Games 28/29 Feb

[Martinho II]

Jordan Flores "what a hit, son", "unbelievable tekkers" etc.

is Flores a local lad? some hit from him.

[Martinho II]

Brilliant game in Drogheda, standard wanst amazing but I haven't seen a FD game played at that tempo for quite a while it was break neck intensity from both sides.

Longford took their goal well, keeper probably should be doing better than pushing it straight into the line of fire but he's very young, Drogheda had enough chances to get at least a point, even with 10 men they put us under unbelievable pressure and while I think there's more to come from us this has got to be a massive mental boost especially to do it without Dean Byrne. Couldn't guess an attendance but healthy none the less and around 80 away fans.

On a side note, the prices into that Absolute dump are farcical, not even a drop of soap or hot water in the jack's, so much for regularly washing your hands.

Saw on extratime that attendance in United Park was 850 which was impressive going.

[Martinho II]

Thought Lopes was MOM for Shamrock Rovers last night. His defending was top notch imo.

[joey B]

Shamrock Rovers II are leading Galway I !!

[Martinho II]

Shamrock Rovers II are leading Galway I !!

Yeah just spotted that.Brandon Kavanagh with the goal.

[Asterix]

Finished 1-1

Still, a good weekend for 'The Project'

[Nesta99]

Thoroughly entertaining game in Tallaght, as mentined above the crowd, quality of goals and the minimal difference between the 2 sides. It would have been intriguing for neutrals for sure. Post match comments are always great fun as in never ceases to surprise me how different pople see different things. I thought Byrne was very good liast night goal included. Even if he sat in the centre circle he was tying up a couple of Dundalk players to deny him space, For the way that Dundalk battled to get the noses in front after being behind I think a draw would have been fair enough. Some silly frees being blown up for which was frustrating. Its all nip and tuck and the head to head games will win the league imo as im not sure other clubs can take points v top 2. Now that ive said that we will beat Rovers and lose to a relegation candidate.

All in all, well done Rovers - dont get too comfortable ;p

[Calcio Jack]

Thoroughly entertaining game in Tallaght, as mentined above the crowd, quality of goals and the minimal difference between the 2 sides. It would have been intriguing for neutrals for sure. Post match comments are always great fun as in never ceases to surprise me how different pople see different things. I thought Byrne was very good liast night goal included. Even if he sat in the centre circle he was tying up a couple of Dundalk players to deny him space, For the way that Dundalk battled to get the noses in front after being behind I think a draw would have been fair enough. Some silly frees being blown up for which was frustrating. Its all nip and tuck and the head to head games will win the league imo as im not sure other clubs can take points v top 2. Now that ive said that we will beat Rovers and lose to a relegation candidate.

All in all, well done Rovers - dont get too comfortable ;p

Nicely balanced objective post...down with that sort of thing you need get with the programme !!!

[RathfarnhamHoop]

The Jack Byrne obsession is tiresome. He did nothing last night up until the goal, except gifting Dundalk the lead when we were totally out of the game. His finish was good fair play but Shields was shown up badly there.

He's no Jamie McGrath sure

[El-Pietro]

The Jack Byrne obsession is tiresome. He did nothing last night up until the goal, except gifting Dundalk the lead when we were totally out of the game. His finish was good fair play but Shields was shown up badly there.

Rovers deserved winners, should have won by a couple. It's all well and good beating the lower end teams but Dundalk looked way off Rovers level last night. Shields and Massey are getting on, probably should have kept Jarvis instead of Massey as back up to Leahy but that was the owners decision. Sloggett isn't up to it at that level - again grand if you're playing Cork or Harps etc. Perth's subs were questionable too. Is Patching a footballer?!
Substitute the word Byrne for McEleney

[The Lilywhites]

Substitute the word Byrne for McEleney

Not doubting Byrne's obvious ability, it's just very over the top and constant.

McEleney is a class act on his day at this level but unfortunately he's no use to Dundalk if he's injured for more games than he plays. Only 27 but might be time to let him go back to Derry when his contract is up.

