Games weekend 3rd to 7th May 2024

[sbgawa]

Premier Division

Friday 3rd (All 19:45)


St Past v Drogheda
Sligo v Waterford
Dundalk v Shelbourne
Bohemians v Shamrock Rovers
Galway v Derry

Monday 7th

Drogheda v Dundalk 13:00
Bohemians v Galway 17:00
Sligo v St Pats 17:00
Shamrock Rovers v Waterford 17:00
Derry v Shelbourne 19:45

First Division

Friday 3rd (All 19:45)

Wexford v Athlone
UCD V Longford
Kerry v Cork
Finn Harps v Treaty
Cobh V Bray

Monday 7th (All 17:00)

UCD V Cobh
Treaty v Athlone
Longford v Kerry
Cork v Wexford
Bray v Finn Harps

[Knocklyonhoop]

Worried about tonight. 1 point from 3 away Dublin derbies so far but would be some time to change that and what should be an ok fixture on Monday.

also great to have 3 different start times on Monday. Go to one and watch two

[sbgawa]

Would take a point tonight in Dalymount as it moves us on and i think once we hang around near the top we will push on when we get bodies back.
Galway have been poor at home and maybe tonight is when they show up at home.

Drogs v Dundalk Monday is a huge match for momentum for either side.
Derry v Shels Monday will be interesting nd i fancy Duffer to get a result.
Be good to see UCD pick up 6 points an try to close the gap on Cork but hard to see Cork droping points in Kerry, maybe wexfors have a shout

[Buckett]

We beat the league leaders in our last home game! We're missing a few tonight though so I'd expect a Derry win.
Rovers, with their ridiculous injury list, have got into a great position, but a tricky one for them tonight.

[Shearer]

Eleven players absent for Treaty tonight. Doesn't bode well.

[Calcio Jack]

We beat the league leaders in our last home game! We're missing a few tonight though so I'd expect a Derry win.
Rovers, with their ridiculous injury list, have got into a great position, but a tricky one for them tonight.

Byrne, Farrugia and Poom on the Rovers bench … injury tide starting to turn in our favour

[The Bowler]

That plank of a commentator at UCD says 'considering its a Bank Holiday weekend, the crowd isn't too bad'. I froze the screen, and counted 91 people at the game. A low bar indeed.

[ger121]

That plank of a commentator at UCD says 'considering it’s a Bank Holiday weekend, the crowd isn't too bad'. I froze the screen, and counted 91 people at the game. A low bar indeed.

Hope you didn’t do accounting in UCD. Must be over 200 in that stand.

[Nesta99]

Keep on winning the fine margins! 4 points against the top 2 on the evening. Louth Derby might actually mean something for a change this weekend!

[NeverFeltBetter]

Hard to know about Treaty. Absolutely dreadful run of form, the team looks really limited after that initial optimism at the start of the season. Easy to say sack Barrett who, including Limerick FC's last year's, has had a lengthy run, but don't know if anyone else would do better with the resources that are there.

[sbgawa]

take that , deserved the 3 points but 1 is ok. bohs poor considerinf at home, great to see |Jack and farrugia back.
easy win with them on from the start

[ger121]

Yup take a point from that one. Not at the races in the 2nd half so good to get something out of the game.

[Shinkicker]

Bohs V Rovers 1-1, really good first half from Bohs probably should have had a penalty. Rovers were the better team in the second but Bohs dug deep, defended well as a team and fully deserved the point. Rovers struggled to deal with the Bohs polish striker. I'd like to see more of him.

[Calcio Jack]

take that , deserved the 3 points but 1 is ok. bohs poor considerinf at home, great to see |Jack and farrugia back.
easy win with them on from the start

We deserved to win but as you say overall happy with that especially with the two ( best players in the league according to the Bohs commentators) making their return. Only downside is again Dan Cleary’s performance , every game this season he seems to be out of control and a stupid red card waiting to happen. With luck will be top by Monday evening and will then push on to win league by approx 10 points

[Shearer]

Hard to know about Treaty. Absolutely dreadful run of form, the team looks really limited after that initial optimism at the start of the season. Easy to say sack Barrett who, including Limerick FC's last year's, has had a lengthy run, but don't know if anyone else would do better with the resources that are there.
I think a good start is clouding people's view of this team. It was a bad squad before a ball was kicked (and there were plenty of people saying it), they overachieved and rode their luck at times in the first half dozen games.

