Games Weekend Friday 15th to Monday 18th April

[Knocklyonhoop]

Big weekend for Rovers.

league looking like it could quickly develop into a top two, a bottom two and the rest bunched together sub groups

[ciaraa]

Well Wow, that was unexpected. Derry droping 5 points to Shels and Drogs and Rovers getting maximum 6 points against Pats and Dundalk
Some weekend for the Hoops

unbelievable stuff. beating a legendary gundalk team and a tim clancy crack pats outfit. some weekend alright. amazing stuff.

[sbgawa]

Dundalk and pats compared to shels and drogs is clearly a tougher ask., so yes it was a good weekend, tx.

Any opinion on Derry?

[placid casual]

Very composed, controlled win by the Champions. Dundalk were dire, although clearly missing their most effective players. Fatso Gartland got some sage employment advice from the Rovers crowd which he should probably heed.
As expected Derry don't look up to the challenge but I guess it's still early enough.
Danny was brilliant fir us tonight as was Aidomo when he came on. Hopefully both have a part to play on Friday against bohs.

[total hoofball]

That Shels defensive performance really was the stuff of nightmares that I've had a terrible sleep last night. All four goals were an embarrassing shambles Bohs and Keith Long must feel like they won the lottery with the pressure they had been under coming into that game. It's absolutely mental that same Shels team pulled off a win away to the league leaders in the Brandywell only 3 days earlier.

[Glen Of Aherlow]

Forget about Tunde starting games for us , he's just about worth bringing on for the last ten or fifteen minutes when the opposition is getting tired

[SeanDrog]

Any opinion on Derry?

On another night Derry could have won but Drogs were very dogged. Derry came out of the traps slow enough vs their 2nd half efforts. They did get very frustrated and began complaining constantly to the ref and linemen in the second half and I suppose that’s the bit that differentiated them for me vs shamrock rovers - rovers have a better attitude (when we play them at least).

There was a hint of a superiority complex from Derry and Higgins post match interview gives the same impression to me - little respect for Shels or Drogs.

[D24Saint]

Forget about Tunde starting games for us , he's just about worth bringing on for the last ten or fifteen minutes when the opposition is getting tired

It’s starting to pan out that way. He is full of energy so let him run at the opposition in the last few minutes of a game from the bench.

[TonyD]

Forget about Tunde starting games for us , he's just about worth bringing on for the last ten or fifteen minutes when the opposition is getting tired

He’s definitely not suited to a game where we have the bulk of possession and we trying to break teams down. He’s more suited to an end to end game, or where we’re counter attacking. He has pace and can be a handful, but I think we saw his limitations today.

[TonyD]

Just talking to them and they said they figured it was outside the box watching the replay.

Them's the breaks at the bottom though

It wasn’t though (outside the box that is) Contact was clearly inside. Whether it warranted a peno is another question. Not sure it did, but in games like that you’re thankful for any lucky breaks.

[pineapple stu]

Fairy nuff. Like I say, I'd like another look at it (mainly because I thought it was soft; it didn't occur to me it could have been outside the area), but as Jack B was making the point of the commentators, I said I'd throw in that they were looking at the replay. Maybe not very well!

Other thing to note (which I missed as I was trying to beat the shop queue) was that Seán Brennan could have been sent off in first half injury time. Already on a yellow and seemed to go in with a heavy challenge. Didn't come out for the second half and that's maybe a small admission of guilt in itself! So possibly those two balance each other out.

But in general thought we played much better than Friday (even with all the changes) and the pitch was much better than previous weeks too, if still quite patchy in places, and that'll help us. Harps seem to be muck, so while we're cut away from safety, the play-off is still there, and that then is a one-off tie where anything can happen.

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

Yeah was one you wouldn’t see too often where the contact was in the penalty area and the player ended up falling outside the area

[pineapple stu]

Speaking of dodgy penalties, I see the highlights from UCD v Drogheda on Friday are up. The penalty is at 0:50. But is it handball? Is it deliberate? Is it even in the box?