Perth's recruitment since coming in as manager has to be seriously questioned. Maybe he'll blame Burton for part of that but it'll come back to bite Dundalk as Kenny's team slowly but surely finish up. Gannon looks to be carrying a knock too but no back up for him despite the squad being 'the best it's ever been'.

The Patching one is particularly weird, considering Perth was building him up as potentially another Jack Byrne and all this ex Man City nonsense. Notts County were glad to see the back of him for being "lazy". Can see why.

[El-Pietro]

McEleney has never shown his ability against a good side. Even when he scored the winner in the cup final he had an overall poor game.

Shields is dominant against good teams at least on my experience. McEleney is a ghost.

[oriel]

The attendance for our next home match against harps will be interesting,
5000 against cork in shocking weather was very good but you'd expect a big crowd for the first home game .
7500 against dundalk, excellent.
Against harps in 2 weeks will we be back to our core 3000 or will some of the 6700 rovers fans last night (dundalk brought 800 away) come back for more.

Think DFC had more than that sbgawa, I asked on another thread, heard it was 1k to 1.2k if you add in decent neutrals (plenty on my luas out), I would think 6k Rovers fans tops last night? Still some support, don't get me wrong.

[oriel]

McEleney has never shown his ability against a good side. Even when he scored the winner in the cup final he had an overall poor game.

Shields is dominant against good teams at least on my experience. McEleney is a ghost.


This is common line from Cork fans, and he has gone missing against Cork in some big games, but that's a ridiculous thing to say about the cup final, he lost his marker, ran fair distance and as you said scored the winner, but its his overall strength that sometimes goes unnoticed, for the 2018 cup final, I will say one thing, he was def not the MOTM, that should have gone to Benson.

His presence was certainly missed last night, Shields wasn't great, and def lost Lopes for his goal, but McEleney and his hold up play would have made a difference in my view, for the league clincher last Sept, it was his strength that held off two Rovers players for Duffy's wonder goal.

As much as it was hard to take being 2-1 up away, Rovers deserved to win last night, the winner was coming, and this was all on the MF dominance second half, Dundalk will need to do better in the remaining 3 games and win 2 in my view, Rovers didn't beat Dundalk in any league game last year (lost 3), they now have 1/1, the bar has been risen, this is going to be one tight outcome.

Fogra, great to see the Flores goal shown on Late Late show last night, just watched play back on the Niall Quinn interview, this was a brilliant game last night, we need all the PR we get in LOI.

[oriel]

is Flores a local lad? some hit from him.

Jordan Flores is from Wigan, played for them for a few seasons. Also scored for Blackpool v Wigan or vice versa in a L1/L2 play off final in Wembley 2016 or 2017. Was involved in a car crash at some point after this, ruthless stuff by English clubs, released. He was ok last season but had a good bit out injured, could be a very big player this season.

[mrtndvn]

McEleney has never shown his ability against a good side. Even when he scored the winner in the cup final he had an overall poor game.

Shields is dominant against good teams at least on my experience. McEleney is a ghost.

He's won a certain penalty in a cup final in turners cross. Probably missed that one.

[CorribsideSteve]

About Flores' goal ... what a goal. Over 20 years following LOI since the Sports Stadium saturday highlight packlages, but I can't think of seeing a better LOI goal. It might be one of the best bits of publicity ever LOI wise, especially with the power of twitter etc.

[oriel]

Has to be the first ever LOI goal to be shown on the late late show !!!!

[joey B]

Players in the Rovers II/Galway game today treated for hypothermia ,which begs the question about who is looking after player welfare??

[mrtndvn]

Players in the Rovers II/Galway game today treated for hypothermia ,which begs the question about who is looking after player welfare??

Too cold to beat the school kids.

[brendy_éire]

Mixed sort of game at the Brandywell.

Derry were set up more defensively than against Harps, and it made a positive impact. Much better controlled in midfield, and it limited Bohs chances. Unfortunately, it also limited our own, and led to a fairly dull first half.
Second half was a better spectacle. Derry started playing a bit higher up the pitch and the game opened up.
Keith Ward seemed to score around the hour mark. The ball was cleared by Lupano, but plenty of City fans seemed to think it was over the line. Ward definitely did, and wheeled off in celebration. TV footage doesn't really give much indication, but seems like a let off.
Stephen Mallon's goal for us was brilliant. Real individual effort. We fairly controlled the game after that, but the second was probably a bit unfair on Bohs. Good finish from Figueira for it.