Littered with injuries now certainly isn't helping, but at least people can't complain that local players aren't being used - another Limerick debutant tonight.

We didn't offer much tonight but we're playing for a 0-0 and gambling every now and again, not much you can do with no striker.

All the above doesn't make it any less depressing though

[placid casual]

Watched the game on the stream.
Same situation as the galway game - A technically limited opposition have 1 chance on target,take it,and Rovers can't convert the total domination of possession in the 2nd half into goals. Honohan, Nugent & Greener were massively impressive I have to say.
Onto waterford at home on Monday.

[joey B]

Fairly dreadful game at Finn park,Treaty didn’t offer much and almost got the point they came for,we’re really solid at the back but going forward is a big issue for us and will need to improve if we want to stay up towards the top end….

[Kiki Balboa]

1st place Shels traveled away to last place Dundalk, and set up for a draw. Says a lot about the league and why no one has challenged Rovers over the last couple of years.

Dundalk much the better side, but ran out of steam completely in the last 10, which is worrying for the Monday.

[Nesta99]

1st place Shels traveled away to last place Dundalk, and set up for a draw. Says a lot about the league and why no one has challenged Rovers over the last couple of years.

Dundalk much the better side, but ran out of steam completely in the last 10, which is worrying for the Monday.

We just have to make the first 85mins count!

We may be missing High, Benson took a right wallop to the head that he shook off too quickly, Oostenbrink limped off for what many thought was a 'tactical' injury, Gullan was cramping up too. The softer smaller pitch in United Park may actually suit for a change.

[brendy_éire]

Another fairly drab Galway-Derry game tonight.
I think we'd one (poor) shot on target. Galway had one decent shot on, and also hit the bar.
That was basically it.

Let's getting all conspiracy theory-ish; we've now gone 10 games without a win when Rob Hennessey has been in charge.

[TonyD]

Nervy enough win for Pats at home to Drogheda. We were ok, but not great. Most of our chances in the second half came on the break I think. But at least we created a few chances. One great chance for Drogheda with a header (think it was from a free kick) and a few balls bobbling around in our box. Felt we missed Joe Redmond and Jamie Lennon. Still, a wins a win, especially after the last few weeks.

[D24Saint]

Dreadful standard of football in Richmond tonight. It was a really poor game with lots of errors and poor finishing. It was a much needed win but not getting overly excited by it tbh.

[2 Year Contract]

Thought pats played well first half but Drogheda seemed to be set up to play for a 0-0 and defended equally as well up until a lovely goal by Keating just before halftime ruined that plan. Second half when Doherty allowed men to cross the halfway line they created some decent chances among bits of pinball in the pats box. Kavanagh and Forrrester missed great chances from point blank range to kill the game off which lead to more late pressure from Drogheda but pats managed to hold out. A big improvement on the performance in Tolka but that wasn’t hard given how bad last week was. As mentioned Redmond and Lennon were a big loss in protecting pats defensive third but at least Lennon is back from suspension now

[2 Year Contract]

7th assist of the season for Brandon Kavanagh tonight in 14 appearances. Really impressive record considering the highest in the entire league season last year was 10

[oriel]

Happy with that point tonight, it was a fair old battle, Dundalk def better side in first half, Shels went for it last 10, and got hold of the MF, but our defence stood firm. That's 5 clean sheets in a row now at home, only one win mind, but its gradually improving. A win on Mon and first chance in months to get off the bottom.

Shels very well organised all over the park, but then again so were we at the back, it certainly didn't look like a top v bottom contest, that's for sure, but overall a draw was a fair result.

[The Bowler]

Hope you didn’t do accounting in UCD. Must be over 200 in that stand.

