Olé City!

[dalo]

just got the result whilst in cordorba!!!!!! sounds great. delighted to see bennett shake off some indifferent form and score 2. pity george didnt get one.

sounds like a cracking game with a great crowd.

still cant beat the weather here though:D

[A face]

http://www.livescore.com/default.dll?page=ireland

This site is great for keepin' up to date !!

[shedboy]

Just got this off soccercentral great to hear we are back to winning ways




http://www.soccercentral.ie/viewstory.asp?mainheading=Eircom&id=7698&viewstory=yes

[bw4ever]

Was at the game today, City got a superb start, a power header from Bennet from the corner on the left of the Shed End from Billy Woods. The rest of the half was dull as both teams were very lethargic and looked like they'd been out on the tiles Saturday night. The second half was much much better, 2 quick goals killed off the non existent Derry challenge. I thought that Georgie O'Callaghan was man of the match, he has terrific skill. A great result then and also from the Carlisle grounds were Bray held Bohs so City may go top after their next few games!

[Ali-G]

Another home game, another 3 goals for city. The front two were a joy to watch again. They definitely encourage the rest of the team to play football, not hoofball. Reynolds looks like he could be a key player too. Extremely combative, and always look to play an intelligent pass.

We made Derry look very ordinary, i dont know if that is more to do with us playing well, or the fact that derry are poor. David Kelly was woeful, you cant just fly over and play, you must train with the rest of the team. Derry could really struggle this season.

[pete]

Cork City (4-4-2) - Devine; Carey, Napier, Cronin, Horgan; O'Halloran, Bennett, Reynolds, Woods; O'Flynn, O'Callaghan. Subs. C. T. O'Brien for Reynolds (injured 80 mins), C. P. O'Brien for O'Flynn (87 mins), Andrews, Mulconry & Mooney (not used)

Real settled look top the team now & a good choice on the bench too. At last we seem to have options with players if not tactics ;)

Its got to be a long time since we scored 3 goals at home to shels, ucd & derry.

[Jim Smith]

....while the result was good I thought we lost it a bit for much of the first half and I was greatly relieved to see those two goals go in after the break - I know playing against the strong wind in the second half didn't help. I thought Geg had a stinker and I can't understand how he stayed on for 90 mins...

Still things are improving and we can now have a debate about team selection which would have been unheard of last season:D

[Ali-G]

I thought Billy Woods was excellent in the first half, but he was a spectator for the first 30 mins of the second half. I disagree that Greg had a stinker. He's obviously not a right winger, but he wasnt pretending to be one. I thought he linked up with Georgie fairly well.

[Neil]

I was delighted for Alan Bennett. He's a bit of an unsung hero, remembering that he is only about 20 but he really lead the team yesterday. Reynolds alongside him was very good aswell. It's good to think that our best player from last season - O'Grady - is still to come back.

The only problems I see is that Deccie Daly is due back in about 2/3 weeks!

[patsh]

Yeah it's great to see so many goals at home. I will be happier, (not that I'm unhappy mind !..;)) when we get results in a few away games though. The two games against Bohs and Pat's will be the test for us, I think.
I thought Greg played really well yesterday, except for a bad lapse in the second half when Kelly, if he had bothered to stick out his leg, could have scored. I'm not too sure about this sitting back and soaking up the pressure, and hitting on the break though. It seemed to me that for very long periods of the game yesterday, we were content to let Derry have the ball, play very deep and rely on the speed of Billy and J O'F for attacks. I'm worried that if we give teams too much of the ball we will give them too many chances, and in the case of Bohs especially, this could prove very bad.
However, I should not be moaning I suppose, and fair play to Mickey Devine yesterday, a bad moment with the free kick but made up for with that fantastic save from Martyn(?). The back four were very solid, with only one or two messy moments. I would have picked either Billy or Greg as the man of the match, just pipping Reynolds and Georgie Boy.

[Neil]

I'd like to see Mucky given a proper run in the team. Ideally he's a central midfielder but with plenty of cover there at the moment, why not give him a chance on the right wing? COB and GOH haven't showed consistency there so far.

[pete]

I've only seen Reynolds at Drogheda but looked like be a good partner for O'Grady in the middle.

I think Bennet probably suffered from playing too many games last year & be great to have O'Grady to come back if we having a dip in form.

I think there isn't a player over 30 in the current team & still a fairly young team overall. Hard to think John O'Flynn is only 19 too.

Interesting that Warren wasn't on the bench yesterday - has he dropped down the pecking order?

Should Gunther be credited with playing O'Callaghan up front & not in midfield? This playing just off the front man seems to be working.....

[Neil]

Originally posted by pete
Interesting that Warren wasn't on the bench yesterday - has he dropped down the pecking order?

