Games weekend 14th to 16th Feb 2025

[sbgawa]

Premier Division

Friday 14th (all 19:45)

Cork v Galway
St Pats v Drogheda
Shelbourne v Derry

Saturday 15th

Sligo v Waterford (19:45)

Sunday 16th

Bohemians v Shamrock Rovers (14:00)


First Division

Friday 14th (All 19:45)

Dundalk v Athlone
Kerry v Finn Harps
Treaty v Cobh
UCD v Wexford

Saturday 15th

Longford v Bray (19:30)

[sbgawa]

And off we go again ;)
Some interesting match ups early, Shels v Derry will be an early indicator of if Derry have grown a pair over the break or are going to be nearly men again.
Run away favourites and Champions elect Pats get an early chance to show their credentials against a Drogs that looked abysmal in the Preseidents cup.
Bohs v Rovers loses a bit of edge as its a real sideshow now to the second leg in Europe but youd have to think Bradley while resting some wont want to lose in front of a big crowd in the Aviva.
Dundalk v Athlone in first division gives Dundalk an early chance to stamp their authority on a division where Athlone are tipped by many

Great to be back

[oriel]

Premier Division

Friday 14th (all 19:45)

Cork v Galway
St Pats v Drogheda
Shelbourne v Derry

Saturday 15th

Sligo v Waterford (19:45)

Sunday 16th

Bohemians v Shamrock Rovers (14:00)


First Division

Friday 14th (All 19:45)

Dundalk v Athlone
Kerry v Finn Harps
Treaty v Cobh
UCD v Wexford

Saturday 15th

Longford v Bray (19:30)

Fair play SB, always good to see your fixture list as its so clearly outlined !!

Happy New Season Everyone and be with the one you really love tonight during 19.45 - 21.35.

[total hoofball]

Looking forward to the first game of Shels's title defence Tolka should be bouncing and looking forward to complaining about crap LOI referees on here once again as you always know some things just won't ever change!

[LTFC]

Really looking forward to the new season, although I know we have a long hard season ahead of us.

In the first this weekend Dundalk to get the better of Athlone, Kerry to start with a win, draw in Limerick, UCD to win and draw in Bishopsgate tomorrow.

[ger121]

And so it begins…Hope everyone heading to see their team play, or watching them on tv/LOI tv, has an enjoyable night. It’s good to be back.

[Another Bohemia]

Is it just me or is the Shels game not available to stream on the virgin media android app? I'm getting programme not available?

[sbgawa]

Is it just me or is the Shels game not available to stream on the virgin media android app? I'm getting programme not available?

It's an anti bohs thing i reckon

[Straightstory]

LOI TV not working at all. App is buffering and full of 'error' messages. Can't access it on any device. What a disaster. Total amateurs.

[The Bowler]

The state of the pitch at Tolka on match day 1

[sbgawa]

And Derry do what derry do

Whoops.....brand new derry

Edit 2.....no I was right old derry

[sessylU]

Anyone else missed the first 15 minutes of the season because of LOI TV? Having wile bother.

[wonder88]

Paid for my LoI tv renewal today and as stated above it is not working. Poor from the new FAI. Thankfully there is a game on tv to watch.

[redarmyfaction]

Delayed KO @Cork?

[Another Bohemia]

It's an anti bohs thing i reckon

It's a conspiracy I tells ya! Thankfully I had a VPN and was able to get it on the LOI TV app. That is also full of flaws.

On the actual game I don't think I've seen a defender as bad as your man Sam Todd. He was at fault for both goals unless I'm mistaken.

[placid casual]

Just tuned in to see derry equalise and shels go down the other end and score.
Decent enough game on what is frankly an embarrassment of a playing surface,but maybe that suits the shels kick and rush game ;)

[RealJohn91]

On the actual game I don't think I've seen a defender as bad as your man Sam Todd. He was at fault for both goals unless I'm mistaken.
Gives away the peno too, he's shocking.

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

Delayed KO @Cork?

No kicked off on time

[Dermobohs]

Shels putting **** all money into their ground despite owners with deep pockets can’t get their ground ready for game 1.
Jokers.

[Buckett]

Everything about this league is a shambles

[RealJohn91]

Shels putting **** all money into their ground despite owners with deep pockets can’t get their ground ready for game 1.
Jokers.
That pitch is a disgrace as well

[sbgawa]

Not a great look for the league.

[DCSIL]

Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service, Reform and Digitalisation: Jack Chambers
A protege of Micheál Martin, who appointed him as Fianna Fáil deputy leader

Opening day win for Rovers, getting one over on their political rivals

[The Bowler]

A strong students side on paper, pretty shambolic start to the season. I know I know, the game isn't played on paper

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

Watched all of the Pats game. They were very poor.