Did you count them. I counted them. And yes, I did a B Com in UCD, and there were 91 people so if you want lay me an even 50 euro, I'll send you a screen grab and happy to give you decent odds that I'm within ten and you aren't within 50. Fair bet yeah ?

[outspoken]

Was in Oriel, my God Shels must be one of the most boring sides of all time. Turgid football. Says a lot about the standard of the league currently

[nigel-harps1954]

While the fare on show in Finn Park wasn't exactly a classic, any poor performance by either football team was well outdone by a truly dreadful refereeing performance. If the standard of football is bad, the referee was really out to set the bar for utter shyte standards sets.

Treaty had one shot, none on target.

Harps created a bagful of chances and barely scored one goal.

Needs to be a massive improvement but at least we're in third with a couple of fairly winnable games in Bray and Longford over the coming week.

[Bunny Kelly]

Wexford blew a 2 goal lead for the 4th time in 6 games. The keeper was shocking for the equaliser but to solely blame him is missing the point, they give up so many chances

[ger121]

Did you count them. I counted them. And yes, I did a B Com in UCD, and there were 91 people so if you want lay me an even 50 euro, I'll send you a screen grab and happy to give you decent odds that I'm within ten and you aren't within 50. Fair bet yeah ?

I did go on and count them and based on the attendance of 252 I reckon I did a better job of it than you did. You keep your €50 coz based on your grasp of numbers you probably meant €5.

[total hoofball]

Happy enough with the point for Shels because we were pretty awful tonight the players clearly struggle on that artificial pitch, only positive for us was Shane Farrell who was bright after coming off the bench maybe Duff's comments done something positive

Whatever you think about the longevity of King's unexpected appointment at Oriel he has that Dundalk team working very hard and mobilised they're just blunt in the final third missing a certain Pat Hoban which reflects in their goals scored so far this season

I think that Oriel artificial surface has got even worse this season, hard watch as usual but some of the random trampolining of the ball into the air was the craziest I have seen there

[Shearer]

Wexford blew a 2 goal lead for the 4th time in 6 games. The keeper was shocking for the equaliser but to solely blame him is missing the point, they give up so many chances
Mason gave away two goals across the last two meetings with Longford too, time for a change maybe.

It's crazy the amount of goals Wexford ship, could and should be well up there with Cork City otherwise.

[oriel]

Happy enough with the point for Shels because we were pretty awful tonight the players clearly struggle on that artificial pitch, only positive for us was Shane Farrell who was bright after coming off the bench maybe Duff's comments done something positive

Whatever you think about the longevity of King's unexpected appointment at Oriel he has that Dundalk team working very hard and mobilised they're just blunt in the final third missing a certain Pat Hoban which reflects in their goals scored so far this season

I think that Oriel artificial surface has got even worse this season, hard watch as usual but some of the random trampolining of the ball into the air was the craziest I have seen there

Its in its final year, new surface going down next pre season, I'd have grass myself, but I`m not the one calling the shots or paying the bills.

Always amazes me how little criticism Brandywell pitch gets compared to Oriel, I actually think its worse, Shels are there on Monday.

[Yossarian]

Happy enough with the point for Shels because we were pretty awful tonight the players clearly struggle on that artificial pitch, only positive for us was Shane Farrell who was bright after coming off the bench maybe Duff's comments done something positive

Whatever you think about the longevity of King's unexpected appointment at Oriel he has that Dundalk team working very hard and mobilised they're just blunt in the final third missing a certain Pat Hoban which reflects in their goals scored so far this season

I think that Oriel artificial surface has got even worse this season, hard watch as usual but some of the random trampolining of the ball into the air was the craziest I have seen there

Interesting that you blame the pitch for Shels performance tonight, much as I don’t want to bring it up, but a poor Sligo managed fine on it a few weeks ago.
Dundalk probably should’ve won tonight but we lack a cutting edge. Shels got the point they came for so Duff should be happy. Shels are a very organised side who seem to carry out their instructions well, though there is a lot of meaningless passing around the back, but I felt we should have won had a lot more chances though most of our shots were straight at the keeper.
If we take our chances I think we’ll be ok but whether that happens or not is the big question.

