rovers at seasons end..............

We hear this every year. Wont be any of our better players if its anyone

[Asterix]

We hear this every year. Wont be any of our better players if its anyone

Its just Peak6 players trying to get a pay increase.

[Philosophizer]

We hear this every year. Wont be any of our better players if its anyone

Even if it is, they probably won't be as good for rovers as they were for Dundalk.
Finn being the perfect case in point. He was brilliant in his last couple of seasons with Dundalk, but playing under a worse manager and with a worse team unable to utilise him fully, he has only been playing at about 70% of his ability since he went to Rovers.

[sbgawa]

don't agree with you there I think he has been excellent (not often playing where he is best suited) but as you say in a team not performing as well so makes life harder.
How many goals would Hoban or Cummins score if they were playing up front for Bray?
The trick is to get in more quality players to share the burden.

Sean Maguire didn't do much at Dundalk, sometimes a switch can help.
Either way unless it is one of DFC best players then its just a squad player and nothing to get excited about.

[Lim till i die]

Kevin Horgan never had any form.

He's dirt. Always was dirt. Very big. But so is a very big pile of dirty washing.

I pick him out because hes a prime example of the bradser strategy ie sign a load of "potential" so you never have to really be accountable. He's been the shamrock manager for the best part of twenty five years now and has achieved the sum total of **** all.

I don't blame the man in the slightest. It's the rovers board who are at fault for allowing themselves into a situation where bradser has them over a barrel contractually.

Because if bradser didn't have the rovers board over a barrell he would be spoofing some ddsl club by now instead of whatever is left of the 200 club.

Better to plod along going nowhere than pull the trigger. There might be some accountability at board level then and shur no one wants that.

[Ezeikial]

Yes its obvious we should be at least 12- 15 points better if we had a competent goalkeeper for the first 20 matches of the season.
Our record since that got sorted is 19 points from 24 (2.4 points per match).
I assume that's what you mean :)



Leaving aside the fact that Bradley signed the goalkeepers and then made a bad situation worse by constantly dropping either player, the transfer window opened on 1 July.

Since then Rovers have a respectable 10 points from 5 league games or average of 2.0 per match. However in addition to that they have been knocked out of 3 cup competitions (EL / FAI cup / LSC) losing 3 out 4 games in addition to the 7 goal hammering in a friendly.

In the "new keeper" era Rovers have lost 4 out of 5 home games.

Some progress maybe?

[Kingswood Rover]

ah here would you feck off with the friendly, that was a money making exercise for us and as for stats they can often be manipulated to enhance a point, in the new goalkeeping age we are unbeaten away to Dundalk. Or out of the 5 National leagues we are top in 3 of them.

[Ezeikial]

ah here would you feck off with the friendly, that was a money making exercise for us and as for stats they can often be manipulated to enhance a point, in the new goalkeeping age we are unbeaten away to Dundalk. Or out of the 5 National leagues we are top in 3 of them.

Yep, you clearly demonstrate the nonsense of this "new keeper era" argument very well.

Back to basic facts so - the gap between Rovers and the top of the table has widened this year over last.

[Kingswood Rover]

Yep, you clearly demonstrate the nonsense of this "new keeper era" argument very well.

Back to basic facts so - the gap between Rovers and the top of the table has widened this year over last.
mmm let me see if i can find a stat to disagree, no thats exactly why we need a experienced manager for one of our teams who apparently are not top of the National league they are playing in.

[sbgawa]

EZ you are a great laugh.
Predictable but laughable all the same.
Manipulating stats my ass. 9 league matches 7 wins 1 draw. Throwing in friendlies and lsc games is funny.
You won the league tonight, how about bringing back the magnanimous EZ we saw for one post there recently