[Straightstory]

Missed the first half of Drogs v Pats trying to get LOI TV to work. Through some fluke, managed to get it working for second half. Worst app I've ever come across. I demand a refund!

[thebronze14]

Got to see bugger because of watchloi not working. What I seen we looked crap. Gonna be a long hard season

[Jack B]

Pats will have to work out how to play against teams looking to sit in against them. On the balance of chances they should have won it but spent much of the game toiling nonetheless.

[ger121]

LOITV, what a shambles. How could the app have that many issues. Logging you out, password incorrect, no data and that was before you even attempted to watch a game.

[redobit]

That pitch is a disgrace as well

Its a rugby pitch. And the amount of whinging and giving out that Duff did about the pitch in the Showgrounds a couple of seasons ago.

[Jd2793]

city left that behind against galway, had 2 guilt edged chances not go in. galway very poor , id be surprised if they arent scrapping with the 3 relegation favs down there this season

[D24Saint]

Watched all of the Pats game. They were very poor.

Disjointed performance I’d call it. I’d be very disappointed in the display tbh. It’s no surprise to even the casual pc football manager that Drogheda wouldn’t come out to play football tonight but we couldn’t break them down.

[Buckett]

city left that behind against galway, had 2 guilt edged chances not go in. galway very poor , id be surprised if they arent scrapping with the 3 relegation favs down there this season

I thought both teams were poor. We changed from our normal 4-4-2 for some reason which just didn't work. What's going on with the pitch in Turners Cross?

[pineapple stu]

Wasn't expecting that start after beating Wexford two weeks ago.

Thought the game was fairly even overall actually, but Wexford created a couple of good chances and took them. Can't have any complaints in the end

Four home games to start so we really need to get a solid return from those to keep in touch of the playoffs when our away games start

[Jd2793]

I thought both teams were poor. We changed from our normal 4-4-2 for some reason which just didn't work. What's going on with the pitch in Turners Cross?

yeh we arent great but thats to be expected. pitch is always crap this time of year, not helped by torrential rain last night tbf.

[brendy_éire]

I was concerned about us defensively prior to this game, and I'm moreso now. Midfield was anonymous too.
We were miles off it tonight, didn't seem to have a plan B. Sounds like I'm repeating myself from last season.
Half the starting lineup was new this season, but I don't buy it as an excuse. Worrying stuff.
We need defenders, immediately.

Shels were ok. Didn't need to be much better than that. Job done for them.

Yes, the pitch is brutal. Do Shels use it in the off-season? It's probably not good enough, and maybe won't do Shels any favours in the long run.
In saying all that, we kept trying quick, neat passing on it. It was never going to work. We need to play according to the pitch (said that last year too).

Hope I'm wrong, but could be a long season.

[redarmyfaction]

Tolka a disgrace tonight, a morass, then a miracle the game was completed, never sweated on a traded out bet before.

We like to blame the FAI, GAA, FFG etc for traditional lowly position of LOI in the national consciousness but the condition of the various grounds is down to the clubs who for the most part have prioritized success over facilities.

[ger121]

Wasn't expecting that start after beating Wexford two weeks ago.

Thought the game was fairly even overall actually, but Wexford created a couple of good chances and took them. Can't have any complaints in the end

Four home games to start so we really need to get a solid return from those to keep in touch of the playoffs when our away games start

Did not see that result beforehand. Lot of new players in?

[pineapple stu]

Nope. Cailloce the only debutant

[ger121]

Nope. Cailloce the only debutant

Yikes!! I know you said you’ve a run of home games now but I hope your home form is better than last season.

[dundalkfc10]

Isn't tonight what makes our league great ? it does for us that have watched it for decades

Floodlight issues can happen anywhere so wouldn't be giving out about that. The LOI App is very poor though, everyone giving out about it. Even had lads giving out who couldn't get it on firestick

On serious side, I was in Oriel poor enough game, 2 poor teams but Dundalk deserved the win (for Dundalk Dervin Kenny and back 4 were decent rest less said better)
If Athlone are going to be one better teams this year, I'd be confident we will win this league easily

[joey B]

I didn’t see the game but the result shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone,we’re going to be nowhere this year ,we’ll be far worse than last season…..

[Another Bohemia]

That was a very "Greatest league in the world" start to the season. I hope the app difficulties were due to unforseen demand and nothing else. I know that the previous iteration had its problem but I never had an issue loading a game on it unless there were issues in the ground itself.