[kksaints]

We were just about the better side tonight although Drogs did have plenty of chances to equalise in the 2nd half because of our inability to defend setpieces. We had two really good chances on the counter and a good penalty shot turned down which would have made it more comfortable. We were in control 1st half and deserved our lead. Keating had his best game so far for us and Forrester was better than he had been this season albeit still off his best somewhat. Kavanagh has some number of assists so far but his positioning or lack of is problematic. Cann looks a good player for Drogs and Pierrot did cause issues at times with his physicality.

[WoodquayBoy]

Lads, Rob Hennessy reffed a game and there were no bookings! Galway United and their notoriously indisciplined bench, annd Rob Hennessy reffing. And not a single booking! Madness

[ToberonaTornado]

Its in its final year, new surface going down next pre season, I'd have grass myself, but I`m not the one calling the shots or paying the bills.

Always amazes me how little criticism Brandywell pitch gets compared to Oriel, I actually think its worse, Shels are there on Monday.

And hardly any room from Shels fans to be calling out dundalks poor pitch(it is a poor pitch) or using it as an excuse for a mediocre draw while their own (grass)pitch is is bits ffs!
Drawe, fair result although we should have won and need a striker to turn 1 point into 3 points . Hope Ainscough has a few Bob left in the kitty. Noticed he was at op tonight

[trevy]

Only 4 goals scored in in the 5 Premier games tonight. Will fans keep coming out in big numbers to see games like these? Are coaches being conservative or is it a lack of attacking quality?

[Kiki Balboa]

Happy enough with the point for Shels because we were pretty awful tonight the players clearly struggle on that artificial pitch, only positive for us was Shane Farrell who was bright after coming off the bench maybe Duff's comments done something positive

Whatever you think about the longevity of King's unexpected appointment at Oriel he has that Dundalk team working very hard and mobilised they're just blunt in the final third missing a certain Pat Hoban which reflects in their goals scored so far this season

I think that Oriel artificial surface has got even worse this season, hard watch as usual but some of the random trampolining of the ball into the air was the craziest I have seen there

So weird to blame Oriels pitch with the absolute state that Tolka Park is in. Pitch played much better than the sticky and bumpy mess in the reverse fixture.

Shels tactic was to bore everyone to death last night.

League is there to be challenged for, yet clubs like Shelbourne just don't have the balls for it.

Hard to think it was first place against last in that game.

[Jd2793]

Only 4 goals scored in in the 5 Premier games tonight. Will fans keep coming out in big numbers to see games like these? Are coaches being conservative or is it a lack of attacking quality?

personally think its both

[total hoofball]

Hilarious that my comment about Shels struggling on the Oriel surface is being twisted = Shels fan BLAMING the pitch for OUR poor performance

So some facts lads 5 league games under Duff at Oriel and 0 wins for Shels (I'm not including that LSC 0-4 win in 2023) = the blame on that performance is on that team and Duff, apparently they trained all week on an artificial surface in an attempt to adapt but it didn't do anything last night. We haven't played well at the Brandywell either but it's a bit better surface than Oriel and we have got better results there. I look forward to seeing how bad the Brandywell currently is on Monday if I was a betting man 0-0 with another conservative hard to watch defensive performance from Shels

Very bizarre in a league riddled with dogsh.!t pitches this season including Tolka that some fans get upset over criticism of their beloved bouncy plastic grass



Happy enough with the point for Shels because we were pretty awful tonight the players clearly struggle on that artificial pitch

[ontheotherhand]

The teams are closer in terms of strength and organisation than they've been in a long time. I don't think it's a bad thing that we are seeing such tight contests to be honest.

[thebronze14]

While the fare on show in Finn Park wasn't exactly a classic, any poor performance by either football team was well outdone by a truly dreadful refereeing performance. If the standard of football is bad, the referee was really out to set the bar for utter shyte standards sets.

Treaty had one shot, none on target.

Harps created a bagful of chances and barely scored one goal.

Needs to be a massive improvement but at least we're in third with a couple of fairly winnable games in Bray and Longford over the coming week.