Less impressed with Bohs compared to last season now.

[patrickccfc]

I've added the Titanic song to the Flores goal here.

https://twitter.com/Patrickccfc84/status/1234081444877815813?s=19

[sbgawa]

Every time I see that goal in future it's going to bring back happy memories.
Makes a lie of the old saying about "you can't please all of the people all of the time". ��

[Jack B]

****e teams, ref, weather and pitch at us vs Shels. It's good to be back.

Silver lining is how much Dundalk fans continue to fret over Byrne. Needless to say I'm about as far as you can get from a Rovers fan but it's still gas to see.

[Martinho II]

Jordan Flores is from Wigan, played for them for a few seasons. Also scored for Blackpool v Wigan or vice versa in a L1/L2 play off final in Wembley 2016 or 2017. Was involved in a car crash at some point after this, ruthless stuff by English clubs, released. He was ok last season but had a good bit out injured, could be a very big player this season.

Cheers Oriel in hindsight I saw an interview with Jack Byrne where he was singing Flores praises as they played together at Wigan.

[Ezeikial]

Silver lining is how much Dundalk fans continue to fret over Byrne.

It's more about mocking the hyperbole and hysteria that surrounds a fairly ordinary performance.

Any fretting is reserved for the space Chris Shields allowed Lopes and then Byrne for the 2nd and 3rd goals

[oriel]

Nicely balanced objective post...down with that sort of thing you need get with the programme !!!


I think most DFC fans will admit we were beaten by the better side in the end, given the Rovers MF performance in the second half, but it was close. I don't have the JB obsession thing, I just think he's a quality player and to be fair from all the talk about Flores goal of the season (which it prob will be), JB finish to win the game, while side stepping Shields was a great strike.

Its a double edged sword though, his performances will not have gone unnoticed with the championship clubs in England, so he (and Burke) could well be back over the water in July.

This is going to be a very tight league in terms of who wins it, and possibly the first time since 2014 that it might go down to the last weekend.

[sbgawa]

The nutty schedule helps us a bit with jack Byrne. Without postponements we will have 28 league games finished by the end of July when I am resigned to losing him. Can't see Burke going back for a 3rd time.

[dundalkfc10]

McEleney has never shown his ability against a good side. Even when he scored the winner in the cup final he had an overall poor game.

Shields is dominant against good teams at least on my experience. McEleney is a ghost.

Did you see McEleney V Bate 2016 and the Rosenborg game in 2017 in Oriel he was the best player on pitch by a mile.

He was excellent last season in the 3-1 win over Rovers who are a top team.

2 teams of a better standard than this league has so what your saying is nonsense.

[osarusan]

Flores goal shown on MOTD 2 as part of that '2 good 2 bad' segment.

It was along the lines of this: 'we saw some special moments this week from (insert epl clip here) and (insert epl clip here) but the moment of the weekend goes to Jordan Flores for his goal for Dundalk against Shamrock Rovers.'

[D24Saint]

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2020/0302/1119731-galway-players-unable-to-train-due-to-hypothermia/

Not being smart but sounds like they are a bit soft, never heard of this in the old winter season years.

[sbgawa]

To be fair if they were vomiting and one of the Rovers players was admitted to hospital it must have been beyond the ordinary.
The wind coming off the Dublin mountains can make Tallaght unbelievable cold.
Ironically i arrived for the Dundalk match with 5 layers and a hat and it was very mild.

[NeverFeltBetter]

If the temperature was so bad that players had to get medical treatment afterwards, you would hope the officials who allowed the game to go ahead would be called to task.

[Mr A]

If the temperature was so bad that players had to get medical treatment afterwards, you would hope the officials who allowed the game to go ahead would be called to task.

Agreed. The cold shoulder is the least they deserve.

