Matches 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th

[HarpoJoyce]

SSE Airtricity League, Premier Division, Fri 26th July,

UCD AFC : Waterford FC, The UCD Bowl ko 19:45
With two home wins in-a-rowThe Students want to continue their terrific home form. Waterford are seven points ahead of UCD and Finn Harps, they'll look to continue the gap until the they are safe from relegation.


Liam Kerrigan and Sam Byrne signed in mid-week.
Conor McCarthy Media Officer with UCD AFC with a Press Release and comments from Collie
http://ucdsupporters.ie/blog/2019/05/17/press-release-ucd-afc-v-shamrock-rovers-fri-17th-may-2019/


Directions to The UCD Bowl
http://www.ucdsoccer.com/club/directions-to-belfield-bowl

[redarmyfaction]

I am staying in Glasnevin Saturday night, anywhere good to watch the game in the Showgrounds?

[Dalymountrower]

Back Page is twenty minutes walk from you.

[redarmyfaction]

Back Page is twenty minutes walk from you.

Thanks

[joey B]

After all the guff Oriel Park has got recently while on TV,Finn Park will be a real spectacle tonight!

[D24Saint]

After all the guff Oriel Park has got recently while on TV,Finn Park will be a real spectacle tonight!

Full of rustic antique charm if you ask me ;)

[D24Saint]

Have UCD @ 5/1 the dream is alive.

Edit: and soon dies.

[pineapple stu]

Yup. Harsh in the end; better side but couldn't create enough good chances. Waterford took what they made and you can't really argue with that.

That Liam Scales fella looks a signing though

[D24Saint]

Unexpected events in Finn Park , great result for Harps fans.

[thebronze14]

Up the harps!football is class! That is all

[nigel-harps1954]

I do like football.

Harps done what we had to do. Great performance.

[ThirdManRun]

How come Mahdy is continuously dropped for UCD? Seems to do well every time he plays, but always seems to be the first player dropped / taken off for UCD.

From what I can see he’s scored in 4 out 5 wins this season!

[joey B]

Does not happen often,but a Derry reaction to a derby defeat is life,full of arrogance,anger and pain,absolute pleasure for me.......

[Sam_Heggy]

Rafael Cretaro, 37 years of age, 500 league of Ireland appearances and 2 weeks in a row he was up there as man of the match. Guys a LOI legend.

[marinobohs]

I do like football.

Harps done what we had to do. Great performance.

You gotta LOVE derbies 😁 great result for Harps and with UCD mini revival looking over it’s really tight for that playoff spot.

[joey B]

You gotta LOVE derbies 😁 great result for Harps and with UCD mini revival looking over it’s really tight for that playoff spot.

Not a bad result for Bohs either!

[sbgawa]

At different times this season Finn harps have looked dead and buried certs for relegation , gotta hand it to Ollie for keeping them motivated and together.
Feel a bit sorry for ucd with all the players they have lost but it's looking bad for them now.

[dong]

UCD have gained Kerrigan and Keaney from us. Two very decent players. Keaney has been a loss for sure and has improvement in him I think.

[pineapple stu]

Yeah, Keaney in particular has started well, and of course Kerrigan scored on his debut last night. Apparently ten scholarship players coming in over the next month. Even without players leaving, the likes of Collins, Osam and McDonald all out injured hasn't helped either. But if we do go down, I think we should be well placed to come straight back up again as things stand.

[total hoofball]

At different times this season Finn harps have looked dead and buried certs for relegation , gotta hand it to Ollie for keeping them motivated and together.
Oliie has done another outstanding job with that team to keep them in the hunt for 8th. I saw them the first night of season against Bohs and they looked that bad I thought they would struggle to win even one game this season

[total hoofball]

5-2 win for Shels last night against Wexford. The new signings Jaze Kabia and Denzel Fernandes from Cobh look like gems and are having positive impact. 8 point lead with 5 games to go however our run-in is difficult so far from over yet

[nigel-harps1954]

Harps good form continues with a 2-1 win over Linfield in Windsor Park in a friendly.

[Jack B]

Harry "good brand of football" Kenny there, playing a 4-3-3 with 4 centre backs and a left full in the team. Some man.

[White Horse]

Important three points for Dundalk tonight. I feared this could have been a banana skin as Vinny made eight changes and we haven't played well the season against a very tight and defensive Pats side.

There wasn't much between the two sides in the game, but Pats lacked a cutting edge up front and Dundalk just about shaded it.

