Weekend Fixtures 23-25 October

[DCSIL]

After Europe, back to the league.

Derry v Shelbourne Tonight, Shels might sneak into Fifth Spot, do they want it? Derry could do with another home win.

Saturday Sligo v Cork, Both teams still got an outside chance of what they want to achieve.

Finn Harps v Bohs, Ideally a win for Harps so they can look at finishing Cork, Bohs will get Second unless something strange happens, do they grind out another result.

Sunday Waterford v Dundalk, Battle for Europe here.

Predictions, which will probably all be wrong:
Derry
Sligo
Bohs
Dundalk

[placid casual]

No game this weekend for the covid-tardy Rovers so I can put my objective hat on.
Derry Shels- draw
Sligo Cork- sligo
Boez Harps-draw
Waterford dundalk - draw

[Straightstory]

All change in the first division. Drogs leapfrog Bray and lead by a point after injury time Galway winner. Exciting final day!

[Finlay Harp]

Cork miss a penalty and Sligo take the lead two minutes later. I’ll take that if it stays like it.

[Finlay Harp]

1-1 now at the Showgrounds. Damn.

[sbgawa]

Did someone put a curse on cork? If it wasnt for bad luck they wouldnt have any at all

[Finlay Harp]

2-1 Sligo.

[redarmyfaction]

Cork could be relegated tonight.

[Finlay Harp]

Doesn’t look good for Cork now. Harps need to take points from the 3 games in hand to guarantee a play off.

[ger121]

Financial issues aside. Who was the last League Champion to get relegated within a couple of seasons of winning the league? Amazing that City could be relegated.

[sbgawa]

Harps could tidybup everything with a win here tonight, cork down and rovers champions.

[pineapple stu]

Financial issues aside. Who was the last League Champion to get relegated within a couple of seasons of winning the league? Amazing that City could be relegated.
Probably Drogheda are the only comparable example, though they did have big financial problems, even if they weren't Shelegated.

Champions in 2007, relegation play-off in 2009 (but that was financial), recovered to league runners-up in 2012, but relegated in 2015

Dundalk were champions in 94/95 and won a play-off two seasons later

Obviously relegation hasn't been around all that long

[sbgawa]

If you didnt know who was in second place and who was second bottom youd struggle watching to figure it out. Harps with 6 corners so far

[sbgawa]

And harps deservedly go ahead just on the break

[Finlay Harp]

This could be a good night for Harps and Rovers.

[sbgawa]

Wait till we give unthe 3 points up in finn park, u might catch shels yet. :)

[White Horse]

Financial issues aside. Who was the last League Champion to get relegated within a couple of seasons of winning the league? Amazing that City could be relegated.

Incredible, just incredible.

Challenging for the title for years, Champions in 2017, FAI cup winners on two occasions, big European money, successful transfers to English clubs, big crowds.....

Now practically relegated.

There is no comparable fall that I can think of.

[DCSIL]

2-0 now

Get the Champagne on ice in Talla

[sbgawa]

2 nil harps.....deserve it too.

[placid casual]

Well this is easily the most enjoyable non Rovers LOI game I've seen this season.
2:0 now😂😅.
All its missing is the morons in the stand calling for Longs head, blind to the fact they're comfortably in 2nd place.

Harps continue to be our friends in the northwest.

[Yossarian]

Who is the commentator for the Bohs Harps game? He’s doing a good job.

[D24Saint]

Who is the commentator for the Bohs Harps game? He’s doing a good job.

Not sure but he did a good job.

[Finlay Harp]

Staying up!

[Asterix]

18*-25 :cool:

[White Horse]

Tough on Cork to be relegated after the interrupted mini season we've had. Would they have been relegated over a full season? Hard to say.

Hopefully, next season will be proper one.

[SeanDrog]

Some result for Harps well done.

Congrats to Rovers on the title, some real nice football this season.

Hard luck to Bohs but you had a great season and did better than I think most thought you would this season.

Hard luck Cork but I expect you to come straight back up.

[Calcio Jack]

Meme ca change plus ca change

📆 On this day, 24th October 1965, Shamrock Rovers issued a heavy defeat to St. Pat's in the second last game of the League of Ireland Shield campaign. The empathic 9-1 win at Milltown saw the Hoops effectively retain the title, their 17th success in this competition.

[DCSIL]

2 nil harps.....deserve it too.

Double Celebration for you.

Congratulations to Rovers.

Commiserations to Cork.

[placid casual]

Champions again. Well deserved.
The only possible downers to it is we can't celebrate together as fans with the team, and also lose out on the chance to see us go unbeaten in a full season as we are considerably better than anyone else in the league, this year.
The players deserve enormous credit but special credit to Bradley for sticking with his plan, and also special mention to the board for sticking with Bradley.
As fans we all saw that the croly and nutsy eras were a mess, with vermin like the brennans besmirching the green and white with their poisonous attitude. Bradley took a year to hose down the scum in the dressing room and clear out the bloated, journeymen that nutsy loved.
We now have a finely balanced squad, hungry for success and pushing each other on.
We should have the pick of any players moving next season, but they will need the right attitude to fit in with what's already there.
A Double would be nice to finish things off, but securing Champions League for next season has sated even my appetite!
18.25

[onlooker]

Terrible manners sir. Calling players scum. Where did you learn that? I have this picture of you in my head just based on that comment. If you don't have anything nice to say then say nothing..

[joey B]

Great time to grab a first win in Dalymount in 22 years! Rode our luck at times and our keeper had a stormer but a cracking result! Wednesdays game against Pats is huge now and if we could win we could stay up without a play off!

Commiserations to Cork and congratulations to Rovers as well.