[D24Saint]

Agreed. The cold shoulder is the least they deserve.

careful now

[Martinho II]

There was definitely hypothermia in the air on saturday as I was on my bike on Saturday morning when it was nice and sunny. All of a sudden there was a torrential downpour with hail in your face. I got soaked to the skin and my hands were so cold even with gloves. It took my hands a good while to warm up when I finally arrived indoors so I have sympathy for any LOI player that had to play in those conditions.

[Real ale Madrid]

If the temperature was so bad that players had to get medical treatment afterwards, you would hope the officials who allowed the game to go ahead would be called to task.

Surely the officials themselves would be at more risk of exposure. Maybe some under armor or something was required. Maybe caught out a bit and weren't expecting it to be so bad?

[SkStu]

Ironically i arrived for the Dundalk match with 5 layers and a hat and it was very mild.

https://media1.tenor.com/images/b3dfd080aed9ecdd39ec07e40e92555c/tenor.gif?itemid=11142217

[geysir]

Great game in Tallaght, between two top class teams playing free flowing football supported by two loud sets of fans in top facilities. What it's all about really.

That Flores goal was something special that all 7600+ in the ground will remember but I'd feel fairly safe in saying he won't give a **** about it considering the result.

As for criticism of Jack Byrne, give your head a shake lads, he was top class. Can say he gave the ball away for the second Dundalk goal all you like but at the end of the day he's a creative midfielder so not everythings expected to come off.

As for Chris Shields, on a booking he is ordinary, when he's not he's very decent don't get me wrong but when he's been booked like a lot of defensive midfielders he's very ordinary because his game is based around being a thorn in the side of the oppositions attacking players and he can't do that on a yellow and you could see once he got on the yellow he was giving that extra yard, there was one point when Byrne was going across the box and you could see both Shields and Flores go to take him out and both realise they were booked and pull out, luckily for them Sloggett was there to make the tackle. It's situations like that though where Shields looks ordinary once he's booked and can't put the challenge in.

Jack's goal was not just technically brilliant but a winning goal and an important one in the context of the two teams (in all likelihood) going toe to toe for the league title. But really i wish he was playing for Dundalk.

[dundalkfc10]

Great game in Tallaght, between two top class teams playing free flowing football supported by two loud sets of fans in top facilities. What it's all about really.

That Flores goal was something special that all 7600+ in the ground will remember but I'd feel fairly safe in saying he won't give a **** about it considering the result.

As for criticism of Jack Byrne, give your head a shake lads, he was top class. Can say he gave the ball away for the second Dundalk goal all you like but at the end of the day he's a creative midfielder so not everythings expected to come off.

As for Chris Shields, on a booking he is ordinary, when he's not he's very decent don't get me wrong but when he's been booked like a lot of defensive midfielders he's very ordinary because his game is based around being a thorn in the side of the oppositions attacking players and he can't do that on a yellow and you could see once he got on the yellow he was giving that extra yard, there was one point when Byrne was going across the box and you could see both Shields and Flores go to take him out and both realise they were booked and pull out, luckily for them Sloggett was there to make the tackle. It's situations like that though where Shields looks ordinary once he's booked and can't put the challenge in.

Jack Byrne disagrees in your assessment of Chris Shields. You should listen to his interview with Irish Fan TV after the game.

Id take his opinion over a troll.

Fantastic game, between 2 top sides (in terrible weather conditions I must add). Rovers prob just about deserved the win. Going to be a great season. Im in Sligo Sat night with family so will prob hit the Showgrounds. Lets hope Shams run in Sligo continues

[RathfarnhamHoop]

Jack Byrne disagrees in your assessment of Chris Shields. You should listen to his interview with Irish Fan TV after the game.

Id take his opinion over a troll.

Fantastic game, between 2 top sides (in terrible weather conditions I must add). Rovers prob just about deserved the win. Going to be a great season. Im in Sligo Sat night with family so will prob hit the Showgrounds. Lets hope Shams run in Sligo continues

Did you actually even bother reading what I said? Or did you just instantly get angry at the possible insinuation that something dundalk do may not always be the best no matter the circumstances?

Try your best to give it another read if you can then get back to me.

[dundalkfc10]

Did you actually even bother reading what I said? Or did you just instantly get angry at the possible insinuation that something dundalk do may not always be the best no matter the circumstances?