[dong]

Poor enough stuff in the Showgrounds. I had an okay view of the penalty and Im sure the Rovers player got to the ball and it shouldnt have been given.
We fluked an equaliser so probably a fair result.
We play very little good football. I have to say Im a bit disappointed with Buckley in that respect.

[marinobohs]

Poor enough stuff in the Showgrounds. I had an okay view of the penalty and Im sure the Rovers player got to the ball and it shouldnt have been given.
We fluked an equaliser so probably a fair result.
We play very little good football. I have to say Im a bit disappointed with Buckley in that respect.

Poor game and a draw about fair - certainly neither side did enough to win it. Very scrappy and one of those games where both sides looked happy enough to get out with a draw with Derry and Pats losing its probobly a point gained for us in the mini League for 3/4/5 place.

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

Thought the first half was good. Second half not so.

Mandroiu is such a classy player. Always able to make himself a yard or two.

[oriel]

Watched the second half of Cork v Rovers on skorlive, they appeared to have the same feed / graphics than the one I paid for while on hols watching Dundalk v Waterford, even had commentary and replays, and interviews no less at the end, I think Cork are also piloting the pay for view thing along with Dundalk.

Rovers should really have won this game, looked the much better side in the second half, yet Cork had a great chance right at the death. Looked a strong side Rovers put out also, maybe 7 or 8 who started in Europe. The ref was a little unkind to Cork in the last 15 I thought, looked two clear fouls and nothing given, the peno not awarded from the O'Sullivan incident def falls into the 'I've seen them given' categories.

That's Rovers 7 points behind Dundalk now with a game more played, obviously not over, but this will give Dundalk a bit of breathing space as we have european games for at least the next 3 weeks.

Cork will be happy with that point, although I don't think they will be worried about the play off position, they should have enough finish a good bit away from the danger zone.

[placid casual]

Think it was said by a fair few at the start of the season that Rovers lack of a striker would ultimately cost them the league, and that appears to have come to pass. It could also cost us in the FAI cup, all things being equal.
Onwards to Thursday in Limassol.

[D24Saint]

Think it was said by a fair few at the start of the season that Rovers lack of a striker would ultimately cost them the league, and that appears to have come to pass. It could also cost us in the FAI cup, all things being equal.
Onwards to Thursday in Limassol.

Keo is a fine beer.

[RathfarnhamHoop]

Watched the second half of Cork v Rovers on skorlive, they appeared to have the same feed / graphics than the one I paid for while on hols watching Dundalk v Waterford, even had commentary and replays, and interviews no less at the end, I think Cork are also piloting the pay for view thing along with Dundalk.

Rovers should really have won this game, looked the much better side in the second half, yet Cork had a great chance right at the death. Looked a strong side Rovers put out also, maybe 7 or 8 who started in Europe. The ref was a little unkind to Cork in the last 15 I thought, looked two clear fouls and nothing given, the peno not awarded from the O'Sullivan incident def falls into the 'I've seen them given' categories.

That's Rovers 7 points behind Dundalk now with a game more played, obviously not over, but this will give Dundalk a bit of breathing space as we have european games for at least the next 3 weeks.

Cork will be happy with that point, although I don't think they will be worried about the play off position, they should have enough finish a good bit away from the danger zone.

Same pilot both teams doing it, definitely seems a case of a commentator in a studio somewhere as opposed to at the game though, surely it'd be easy enough to get a local presenter for each club, but maybe that's something for when(if) it gets fully rolled out. Seemed good quality otherwise definitely a good starting point, even if it did start 5 minutes late.
Yeah ref was poor all game but was poor both ways so nothing to really complain about.
I thought the reason we had a front loaded fixture list was to allow for games to be called off for Europe? So why have rovers only had one free match week out of the 4 in and around Europe so far? Not complaining about playing games during Europe but I thought it was pitched as have a front loaded season or play games during Europe not both. Both is just unnecessary.

[sbgawa]

Hopefully all this CHANGE in the FAI will mean seasonstarts Feb 1st and finishes nov 14th with no mid season break.

[White Horse]

Just seen the Rovers result in Cork, I presume Rovers rested a lot of players and played a second string given the massive opportunity to advance in Europe. It is not worth risking Jack Byrne, for example.

Making so many changes can disrupt creativity in a team.

[ontheotherhand]

Not really White Horse....strong team out but couldn't get the job done with some poor finishing from us and good defending from Cork on show. Byrne was good. Played some unreal passes but no cutting edge ahead of him. Story of the season.

[White Horse]

Not really White Horse....strong team out but couldn't get the job done with some poor finishing from us and good defending from Cork on show. Byrne was good. Played some unreal passes but no cutting edge ahead of him. Story of the season.

