Games Weekend 24th to 26th September

[sbgawa]

Premier Division

Saturday 24th

Finn Harps v Bohemians 16:00

Monday 26th

Shamrock Rovers v UCD 20:00

First Division

Saturday 24th

Longford v Treaty 16:00

Sunday 25th

Bray v Waterford 15:00

[sbgawa]

Very little to play for in the First Division with the 4 playoff places as good as settled unless a Cork implosion allows Galway to sneak in.

Rovers match against UCD is a must win game to give us a 5 point gap over Derry.
Rovers look ragged and with plenty of injuried and a half fit Byrne and Burke forced to start against Shels anything is possible.
If we dont beat UCD i would make Derry favourites at this stage. Does Bradley have the balls to play the 19s in Europe and concentrate on the league?? Anything less than 3 points against UCD and that is what is needed.
Bohs season is over and Harps have something to play for, a point agaisnt Bohs would take them off the bottom on goal difference on Saturday evening.

[placid casual]

Bigger question is do derry have the balls to take advantage of Rovers sluggish form? Their away game against pats next Friday is massive, as pats are looking to secure Europe for themselves.
If Rovers drop more points against UCD and derry win in Inchicore then the pressure really is on Rovers to win up in Sligo.
2nd last game of the season is Rovers vs Derry in Tallaght, which could turn out to be a belter.

[Philosophizer]

Does Bradley have the balls to play the 19s in Europe and concentrate on the league??
I hope you're just referring to playing Emakhu and Tetteh in Europe, and not a whole team of 19s??

[sbgawa]

I hope you're just referring to playing Emakhu and Tetteh in Europe, and not a whole team of 19s??

Winning the league is all that counts to me.
There is no place in the trophy cabinet or roll of honour for "group stage participant" and with the Champions path in place Irish sides will be regular participants going forward.
I woud llitterally send the entire inder 19s team to play the european matches if we dont beat UCD.
So what of we lose those matches we need to retain the league , all that winning a match or two in Europe is is money and if it costs you the league its a massive false economy.

The squad is down , Pico, Hoare, Gannon, Power, Watts ..... half fit and showed it last night Jack and Burkey , Lyons is away wiht the 21's for the UCD match and matches every 3 or 4 days has even 100% lads like Gaffne and O Neill etc looking flahed..

[Philosophizer]

How would you feel if Rovers put out the 19s and got beat 10 or 15 nil?
It would probably incur a big uefa fine or some other disciplinary measure - fairly sure there's a rule that you must play your strongest team or something near it.
And what would it do to the psychology of those U19 players to be thrown to the wolves and hockeyed off the park a few times?
It would do massive reputational damage to the club.

[nigel-harps1954]

Shamrock Rovers have a first team squad of 29 players listed on their website.

They have more than enough players to be able to comfortably rotate their first team squad to compete in Europe and in the league. If they don't, it's their own fault for not signing a few more players when they knew they'd get group stage football.

[Jack B]

The idea of Rovers of all teams not having the squad to compete on more than one front is hilarious. There's been numerous games this season where they've brought 5 players off the bench of sufficient quality to be starting for the opposition week in week out.

[ger121]

If Rovers can’t beat UCD at home with a squad most other clubs could only dream of, even with injuries, then serious questions would need to be asked of Bradley. The cup is out of the way now, Europe is on a 3 week break and your two games in hand were/are in Dublin. No excuses left for not being 5 points clear (and a superior GD) with 18 points left to play for.

[joey B]

Hard to know what Bohs will show up,if it’s the wounded animal one we’ll lose ,hopefully it’s the one we’ve seen more often than not this season……

[ger121]

Hard to know what Bohs will show up,if it’s the wounded animal one we’ll lose ,hopefully it’s the one we’ve seen more often than not this season……

There’s a very strong chance you get the latter version.

[MichaelCherrito]

Rovers have to use a minimum number of A List players in their UCL matches.

A different scenario would be having Mannus & Pohls injured, in which case they might use B List keeper Leitis in the starting line-up against Molde.

[pineapple stu]

Rovers have to use a minimum number of A List players in their UCL matches.
Do they? I'm looking at the rules (because I'd never head of an "A List" player but it's effectively just the 25-man declared squad, while "B list" is effectively anyone coming through the club's underage setup, with a couple of restrictions) but I can't see anything that says how many List A players they have to use. Article 45 is the main item here (https://documents.uefa.com/r/Regulations-of-the-UEFA-Europa-Conference-League-2022/23/Article-45-Player-lists-Online).

Agree with the general sentiment that a squad as strong as Rovers' shouldn't be remotely worried about a home game against UCD about now.