FD1wzy44TD8

[SeanDrog]

Speaking of dodgy penalties, I see the highlights from UCD v Drogheda on Friday are up. The penalty is at 0:50. But is it handball? Is it deliberate? Is it even in the box?

FD1wzy44TD8

Clear as mud.

[pineapple stu]

I will be honest - my first impression too. :)

But sure tis something to talk about until the next one

[nigel-harps1954]

He’s definitely not suited to a game where we have the bulk of possession and we trying to break teams down. He’s more suited to an end to end game, or where we’re counter attacking. He has pace and can be a handful, but I think we saw his limitations today.

Same thing Harps fans would have told you. Incredible pace, super finisher, but suspect on the ball. If you're looking for someone to play on the shoulder, he's your man. He'll bag 15 goals in that role. But if you're looking for someone to hold the ball up, bring others into play, and control the game, you may forget about it.

[2 Year Contract]

Yeah was one you wouldn’t see too often where the contact was in the penalty area and the player ended up falling outside the area

As a fan there’s nothing more frustrating than seeing your team give that sort of peno away.

In this case as mentioned it was just inside and a pretty soft foul but from the defenders point of view he should never even be giving the ref that sort of decision to make when McCormack is heading back out of the box

[mackend6]

Drogheda Derry Highlights - nice goal from Derry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02Ds09CfE8s

[El-Pietro]

Wasn't in Waterford yesterday but very happy with the result. The draw with Bray feels like a real missed opportunity, but we didn't really deserve to win it. We were poor throughout and made what felt like a million unforced errors with our passing. The first division title seems like a three horse race now between City, Galway and Longford.
Super excited for the game in Cobh on Friday. Should be a huge crowd down from the city for it, our first real trip to Cobh since 2008. We drew both games down there that season I think.

[TonyD]

Same thing Harps fans would have told you. Incredible pace, super finisher, but suspect on the ball. If you're looking for someone to play on the shoulder, he's your man. He'll bag 15 goals in that role. But if you're looking for someone to hold the ball up, bring others into play, and control the game, you may forget about it.

Yeah, agree. Some Pats fans have a bit of a downer on him at this stage, I think he could be effective in certain circumstances. Yesterday wasn’t the game to start him though.

[oriel]

Rovers full value for the 1 nil, Dundalk came for a point with Hoooooban and McMillan on the bench but i always felt it was just a matter of time before the goal came as its hard to defend for 90 minutes
Beautiful through pass from Jack which Danny was able to tuck away with his first touch
Rovers starting to look very solid at the back again and Jack was picking out some nice passes, hopefullly he is coming into form.

DFC were just dreadful last night, I've watched every game this season and that's as poor as its been, the other was the 0-1 loss to Drogs. Benson injured, and for some reason SOD had Hoban and McMillan on the bench meant we would be up against it right from the start, turned out to be a complete mis-match of talent, MF totally dominated by Rovers.

We are 5th on merit but the season won't be defined by a loss to Rovers, I expected nothing last night, but more our cup of tea will be good chance to try and get 2 wins on the trot at home to Shels and Drogs next 2 weeks.

That said we hardly even tried last night, Rovers wouldn't have been flattered with 2 or 3-0, anyway only one more trip there this season, the days of dominating in Tallaght seems a long way away now, think last win was June 2019, but what a brilliant result that was a late 1-0 win scored by Gannon, really put us in pole position to go on and win that seasons league.

Rovers have options all over the park and will be hard to stop for 3 in a row.

[Martinho II]

Wasn't in Waterford yesterday but very happy with the result. The draw with Bray feels like a real missed opportunity, but we didn't really deserve to win it. We were poor throughout and made what felt like a million unforced errors with our passing. The first division title seems like a three horse race now between City, Galway and Longford.
Super excited for the game in Cobh on Friday. Should be a huge crowd down from the city for it, our first real trip to Cobh since 2008. We drew both games down there that season I think.

Is it really that long El Pietro since Cobh and Cork met in the league?

[Longfordian]

First time with crowds. They played last year.