Game week 9/10/11 October

[joey B]

Raining cats and dogs at Dalymount!!

A couple of oul benches would have been handy in front of the Jodi!

[passinginterest]

Cork get get absolutely hammered here. Two good finished, the Grant one particularly cheeky, have to question the keeper though. Grant on fire since being left out of the under 21 squad.

[ger121]

One foot in Europe and Cork one foot in First Division.

[joey B]

Cork have not been helped this season by McNulty being so bad.......

[Martinho II]

Cork get get absolutely hammered here. Two good finished, the Grant one particularly cheeky, have to question the keeper though. Grant on fire since being left out of the under 21 squad.

That must have being the goal I saw on rte six one news! classic!

[joey B]

Bray looking good for automatic promotion now,5 points ahead with 2 games left, Drogheda the only team that could trouble them now, they've 3 games left.....

[pineapple stu]

Waterford 0-1 Shels.

Can't remember the last time sides in the league were falling over themselves so badly not to get into Europe.

If you assume Dundalk will come third and the cup winners will mean fourth gets Europe, then that Pat's team their fans have been giving out about all season is a point off Europe with a match in hand.

[trevy]

Waterford 0 Shelbourne 1. Waterford dominated the 2nd half but did not take their chances. Coote skied one over from right in front of goal. Then Sobowale gives away free kick and we concede a headed goal again from the set piece.Daryl Murphy came on and just fired over near the end with a turn and shot. Big defeat in the chase for Europe and Shelbourne take a big step towards safety.

[nigel-harps1954]

I'm struggling with that result. Waterford were all over Shels in the second half. Disaster for Harps, and indeed Cork, if we'd any hope of getting out of the playoff spot, the chance has gone a lot slimmer now

[D24Saint]

Waterford 0-1 Shels.

Can't remember the last time sides in the league were falling over themselves so badly not to get into Europe.

If you assume Dundalk will come third and the cup winners will mean fourth gets Europe, then that Pat's team their fans have been giving out about all season is a point off Europe with a match in hand.

Nothing is surprising anymore in this topsy turvy year, what’s next Rovers & Dundalk fans getting along. On a serious note, we should be nowhere near the european spots this year. If it can be somehow achieved it would be something positive to take from the **** show that is 2020.

[SPXcyan]

That's difficult to take, losing to Finn Harps at home was brutal watching, now this? our chance to finish third died tonight.

[dlhoop]

Bray's win in Tallaght today means that, apart from the postponed Galway/Drogheda game, there have now been three full series of FD matches with away wins only. The last time the home team got any kind of result was Drogheda 3 SRFC II 2 on the 22nd of September. Got to be some kind of record.

[hollocaine]

Bray looking good for the title. This is the third weekend in succession that it's all away wins in the First Division - 14 matches in a row!

[Martinho II]

Bray looking good for the title. This is the third weekend in succession that it's all away wins in the First Division - 14 matches in a row!

Fierce impressive stat Hollocaine! Yeah Bray will win it. Think us,drogheda,galway and cobh will make playoffs now and I would make Drogheda favs ahead of us for the playoffs even though we did beat them a few weeks back!

[Nesta99]

Nothing is surprising anymore in this topsy turvy year, what’s next Rovers & Dundalk fans getting along. On a serious note, we should be nowhere near the european spots this year. If it can be somehow achieved it would be something positive to take from the **** show that is 2020.

Well if Dundalk can make EL groups stages anything is possible this season!! All shows how messed up everything is...

[placid casual]

The only constant, it seems, is that Rovers are, by a distance, ahead of everyone else in the league this year.

[Nesta99]

The only constant, it seems, is that Rovers are, by a distance, ahead of everyone else in the league this year.

Very messed up indeed!!

[sbgawa]

Wonder will fillipo play the team that played against rovers and harps against cork. If he is planning on rotating the team again 100% he should play a full strength team against cork where he has a better chance of picking up 3 points then against bohs.

[Nesta99]

Its time to get some wins in the league! He should field his strongest side.

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

Why does Soccer Republic always spell it Cobh Ramblerers?

[NeverFeltBetter]

Because they are probably using the same template over and over again.

[joey B]

Cork better organised tonight, Dundalk look very lethargic though, most of the ball but done very little with it..........

[placid casual]

The game looks like 2 sides bang out of form and confidence. I'm sure hoooban will fall over and win a peno in the 2nd half.
Cork are a travesty of a side. Are they the worst team in the league for the last 10 years maybe?

[joey B]

First job next season for whoever is managing Cork in whatever league they're in is 2 new goalkeepers!

[oriel]

Dundalk quite poor first half, stepped it up last 20, deserved 2-0 winners. Still too slow for my liking in parts, but good to see Gannon get back into it last 15 and finish strong.

I'd say that's it now from Cork, not points wise, can still get to play off, but not sure the fight is there. I'd be having Morrissey all day long, he'd excel with better players around him.