Try your best to give it another read if you can then get back to me.

You said "As for Chris Shields, on a booking he is ordinary,"

Jack Byrne said the only time he got away from Shields once in the 90mins was for the goal. So Shields is not just ordinary when he is booked. Byrne thought he was just as good before the booking than after the booking.

[RathfarnhamHoop]

You said "As for Chris Shields, on a booking he is ordinary,"

Jack Byrne said the only time he got away from Shields once in the 90mins was for the goal. So Shields is not just ordinary when he is booked. Byrne thought he was just as good before the booking than after the booking.




A player is hardly gonna come out and talk badly about an opposition player even if its "once he was booked I had him" not the way things happen at Rovers these days. He also said probably, go back through the match and there's actually a good few occasions where it happened, players don't remember everything exactly right in interviews before reviewing the match and again even if they do they're not gonna talk down an opposition player.

Even if you take what you quoted do you not see that after being booked Shields lost Byrne for his goal and Pico for his? Not a coincidence. Players go from not being able to shake him all match to him being responsible for losing the two players that scored

[sbgawa]

To be fair players rarely diss each other in the media, they know each other off the pitch and there is normally an element of mutual respect (With the exception of James Talbot :) ).
I think Sheilds is an excellent player but Jack Byrne lost him plenty of times in the match, it wasn't one of Sheilds better performances but that doesn't make him a bad player.
Even Messi doesnt do it every game.

[El-Pietro]

He's won a certain penalty in a cup final in turners cross. Probably missed that one.
Do you think the 2011 Cork City FC team were a good side? We won the first division that year but its a stretch to call a first division team a good team.
Also that penalty was hard, handball but the defender couldn't do much about it.

[dundalkfc10]

A player is hardly gonna come out and talk badly about an opposition player even if its "once he was booked I had him" not the way things happen at Rovers these days. He also said probably, go back through the match and there's actually a good few occasions where it happened, players don't remember everything exactly right in interviews before reviewing the match and again even if they do they're not gonna talk down an opposition player.

Even if you take what you quoted do you not see that after being booked Shields lost Byrne for his goal and Pico for his? Not a coincidence. Players go from not being able to shake him all match to him being responsible for losing the two players that scored

Shields was not marking Lopez for the corner (even if he was, his booking had nothing to do with marking anyone from a corner)

The way Byrne shifted the ball onto his left and made room, lost Shields, not because Shields was booked.

As for the bit in bold, what ****e are you talking?

You won the game, would you not be happy you have managed to break the wee jinz we had over you in Tallaght, than pity point scoring saying of one of the best LOI midfielders of last 10 years is an ordinary footballer once he has a booking.

[placid casual]

For my money, Jack had a relatively poor game by his standards His passing was off and he appeared to be trying too hard. Having said that, that was by far the worst I've seen Shields play- he passed it out of play about 3 or 4 times, much to the consternation of his teammates.
Also saw a lot more arguing amongst each other by dundalk, throughout the game. Is all well up oriel way?
Dundalk impressed me in the way they were handling the game, all the same, as they looked like they knew they could step it up a gear if required. Think Rovers have a but to go to overtake them, but for Rovers there is now clear sight of progress, and a squad to match.

[oriel]

I think arguing amongst DFC players was more to do with conceeding 3 goals, almost sure 2 was the biggest in any domestic game last year.

Shields had a poor second half, no getting away from that, and he was probably at fault for goals 2 and 3, added to this the central MF and subs added little (apart form D Kelly ball to Hoban), and this was where the game was lost.

There has been no better player in the league than Shields in his role in the past 4 years, and he has 5 league titles to back that up, a poor 45 mins won't change this.

[placid casual]

Shields was worse in the 1st half, from my view and that was when he was giving the ball away so much.
Also the arguments amongst each other was throughout the game, not just when they conceded.i hadn't see that before. As you say that it was only one game. Next game up in oriel should be interesting anyway.

[mcgonigle]

Did you actually even bother reading what I said? Or did you just instantly get angry

Looks like someone has been attending the PC school of trolling over the winter break