[sbgawa]

Against Shels Rovers had 11 100% first team players on the pitch two of them were half fit at best. (Burke and Byrne)
On the bench the only players that would be considered first team players were Greene ,Towell (carrying a knock apparantly) and Chris McCann out for 4 or 5 weeks and has come back and played 60 mins a couple of times.
The squad has depth but not at the moment and you cant keep playing the same players over and over.

Re how would i feel about the 19's team losing 10 -0 i will feel a lot worse if we lose the league.
Im probably overdoing it a tad saying all the 19's but maybe 5 or 6 and then fill out the team with bench from last night.
I do expect us to beat UCD but with Derry coming to Tallaght in the second last match and 4 more european matches to be played if we dont beat UCD then serious action needs to be taken.

Re the general sentiment about Rovers squad being strong enough to play in Europe and the league that would be true if they were available but they arent hence my concern.

[placid casual]

If your looking for sympathy for Rovers plight sbgawa can I suggest your targeting the wrong audience..
Filling the ECL group games with U19's is a laughable suggestion. If Rovers beat UCD it will mean derry having to win all their games and Rovers losing twice to lose the title -im quietly confident that neither of those two things will happen. Relax man, it's grand.

[Loifan_76]

Do they? I'm looking at the rules (because I'd never head of an "A List" player but it's effectively just the 25-man declared squad, while "B list" is effectively anyone coming through the club's underage setup, with a couple of restrictions) but I can't see anything that says how many List A players they have to use. Article 45 is the main item here (https://documents.uefa.com/r/Regulations-of-the-UEFA-Europa-Conference-League-2022/23/Article-45-Player-lists-Online).

Agree with the general sentiment that a squad as strong as Rovers' shouldn't be remotely worried about a home game against UCD about now.

Particularly when we are missing Lonergan to the Ireland U19s. Not much chance of a goal against Rovers. Maybe Duffy will pot one in from a free kick, not sure we will get that far up the field though... Anything better than a 3-0 defeat will be a good result for UCD. Rovers will be grand.

[ontheotherhand]

Derry brought as much firepower off their bench as we did in the cup game..Our bench isn't what it was and our best player isn't what he was.

Get Hoare and Pico back and it starts looking good again but as of now we aren't in great shape. Missing Mandroiu a lot now.

No excuses for not beating UCD mind you. No offense to them obviously but we have enough even still.

[sbgawa]

If your looking for sympathy for Rovers plight sbgawa can I suggest your targeting the wrong audience..
Filling the ECL group games with U19's is a laughable suggestion. If Rovers beat UCD it will mean derry having to win all their games and Rovers losing twice to lose the title -im quietly confident that neither of those two things will happen. Relax man, it's grand.

I'm not expecting sympathy I'm only putting it out there about the state of the squad as I don't think people are aware of the number of injuries we have at the moment. I'll try to relax :)

[sbgawa]

If your looking for sympathy for Rovers plight sbgawa can I suggest your targeting the wrong audience..
Filling the ECL group games with U19's is a laughable suggestion. If Rovers beat UCD it will mean derry having to win all their games and Rovers losing twice to lose the title -im quietly confident that neither of those two things will happen. Relax man, it's grand.

I'm not expecting sympathy I'm only putting it out there about the state of the squad as I don't think people are aware of the number of injuries we have at the moment. I'll try to relax :)

[ger121]

I'm not expecting sympathy I'm only putting it out there about the state of the squad as I don't think people are aware of the number of injuries we have at the moment. I'll try to relax :)

Those two posts at 10:15 & 10:16 suggest you really do need to relax 😬

[The Bowler]

Bohs awful for 60 mins against Harps, who could have been 3 up before Bohs scored. Then Haros show just how fragile they are by turning to dust as soon as they conceded. I don't think whoever ends up in the playoffs from the 1st Division will be too worried about Harps or the students. Fancy the play off will be Waterford v UCD, as I can't see Harps picking up a single point now until they play UCD at home, that game likely to decide who finishes bottom

[joey B]

Bohs begging to lose and we still couldn’t,a shambles of a season and a squad ,I wish it ended yesterday….

[Jack B]

Saw bits and pieces of the game, must be unbelievably frustrating being a Harps fan if that's been indicative of their season because some of the wasteful play and general poor decision making from them was a crime at times.

[Dermobohs]

Bohs begging to lose and we still couldn’t,a shambles of a season and a squad ,I wish it ended yesterday….
Me too funny enough.
You?re welcome to any of our ?players? you want, tell Ollie I?ll drive them up anytime.👍

[joey B]

Me too funny enough.
You?re welcome to any of our ?players? you want, tell Ollie I?ll drive them up anytime.��

Don’t need anymore bad players,we have plenty already!!