I've checked the team, Rovers certainly went for it.

Byrne is a joy to watch and I hope he does it for Rovers on Thursday. Agree with the point regarding a cutting edge up front. If Rovers put that right, they will be hard to live with.

[RathfarnhamHoop]

I've checked the team, Rovers certainly went for it.

Byrne is a joy to watch and I hope he does it for Rovers on Thursday. Agree with the point regarding a cutting edge up front. If Rovers put that right, they will be hard to live with.

Strong side but the lads looked very leggy to me

[White Horse]

Strong side but the lads looked very leggy to me

Europe takes it out of players. Switching up to that level requires levels of concentration that players in the LOI are not used to. I recall Dundalk always looking very flat in 2016 after European games as Kenny did not rotate many players.

Perth rotates much more, so Dundalk looked fresh against Pats. The downside is that they missed the quality of Hoban, Duffy, Boyle, Gannon etc.

[PartySaint]

Rumours that we might be seeing the end of Harry Kenny at Pats today.

[brendy_éire]

Unexpected events in Finn Park , great result for Harps fans.

18. Was. Brutal stuff from ourselves. Probably the worst we've played this season.
It was clear at half time that what we were doing wasn't working, yet no change was made.
Harps have had the pitch narrowed, so it was congested in the centre. We were unable to break through, not helped by some poor decision making. Management to blame on that front.

Harps were poor enough too, but at least had a workable game plan. It's frustrating that we haven't developed a strategy to counter it. I still think UCD look a better side than them from what I've seen, but they've been grinding out results of late, so fair play to them.

Three wins in our last 11 games. It's just not good enough if we're aiming for Europe.
The lack of a striker is really hurting, and would turn a few of those draws into wins.

Waterford tonight at home is essentially a must win.

[nigel-harps1954]

The pitch wasn't narrowed.

[brendy_éire]

The pitch wasn't narrowed.

Compared to last year?
It's definitely further away from the Aldi side of the ground than it used to be.

[RathfarnhamHoop]

The pitch wasn't narrowed.

Yeah can people please stop saying this about Harps pitch, it hasn't been narrowed at all this season, compared to past seasons maybe but certainly not mid this season.

[nigel-harps1954]

It's been the same size since the first game this season. Derry played on the same pitch and won comfortably this season already, can hardly be used as any sort of excuse this time round.

[brendy_éire]

It's been the same size since the first game this season. Derry played on the same pitch and won comfortably this season already, can hardly be used as any sort of excuse this time round.

It's not an excuse, far from it. I mean we needed to adapt our style of play to suit it and the way Harps were set-up. We failed to do that and deserved nothing from the game.

[nigel-harps1954]

It's not an excuse, far from it. I mean we needed to adapt our style of play to suit it and the way Harps were set-up. We failed to do that and deserved nothing from the game.

That's a fair comment.

I think there was an assumption from Derry that they just had to turn up. That's exactly the sort of vibe given by Kevin Deery in his pre-match comments anyway. Harps done their homework, got it spot on, and Derry had no plan B.

[Candystripe]

Very comfortable 2-0 win tonight v Waterford. Parkhouse's second goal will definitely win goal of the month if their still is one. Poor crowd tonight. 1,300 max.

[PartySaint]

Very comfortable 2-0 win tonight v Waterford. Parkhouse's second goal will definitely win goal of the month if their still is one. Poor crowd tonight. 1,300 max.

Good few cracking goals already these season, goal of the season will be a tough choice.

[brendy_éire]

Very comfortable 2-0 win tonight v Waterford. Parkhouse's second goal will definitely win goal of the month if their still is one. Poor crowd tonight. 1,300 max.

It was. Some change from that Waterford side and the one we played in April.

Not sure what Devine was thinking in the second half, but went a bit weird with his tactics in the second half. For a while we played with just Coll on the left. Strange stuff, but still probably should have won by more.

Fair play to those Waterford fans who came up, some journey home of a Monday night. Unfortunate the way the games have fallen that they’re back in the Brandy next Monday too.

[Martinho II]

Very comfortable 2-0 win tonight v Waterford. Parkhouse's second goal will definitely win goal of the month if their still is one. Poor crowd tonight. 1,300 max.

yeah saw the goal on bbc NI news earlier. absolute cracker!

[Nesta99]

Yeah can people please stop saying this about Harps pitch, it hasn't been narrowed at all this season, compared to past seasons maybe but certainly not mid this season.

Good job Kenny Sheils isnt about to get stuck in to such a debate!! Though maybe the positioning of the dugouts might have been a bigger concern for him...