2021 Promotion/Relegation playoff series

[D24Saint]

Is WFAI Cup not on before the mens final as it has previously? The furore there would be if the Promotion/Relegation Playoff was given higher billing than the womans cup final even if it was a bigger draw for crowd espcially if Galway had managed it.

Has to go down as a poor season now for the coaching dream team of Caulfield and Fallon, a big full time squad and an almost as big backroom team.

I’ve seen tickets for the women’s final in Tallaght this year.

[pineapple stu]

This Friday

Sorry - Friday week

[WeAreRovers]

UCD v Bray confirmed for Friday 19 in Dalymount. I realise my son and I are a very small constituency but we would have gone to this if it didn't clash with a certain trophy lift in Tallaght. Would have been nice to show the young lad Dalymount in all its 'glory' as even with away fans allowed I'd never bring him to the derby to stand in the death trap that is the Des Kelly Stand.

[total hoofball]

Is there any reason why FD play-off final is being played over one game at a neutral venue rather than over two legs?

Just bizarre both Bray & UCD have to wait it out almost two weeks with players being paid when you could have had a 1st leg on Friday and 2nd leg on 19th and both teams get more revenue from their home legs

[pineapple stu]

It was the same last year - Longford v Galway was in UCD.

It makes no sense though - and agree on your other point too

[pineapple stu]

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Colm Whelan's opener last night. Much the better side overall and deserved winners I think.

Final is in Inchicore next Friday. Have to feel we have a chance against Waterford given how close we came to knocking them out of the Cup only two months ago.

[D24Saint]

Didn’t know until now that the final is in Richmond. I’ll probably wander down to that.

[trevy]

I would have been confident a month ago that we'd win the play off if we ended up in it. I'm not so sure now. 3 points from last 5 games and no regular centre forward makes me a bit nervous. Colm Whelan is banging in the goals for UCD and of course used to play for Waterford underage so he could come back to haunt us.
We were lucky enough to beat UCD in the Cup game so will be a 50/50 game.

[Nesta99]

If you do happen to lose the play-off there is always the trawling over UCD player registrations for Plan B....

[John83]

Colm Whelan's opener last night. Much the better side overall and deserved winners I think.
A shot so good it knocks the camera into focus.

[SeanDrog]

A shot so good it knocks the camera into focus.

Has the venue been set for the last match - might actually pop along and support UCD :)

[John83]

It's in Inchicore, I understand.

[SeanDrog]

It's in Inchicore, I understand.

Oh nice - that’s very doable for a Drog - will be a fascinating match IMO

[D24Saint]

It's in Inchicore, I understand.

Fantastic choice. It will be a nice few pints to wet the appetite ahead of the cup final. Then a good game of ball to enjoy of course.

[pineapple stu]

Waterford appear to have sacked Bircham this morning.

Interesting timing

[sbgawa]

waterford appear to have sacked bircham this morning.

Interesting timing

gubu !!

[2 Year Contract]

Waterford appear to have sacked Bircham this morning.

Interesting timing

Only speculation on my part, but they did only name 4 subs on the bench last weekend and 2 of them were goalkeeers so maybe there was some sort of falling out with the squad?

[osarusan]

Still, surely you hold things together until after the playoff at least...so it must have been something fairly significant to earn an instant termination at this point.

[D24Saint]

https://m.independent.ie/sport/soccer/league-of-ireland/crisis-at-waterford-fc-as-manager-marc-bircham-is-sacked-before-fridays-promotionrelegation-playoff-41080359.html

Can’t sack a manager by text message, ludicrous.

[pineapple stu]

Reading between the lines it's a disciplinary issue of some sort alright. Nothing else really makes sense

There's probably fault on both sides - it's the LoI after all - but I'd say the club are probably the ones more in the right here.

Complete speculation on my part obviously

[osarusan]

Perhaps him tweeting about the 1-week suspension was what pushed things over the edge.

[Kiki Balboa]

Waterford trying to out do Dundalk/Peak6 as the 'banter' club in the league. From the outside Bircham did a good, and you would expect them to beat UCD. It must be some behavior issue, because sacking a manager before a playoff (and the third manager of the year? - I cant remember anymore).... its wild.

[pineapple stu]

Perhaps him tweeting about the 1-week suspension was what pushed things over the edge.
Possibly. You'd have to say that's a bit petty though. Like you say, beat us first and then sack him.

Their recent form's not been great - no wins in five, but in fairness they've only lost to Dundalk and Rovers in that. It's enough to win on Friday. Now we have to think we've a chance

[D24Saint]

He seemed a bit of a wild card sort but they should have left him in for the playoff. I don’t think text if the best form of communication for important matters. Things can be taken out of context and sometimes people us the wrong choice of words in text conversations. A face to face was the best option or a zoom call at worst.

[Longfordian]

Didn't he sign a new contract not too long ago? He seems a bit of a hot head you wouldn't know what he's done or said.

[sbgawa]

Youd wonder has he been approached by another club based on the good Press he has generated here and pushed for this.
Again complete speculation but the timing just seems so bizarre.

[D24Saint]

Are tickets available online for this ?

[pineapple stu]

They are (https://www.fai.ie/domestic/ucd-afc-ticket-sales).

(Seems to be separate links for UCD and Waterford fans - not sure about neutrals. Maybe ye have to commit to supporting one or other of us!)

[D24Saint]

They are (https://www.fai.ie/domestic/ucd-afc-ticket-sales).

(Seems to be separate links for UCD and Waterford fans - not sure about neutrals. Maybe ye have to commit to supporting one or other of us!)