[nigel-harps1954]

Saw bits and pieces of the game, must be unbelievably frustrating being a Harps fan if that's been indicative of their season because some of the wasteful play and general poor decision making from them was a crime at times.

Incredibly frustrating. Could have, and probably should have, scored at least two, if not three, in the first half alone.

It's disappointing that after a decade in charge that this is how it'll all end for Ollie Horgan at Harps.

[trevy]

Comfortable win for Waterford over Bray yesterday at the Carlisle Grounds. Bray didn't offer much and was a small crowd there of about 500 max. Taylor put Waterford ahead midway.Phoenix Patterson scored another great goal from a free kick. Bray had a chance to get back into it when they were given a penalty but Paul Martin saved it easily.

[Neish]

It's disappointing that after a decade in charge that this is how it'll all end for Ollie Horgan at Harps.

Agree, don't see Ollie staying on next year if we go down. Very frustrating that we seem to be going out with a whimper rather than a bang. We never had the most talented squad under Ollie tenure but had a core of players that fought hard and dug deep for the team & club. Which with that exception of perhaps 4 or 5 of the squad seems to be severely lacking this season

If we do manage to stay up this season it will be largely due to luck rather than that hard work & determination that got us promoted and get us there in past seasons

[nigel-harps1954]

Agree, don't see Ollie staying on next year if we go down. Very frustrating that we seem to be going out with a whimper rather than a bang. We never had the most talented squad under Ollie tenure but had a core of players that fought hard and dug deep for the team & club. Which with that exception of perhaps 4 or 5 of the squad seems to be severely lacking this season

If we do manage to stay up this season it will be largely due to luck rather than that hard work & determination that got us promoted and get us there in past seasons

I mostly blame Gavin Dykes, but it is what it is.

[Dermobohs]

Bastion Hery. Signing that lazy fraud of a footballer was the beginning of the end for Keith long, same for Ollie. Bleedin jinx.

[joey B]

Bastion Hery. Signing that lazy fraud of a footballer was the beginning of the end for Keith long, same for Ollie. Bleedin jinx.

Total conman ,hopefully Galway are the last team to pay him….

[joey B]

UCD holding their own against Rover’s,Rovers ahead but will want a second to make it more comfortable….

[Calcio Jack]

UCD holding their own against Rover?s,Rovers ahead but will want a second to make it more comfortable?.

Rovers missed countless chances , then stupid errors from Burke and Grace ( last minute) almost let UCD in ?. UCD never gave up and can?t believe they were hammered 4-1 only last week?. Guess that the problem Rovers farce week after week as teams raise their against us but can?t perform to that level constantly?. Anyway 5 point cushion so we?re looking good but plenty of work still to do

Ps great that we?re at last seeing the real player we knew Farrugia could be when we signed him

[placid casual]

If Rovers has a striker we'd be dangerous. As it is, with Jack Byrne in the team we are ultra predictable and fairly easy to play against. Sideways, sideways, sideways. shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. repeat ad nauseam.
Rovers are going to drop a hell of a lot more points before seasons end so the league is far from done and dusted.

[Neish]

I mostly blame Gavin Dykes, but it is what it is.

Could be who we end up with if Ollie goes :(

[sbgawa]

If Rovers has a striker we'd be dangerous. As it is, with Jack Byrne in the team we are ultra predictable and fairly easy to play against. Sideways, sideways, sideways. shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. repeat ad nauseam.
Rovers are going to drop a hell of a lot more points before seasons end so the league is far from done and dusted.

Think your a bit harsh on Jack there PC.
I felt he was looking a bit like himself last night and going past people as opposed to just spraying the ball around , hence he had a few shots which he hasnt been doing lately after creating space for himself.
Hopefully he is running into a bit of form

[TonyD]

Bastion Hery. Signing that lazy fraud of a footballer was the beginning of the end for Keith long, same for Ollie. Bleedin jinx.

And to think, it was seen as quite the coup at the time for Bohs to snatch him from under Pats nose. Funny how things work out !

[Dermobohs]

And to think, it was seen as quite the coup at the time for Bohs to snatch him from under Pats nose. Funny how things work out !
Be careful what you wish for, the lesson there!!

[sadloserkid]

Loved the man at Limerick. However many club's midfields he's disinterestedly strolled about since then there was half a season or so when he looked an absolute hero. 😁

[nigel-harps1954]

Could be who we end up with if Ollie goes :(

There's about as much chance of me getting the job as Gavin Dykes.