Shels v Derry was an entertaining affair, not necessarily for the best reasons. Derry were unimpressive. I don't know that 442 will work well in this league unless you're being ultra defensive. They seemed to lack creativity and any plan b. Their entire attacking output seemed to be crosses from Thomas across the goal. It worked once and that was it. Defensively they were as bad as I've ever seen and I've seen a lot of bad defending from Bohs in recent seasons. Sam Todd is not a premier division defender based on tonight. I suppose a lot of Derry fans probably already had that opinion since he was sent on loan last season after he couldn't get into the team past Shane McEleney who has since been released. Derry just didn't seem organized, made multiple sloppy mistakes, didn't close down well and were frankly lucky to only concede 3! I think a lot of work to be done in Derry or they're in for a long season.

Shels on the other hand knew exactly what they were doing. Was it pretty? No but it was certainly effective. If Mipo starts hitting the target he will get plenty of goals in this league. I'd be concerned a bit about their defence, it didn't seem as solid as the start of last year in the bits I've seen and they did drop off a bit the 2nd half of last season. Tolkas pitch looked like there was schools rugby played on it recently that also needs to be addressed. I know the rain has been torrential recently but tonight was the first game of the season if the pitch is being taken care of it should at least look decent at the start of the game.

[Comic Book Guy]

Stole the win against Treaty tonight, didn't play well but Ramblers showed great heart and determination to rescue the game.

[El-Pietro]

Were gonna be entertaining.

Defense is not as bad I as feared but not as good as I might have hoped. Some young players back there though so potential for improvement as the season goes on.

We created a tonne of chances in the first half, carving through Galways midfield and defense but didn't take them and their physical advantages definitely made a difference late on so while we could have been 3 nil up in the first 30 minutes we were eventually happy to get out with a draw.

Cathal O'Sullivan took a couple of heavy knocks and had to leave with an injury. Hopefully not too serious.

[oriel]

Isn't tonight what makes our league great ? it does for us that have watched it for decades

Floodlight issues can happen anywhere so wouldn't be giving out about that. The LOI App is very poor though, everyone giving out about it. Even had lads giving out who couldn't get it on firestick

On serious side, I was in Oriel poor enough game, 2 poor teams but Dundalk deserved the win (for Dundalk Dervin Kenny and back 4 were decent rest less said better)
If Athlone are going to be one better teams this year, I'd be confident we will win this league easily

Thought same, and the standard really showed PD over FD, but this is what we have for the year, miss placed passes, missed chances, overall too much stop / start, but look its going to take at least 4-5 games to get going for most, including Dundalk, did what they had to do and won the game.

[TonyD]

Disjointed performance I’d call it. I’d be very disappointed in the display tbh. It’s no surprise to even the casual pc football manager that Drogheda wouldn’t come out to play football tonight but we couldn’t break them down.

I don’t know that I’d be that harsh. If we’d taken a couple of the chances we had then we’d be talking about a comfortable enough win. Yes, disappointing that we didn’t create more, but I’d give Drogheda some credit, they defended well.

[2 Year Contract]

I don’t know that I’d be that harsh. If we’d taken a couple of the chances we had then we’d be talking about a comfortable enough win. Yes, disappointing that we didn’t create more, but I’d give Drogheda some credit, they defended well.
Agreed. Drogheda kept their shape excellently and defended well. As the game went on Pats resorted to putting poor deliveries into the box and Drogs held out easily enough. As you said though enough chances were created to win that one. Redmond hitting the bar from close range, Mulraney chance in the first half, Elbouzedi with 2 or 3 chances, Baggley, Keena from a corner, the disallowed goal which was certainly debatable. Overall one of those chances should’ve been taken and then you’re talking about a win. Very defensive stuff from Drogs, not having a single shot on target in the game but they came for a point, executed the game plan very well and got their result.

I envisage a similar match away to Galway next week if Pat's don’t take the lead. An early goal is vital in those sort of games as it can be very hard to break down teams that sit back like that (I don’t think Galway will be as out and out defensive as Drogs but they'll be hard to crack). Kian Leavy would’ve been the ideal option for those games to beat 3 or 4 men to unlock a defence but he’s unfortunately out for 2 months after getting surgery for an ankle ligament injury during the week

[total hoofball]

Tolkas pitch looked like there was schools rugby played on it recently that also needs to be addressed. I know the rain has been torrential recently but tonight was the first game of the season if the pitch is being taken care of it should at least look decent at the start of the game.

Work was put into the Tolka pitch over the winter, it was in decent shape last week for the Drogheda game best I have seen it in a long time I didn't see anyone complaining about the pitch last week but it was incredible how badly it cut-up last night even if rain had been bad earlier in the day or over the week, it's definitely a disappointment amplified with the perfect storm of it being opening night of the league season live on TV first game of deal and the floodlights going pop

[pineapple stu]

I see Forrester and Melia on the bench for Pat's last night - not 100% fit or a sign of strength in depth or a misjudgement by Kenny?