He was injured against Dundrum. Out for 2/3 weeks.

IMO he would be in the starting XI on the right of midfield if we are fielding our strongest team.

ie.

Devine
Carey Napier Gaz Hoggy
Warren O'Grady Reynolds Woods
O'Flynn O'Callaghan

...with Bennett easily stepping in for either of the two center midfielders.

[patsh]

I hope he'll get his chance, Neil. I doubt if Gunther has a definite starting lineup/best side decided on yet.
Devine
Carey Gaz Napier Horgan
Billy George JO'F
are the only ones that are most probably in the starting lineup I'd say,
so it's 3 from Greg, Reynolds, Bennett, Mucky, Warren and the O'Briens, Andrews. I think Gunther wil try out a few combinations.
Added to that, when they come back, O'Grady, Mulligan, Daly, Morley. And then Mooney of course.
It'll be tough to get a run if you are not playing very well.

That's nearly a whole team again on the bench. Actually looking at it, City could put out a second side which could hold their own in the league !!.. :)

[Jim Smith]

...seemed to lose the ball too much for my liking during the second half. I don't like this soaking up the pressure tactic either - if we try that against a good attacking side then we will become unstuck.

[Colm]

According to Citynet (www.eirways.com/citynet) there was a crowd of 4000 at the match. Considering it was a sunday mornig kick-off that was an impressive crowd.

It was another good result but im going to reserve judgement on how good we are until after we have played Bohs and Pats. Playing them both in the space of 5 days is as tough as it gets.

I thought that Georgie and Billy were both excellent but I have to agree that Greg was dissappointing.

[Troy.McClure]

If you compare Greg to the likes of Billy or Ollie then he was poor, however, he did cut into the middle when ever the midfield needed a hand and made some good defensive tackles. IMO he's the best we have at the mo - Warren is a striker (isnt he?) and looks as natural there as Greg does, Colin T isnt upto it anymore and Mucky is still a bit too inexperienced and Bennet is useless there. Id like to see Georgio on the wing with J.O'F and CPOB up front, Id say that they would do well together and CPOB would have a lot less pressure put on him by fans & defenders then last year as the attention would be on J.O'F.
I thought that Renny had a fairly good game and Bennet was ok - the 2 goals were unusual for him, I couldnt see him score many more this season.
Im not too sure about the defence, on one hand we have only conceeded 1 goal from play in 5 matches - a fantastic stat, but on the other side Devine has kept us in good positions with some fantastic individual performances, I think that he made 2 excellent stops yesterday, especially the 1-on-1 in the 2nd half at 3:1, if that went in we could have been under real pressure.
Although I think that the performance was only mediocor, you have to credit all involved with scoring 3 goals a game in all 3 home league matches and only conceedig 3 in total. Also we missed 3 sitters in the 2nd half so it could have easily been 6:1!

[pete]

Originally posted by COLM
According to Citynet (www.eirways.com/citynet) there was a crowd of 4000 at the match. Considering it was a sunday mornig kick-off that was an impressive crowd.


I heard twas around 2500 which i thought ok considering it was a 12 noon ko.

City attendances have been way ahead of the so called big dublin clubs this season so far & their crowds be boosted by sizable cross city away support. City get 5k+ at $hel$ & ucd which is basically all home support whereas "big" club Bohs barely get 4,000 versus their big rivals Rovers with maybe as much as 500 away supporters.

If city still doing well come mid september should be big crowd versus SRFC.

Georges tricks in the big games may be a luxury but i'm sure he encourages the sunshine supporters to come back?

[James]

well i stopped counting at 2,321 pete so i kinda guessed an approx 2,500 figure... but prob was between that and 3k on second thoughts :)

as for georges tricks.. pure magic boy :)

[Troy.McClure]

Originally posted by pete
Georges tricks in the big games may be a luxury but i'm sure he encourages the sunshine supporters to come back? I think that they will encourage a broken leg from a vengeful tackle the way he keeps extracting the urine out of defenders :D Someone's going to get sooo pi$$ed off with him soon that they are just going to crack and freek out at him. Did anyone see when he was messing around with the ball & defender infront of the Family Enclosure? Ha ha, the defender looked like he had never seen a ball before:D

Id say that 4k would be much more accurate than 2,500, The Derrynane stand was 100% full, the main stand had about 1,000 and the Shed would have been packed if everyone else went into it and maybe even have more left over aswell.

[niamh]

Makes you wonder why we cannot get accurate attendances from any source...

[Gary]

Ya, whats the story with that? I found an old echo earler. It was from the day after the u21 match in the X vs Denmark. In the same spread there was 4 different attendances quoted.

Sounds kinda stupid to me.