I go into every game this season believing we can win, home or away. I also go in believing we can lose to anyone home or away and not surprised if we do. All teams are much of a muchness. We are pretty solid through the team but rubbish going forward. Our solidness is enough this season to be around the playoffs thankfully

[Nesta99]

Hilarious that my comment about Shels struggling on the Oriel surface is being twisted = Shels fan BLAMING the pitch for OUR poor performance

So some facts lads 5 league games under Duff at Oriel and 0 wins for Shels (I'm not including that LSC 0-4 win in 2023) = the blame on that performance is on that team and Duff, apparently they trained all week on an artificial surface in an attempt to adapt but it didn't do anything last night. We haven't played well at the Brandywell either but it's a bit better surface than Oriel and we have got better results there. I look forward to seeing how bad the Brandywell currently is on Monday if I was a betting man 0-0 with another conservative hard to watch defensive performance from Shels

Very bizarre in a league riddled with dogsh.!t pitches this season including Tolka that some fans get upset over criticism of their beloved bouncy plastic grass

Be honest though, you were blaming the pitch really, just dressed up nicely as a 'struggle' with the pitch!

If Shels were coming from a superb grass pitch, played the ball exclusively on the deck and then had to adapt to any other surface then maybe there is validity to the agrument. But having to cope with a mucky, badly scarred pitch regularly at home, it could be argued that that is the cause of not coping with a faster surface away. Its not fans being upset by criticism of a pitch in a leage of dogsh.!t pitches, it is reaction to someone talking dogsh.!t

[pineapple stu]

any poor performance by either football team was well outdone by a truly dreadful refereeing performance. If the standard of football is bad, the referee was really out to set the bar for utter shyte standards sets.
It wouldn't be a weekly match thread without Nigel giving out yards about the referees!

Not much going on in the Bowl last night to be fair. UCD the better side generally but lacked a bit of guile up front (on a still bumpy pitch). Can't reflect well on the First that we're nine games unbeaten now. Finn still to come back too, so a playoff final is a very real possibility even at this early stage of the season

[sbgawa]

Is Finn far away from coming back?

[oriel]

Hilarious that my comment about Shels struggling on the Oriel surface is being twisted = Shels fan BLAMING the pitch for OUR poor performance

So some facts lads 5 league games under Duff at Oriel and 0 wins for Shels (I'm not including that LSC 0-4 win in 2023) = the blame on that performance is on that team and Duff, apparently they trained all week on an artificial surface in an attempt to adapt but it didn't do anything last night. We haven't played well at the Brandywell either but it's a bit better surface than Oriel and we have got better results there. I look forward to seeing how bad the Brandywell currently is on Monday if I was a betting man 0-0 with another conservative hard to watch defensive performance from Shels

Very bizarre in a league riddled with dogsh.!t pitches this season including Tolka that some fans get upset over criticism of their beloved bouncy plastic grass


I'm not a fan of these pitches, and I always say I'd prefer grass, but a decent artificial can be better than a poor grass pitch, but the above point Brandywell better than Oriel, that's just nuts, its almost a dangerous surface plus they have another league team playing there every second week too (Institute), that said i'll be glad to see the back of our current one this season.

Good luck on Monday !

[joey B]

It wouldn't be a weekly match thread without Nigel giving out yards about the referees!

Not much going on in the Bowl last night to be fair. UCD the better side generally but lacked a bit of guile up front (on a still bumpy pitch). Can't reflect well on the First that we're nine games unbeaten now. Finn still to come back too, so a playoff final is a very real possibility even at this early stage of the season

Is O’Connor an upgrade on Meyler do you reckon Stu?

[pineapple stu]

Is Finn far away from coming back?
Supposed to be back this month.

[pineapple stu]

Is O’Connor an upgrade on Meyler do you reckon Stu?
Don't really know. There was talk last night that we're doing really well given the players we lost in pre-season and how badly last season went. I think with a young part-time squad though, the Premier can go badly wrong and that's what happened last year. That we're up near the top is probably more a reflection of the gulf between the two divisions than anything else.

Was a bit worried after losing three of the first four, but we're motoring along nicely now without really playing great. Our best performance may have been the defeat in Cork