The GD is mental in this div, Dundalk up to 3rd now, a point clear, still two games in hand, but all clubs from 4th and below on - GD apart from Derry (7th) who are +1.

[Real ale Madrid]

The game looks like 2 sides bang out of form and confidence. I'm sure hoooban will fall over and win a peno in the 2nd half.
Cork are a travesty of a side. Are they the worst team in the league for the last 10 years maybe?

We're not even the worst team in the league this year yet!

Showed a bit of fight and organisation tonight, a chink of light. Will be a miracle if we stay up but football is a funny old game.

[placid casual]

I hate to break it to you RAM, but you are. Cork are a mess. Harps and Shels have enough about them to be easily clear of you guys by seasons end.
I sincerely hope your team can get your €hit together and get back to the Premier league in 2022, as the cross is one of the very few enjoyable places to watch football in the LOI.

[pineapple stu]

Interesting that Dundalk in this round have played Cork, Harps, Shels and Rovers. So that's the three weakest teams by far (Shels by virtue of their form having collapsed), which resulted in two unconvincing wins and a draw, and then Rovers, a game they didn't take seriously.

So their five remaining games are all European six-pointers, with three of those (Derry, Waterford and Pats) away in weeks when they also have EL group games in between.

They don't seem to have much strength in depth and while the league itself doesn't have much strength either it seems (basically everyone from Dundalk to Shels has a mid-table record, all falling over themselves not to finish top four), you'd have to say there's some antsy weeks ahead to see if Dundalk will actually make Europe next year.

[sbgawa]

Will be interesting to see does FG take the easy way out and play a weakened team against bohs so as to have to have the excuse when they lose which i expect they will regardless of who plays for DFC

[dundalkfc10]

I think you will find it will be the opposite. We will go fill strength V Bohs and if we pick up the 3 Points, we will be in a position to rest players in Derry ahead of Molde

Why would a manager pick a team with a view to having an excuse if they lose? That's the type of nonsense that can ruin this forum,

[sbgawa]

As i re read that i accept it reads a bit harsh , i was rushing , what i really meant was would he take a Pass like he did against Rovers with a view to an easier potential 3 points against Derry. small side benefit also being that if he loses he can say it was a weakened team which is better for morale and then hopefully pick up 3 against Derry.
I'd actually forgotten about the Molde match so you are probably right, taking that into account he has no choice but to go full strength on Friday as he can hardly play a weak team friday and a full team then against Derry before the Molde match.

Big match Friday if DFC lose then i don't like the B teams chances against Derry.

[Nesta99]

The Rovers game preceded a game worth €4mil by so saving players for that was both understandable and expected. Finn Harps was after the same game so the team was rotated again. Whether people think players not good enough outside of 13 or 14 players makes no difference, the were mostly signed on merit in the beief that they were good enough - I think most are but lack match sharpness. Damned if you do damed if you dont with the critics saying that an expensive squad isnt being used and rotated but when that happens its is disrespecting the league, fielding a weak side, player recruitment poor. Its not unusual for squads to be rotated in football.

FG wont be thinking of creating excuses in advance of a game or deliberately put out a 'weakened' side for that purpose. If anything he is planning for next season and needs to see players in action. He also sees the players daily in training so knows what they are made of and selects a team accordingly. Dummigan is a great example of a player that hadnt been getting game time, was touted as being an option at LB, and now played there. We had an issue with constant injuries so maybe player loads needed better management and not flog the same lads. Players need to play to gel in to a team. 3 points are the target in every game, bar maybe the Rovers game with the league done and dusted and what was at stake financially. The more these lads play together under rotation the better they will get as a team but there is a balance needed too.

[sbgawa]

Don't disagree and if you beat bohs and Derry there would be an argument for only playing the b team from then on in the league and let the A team play EL matches. Key is to get European qualification out of the way.

[placid casual]

If bohs beat dundalk on friday the title is still very much on, especially with the expected abscences at Rovers over the next few weeks.

[sbgawa]

Byrne and Burke our two top scorers both out but watts and Williams come in and it's still a strong team.
Burke back for harps on Monday.
We need 4 points from 4 games winning t he league has nothing to do with bohs or dundalk. That's all on us.

[Nesta99]

Don't disagree and if you beat bohs and Derry there would be an argument for only playing the b team from then on in the league and let the A team play EL matches. Key is to get European qualification out of the way.

Definitely the sooner the better to qualify for Europe and Im sure that will be the aim. Europe is not a forgone conclusion yet and there isnt a whole lot of expectation for the EL games, could be a bit of sh1t show actually. Balanced rotation is fine as I generally think players need games just as much as recovery time, so imo not making 7 or 8 changes for example, espcially with the additional subs options. Unless we do achieve something in the EL and if genuinely competative then the temptation would be to extensively rotate as you suggest for league games.

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

If bohs beat dundalk on friday the title is still very much on, especially with the expected abscences at Rovers over the next few weeks.

Its over