[Scrufil]

Well done to Rovers, who might well prove to be the saving force behind Ireland's future international players with their underage set up.
As to Cork, bad bad blow, but I hope they like all the other clubs in the league ride out this crisis.
Still a lot to play for in European terms. Hope games go ahead without any more blips.

[nigel-harps1954]

Avoiding a play-off altogether became an outside possibility with that result tonight.

Beat Pats on Wednesday and we're two points behind Shels, Pats and Derry with two games to play. Interesting final stretch ahead!

[Nesta99]

Terrible manners sir. Calling players scum. Where did you learn that? I have this picture of you in my head just based on that comment. If you don't have anything nice to say then say nothing..

If the Brennans had any manners they might be shown manners!!

Congrats to Rovers! Sure it was a mad season but it was the same for everyone.

[Real ale Madrid]

It just shows. No one has a god given right to win football matches. You must earn the right. This stings. But we'll be back.

Well done to Rovers' fans on here.

[Charlie Darwin]

I enjoyed that. Harps played like a team who shouldn't be anywhere near the relegation fight... except for the fella who karate kicked the Bohs player at 2-0 up. Cork will batter the FD next season so not all lost for them.

[nigel-harps1954]

I enjoyed that. Harps played like a team who shouldn't be anywhere near the relegation fight... except for the fella who karate kicked the Bohs player at 2-0 up. Cork will batter the FD next season so not all lost for them.

That's the problem, with the squad we have, we shouldn't be anywhere near it. Couple of really silly results has us down where we are. Fine margins in this league and another win or two and we'd have been looking at pushing for Europe, not trying to get out of the playoff.

[Kiki Balboa]

That's the problem, with the squad we have, we shouldn't be anywhere near it. Couple of really silly results has us down where we are. Fine margins in this league and another win or two and we'd have been looking at pushing for Europe, not trying to get out of the playoff.

Harps were decent anytime I seen them. Difference is, one bad result matters a whole lot more than in a normal season. 2 games is over 10 percent of the league campaign. Over a 30 game season could easily see Harps above Shels (who have battled hard, but lacked quality ( in my watchLOI. small time opnion).

Rovers deserve winners, Cork by far the worst team on the pitch. Shame about Cork, great city, great fan base. Can't think of the last time a major team got relegated on the pitch (does Shels count?).

[onlooker]

OMG, bad enough calling players scum but now naming people too.
Shame on you.

[Pablo Escobar]

Cork by far the worst team on the pitch.

I can’t argue with that. Most of our problems originate with decisions made away from the pitch. Also, if we had taken the Fenn decision earlier we’d have given ourselves a fighting chance. We didn’t deserve to lose last night and were more than value for the win against Waterford but only got a draw. So at the end there was an element of bad luck, but the damage had already been done. Well done to Harps also, they’re more than justified in avoiding the automatic drop IMO.

[Martinho II]

If the Brennans had any manners they might be shown manners!!

Congrats to Rovers! Sure it was a mad season but it was the same for everyone.

Thats first I heard of this! Why wot happened with the Brennans?

[Martinho II]

Dundalk won loi in 1995 within 4 years they were relegated. Shels won their last loi in 06 and were relegated straight away! Drogheda as mentioned in 07 and relegated in a few years (cant remember year in which they went down) and now Cork City.

[pineapple stu]

Shels don't really count as they effectively went broke and were refused a licence. Bit different to what happened Cork, which is surely more dramatic than Drogheda/Dundalk. 9 goals in a (half) season is remarkable.

[pineapple stu]

Waterford beat Dundalk today in the latest "We don't want Europe - you take it" match. Dundalk with 7 changes from Thursday.

Means Bohs are confirmed in second, and Pats would draw level with Dundalk if they win their next two matches, away to Harps and home to Dundalk. Though "win your next two matches" isn't really something most of the teams in the league seem capable of doing. So Dundalk still favourites for third (though their European spot would have an asterisk beside it in that case, I'm sure)

[sbgawa]

could be an exciting last day depending on results between now and then.
Dundalk, sligo, pats possibly Derry and maybe even HARPS going for European place.
More likely Dundalk need a point against Sligo (who could qualify for Europe themselves) and waterford and Pats best placed to take the 4th spot.
Harps have a squeek of avoiding the playoff at shels expense who can expect Rovers to return the facvour harps did us last night with a win in tolka

I hope FG got the contract off Bill

[pineapple stu]

Harps can only finish fifth, so they're definitely out of Europe (except via the Cup)

Edit - Shels out of the European race as well, so it's five teams going for two spots (if we assume the Cup winners will be top three)

[nigel-harps1954]

I'd love it if there were a big celebration from someone finishing fourth and thinking they've got Europe and something mad happens and either Harps or Athlone win the cup.

[sbgawa]

Harps can only finish fifth, so they're definitely out of Europe (except via the Cup)

Edit - Shels out of the European race as well, so it's five teams going for two spots (if we assume the Cup winners will be top three)

Your right Stu, i was looking at it last night, Waterford getting 3 points today made it impossible (very unlikely anyway i guess) Pats could turn around waht has been a poor season by qualifying for europe and on the other hand could be relegated by losing the playoff..

[placid casual]

I certainly will be supporting Harps to win the Cup if they overcome Rovers.
Preferably for them to do it against boez in the final. What a victory that would be. A real nasty bad tempered game with both sides reduced to 9😁😁.

[Nesta99]

I'd love it if there were a big celebration from someone finishing fourth and thinking they've got Europe and something mad happens and either Harps or Athlone win the cup.

Its an awful thing when ye could be hoping for Rovers to do the doubl1!!