Hopefully the regular Pats lads are doing security. Id like to sit in my regular spot or as close as.

[Jack B]

This league really does make it difficult to love it sometimes. What a mess.

[osarusan]

This league really does make it difficult to love it sometimes. What a mess.
One of those times when the near-complete absence of media publicity or outside interest is a benefit.

[D24Saint]

Do the tickets bought give an indication where to enter the ground. If the UCD ones said enter via the lane & Waterford via the arch etc it would give an indication what tickets to buy ?

[pineapple stu]

The link just says entrance for UCD is main entrance turnstiles 2.

Also when you buy the ticket it says -


We advise supporters to bring a printed copy of your tickets to the game as we cannot guarantee that it will be possible to scan tickets presented on a mobile device.

Welcome to the 21st century!

[D24Saint]

The link just says entrance for UCD is main entrance turnstiles 2.

Also when you buy the ticket it says -



Welcome to the 21st century!

Normally it works fine on a phone. I’ve my ST card for most league games but for the early return from covid games and cup games I worked off the phone most of the time.

[2 Year Contract]

Yeah that’s standard enough messaging on e-tickets as far as I know, it’s just to cover themselves in case someone shows up with a cracked screen or dimly lit phone that the scanner can’t read or whatever. Although to be honest even if that did happen you’d get in fine by showing them the email as proof that it’s your ticket

[joey B]

Complete headbangers just the 2 men involved here it seems, and another thing it seems Bircham is tweeting from England ,is it odd to anyone else that the fella is not in the country 3 days out from the biggest game of the season?

[John83]

...is it odd to anyone else that the fella is not in the country 3 days out from the biggest game of the season?
It's the LoI. It's odder when everything seems fine.

[2 Year Contract]

Complete headbangers just the 2 men involved here it seems, and another thing it seems Bircham is tweeting from England ,is it odd to anyone else that the fella is not in the country 3 days out from the biggest game of the season?

Noticed that myself, it’s likely he just jumped on the first flight to London this morning though after being told last night he wouldn’t be in charge on Friday

[Mr A]

I think that's a default, he also showed as in England when at the Aviva previously.

To be honest it seemed like things were starting to fray when he absolutely trashed his players after losing to Rovers a few weeks ago. Did not see this coming mind you.

[Mr A]

Bircham interview: https://twitter.com/damienwlr/status/1463120059073806337

[Nesta99]

Bircham going, Waterford forfeiting a match or fielding u19s? They may have gotten lucky. He worked on the edge in the past, seemed to be a calmer person now and possibly good coach but obviously still makes the odd silly choice.

[trevy]

Bircham was in England since the weekend apparently at a family occasion so that's a bit strange that he wasn't back by last night.
Terrible way to prepare for such a big game on Friday. It's a bizarre situation and the fans are bewildered. It's taken a lot of the buzz from the play off game.
I have seen some strange decisions by club owners at Waterford over the years but this tops it all.
Surely whatever issues were there between the owner and Bircham could have put aside for a week. Bircham is an outspoken character so I would not blame the owner completely either without knowing the whole story.

[trevy]

4 players suspended and some injured last week.
However there's a bit of truth in that as one player hasn't been picked for months after he fell out with Bircham even though we could do with a striker at the moment.
Bircham was also unhappy that some under 19 players weren't made available to first team squad last week so has been some tension between him and under 19 management as well.

[Nesta99]

Why would you not prioritise the 1st team and release u19s if needed. They are there for the benefit of the club to progress to senior level. Give that u19s coach a copy of Football Manager, might get him over his having to play a weakened underage side....that would be very much a wtf moment for coaches coming in to LoI never mind refs and FAIs.

[Longfordian]

There was a deleted post from their Academy social media page doing the rounds earlier, saying that the issue was that most players couldn't go to first team training during the day as they had school, college etc. This meant Bircham wouldn't include them in the squad.

[sulywaterfordfc]

Speculation Bircham and the academy director (Whom already has a bad representation- driven good quality local coaches away from the club in the past) had a bit of a word feud. Again god knows the true reason but Bircham publicly said after a game there’s trouble with getting 19s player released for the first team. And the recent academy statement released and soon after deleted. We’ve a very small squad and have been working with the same 14/15 pros for most of the season. One of whom the owners son who rarely got game time.

There’s huge angry among fans, there were strong belief among fans if we stayed up and Bircham honoured his contract he’d have been the makings of the club. I hadn’t seen such excitement around the club for a long time and we’ve been down the bottom all year. The owner has a Twitter account he actively uses, no doubt he’s inbox in through the roof. The owner will have a lot of making up to do with fans. Chances are we wouldn’t have had a hope of staying up had Bircham not come in. We were hopeless pre-Bircham! We just can’t seem to help ourselves from jumping from one with ****show to another regardless of owner... Feels like a proper kick in the balls. At the end of day just gotta get on with things you get use to this sh*t after a while. The most important thing now is to support the team in the play off.

[sulywaterfordfc]

Ian Hendon - former West Ham assistant manager and most recently manager of Europa Point in Gibraltar. Is set to take the reins at Waterford in a temporary basis. https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/soccer/arid-40751505.html

[Mr A]

I remember Boncho Genchev playing for Hendon way back in the early 2000s. Always thought it was a great name.

[Longfordian]

What's the point of bringing someone in at this stage? What will he contribute to a one off game not knowing anything about the players or the opposition?

[D24Saint]

Took a punt on the UCD section. It will be a good opportunity to get down to Inchicore before the cup final.