Ireland 1-0 Slovakia Post Match Thread

[dodgycanadian]

great result lads, were back in the mix of things, might have to book my tickets for the matches in september now

[Tazskool]

match was on Sky sports 2 in the UK .. was a good overall performance..

All I care about is the 3 points as far as qualies round goes..

i cant remember the lads name.. came on for Doyle.. he looks a good find and full of running.. was unlucky not to have scored 2.. one was cleared off the line and the other was a header wide (but in his defence the ball was a little too high and behind him!!)

[SUB of the day]

WICKLOW....WEXFORD.....WATERFORD.....CORK....TIPPE RARY....DONEGAL.....DUBLIN, no its not a GAA allstar selection, just counties represented in Croker tonight:) :ball: :)

[tippex]

WICKLOW....WEXFORD.....WATERFORD.....CORK....TIPPE RARY....DONEGAL.....DUBLIN, no its not a GAA allstar selection, just counties represented in Croker tonight:) :ball: :)

obviously not a GAA Allstar selection us poor sods from wicklow have only had one Kevin O'Brien back in the late 80's / early 90's.

with the mcshane playing it was realistically the only way a wicklow man was going to get to play in croker lol

[Cymro]

Well done tonight, excellent result which gives you a decent chance of qualifying.

Difficult games coming up though you have the Czechs twice and the Germans plus away to us and Slovakia. And of course you have to play Cyprus again. :p

[Soper]

Czechs once actually

[SkStu]

only got the czechs once, in czechland. Drew 1-1 in Lansdowne

[eirebhoy]

Delighted.

Duff was magnificient in the first half. Again he set up the goal.
Doyle showed how to play the lone striker role, fantastic game.
McGeady had a very poor game. He's a nervous wreck. I think the few friendlies in the summer will do him the world of good.

We're back in the hunt anyway.

[delabonnuchi]

Well that was surreal... good formation, correct substitutions, only two players playing out of position, beating someone seeded above us. not thing i've been used to.

carsley looks better under the kosh than when on top of the game, comes from playing for everton i'm sure

kilbane struggled in midfield - tried but couldn't get the hang of it.

thought the lads in studio were a little harsh on us. we didn't# drop deep, we defended and tried to play on the break and long probably shoulda put us two up - then its a different ball game obviously. but we did push out and defended very well and to be fair to both sides slovakia grabbed the reins at the start of the second half and were pretty good going forward til the box.

the dodgy penalty call was hilarious - mcshane's diving header from the ground...

alan quinn, nice cameo you sheffield united jobsworth!... ("prove me wrong kids, prove me wrong")

steven hunt is a already a cult hero, the new kilbane with a smidge more skill.

ireland is very skilful and excels in that "hole" role. i remember watching the world club cup final in 2005 liverpool vs sao paolo and they asked alan hansen what was the secret to playing in the whole like these continental types, his reply was surely the nadir of his career in commentary (mitigating factor: it was quite early in the morning) - "you have to be born to play that role" what the **** does that actually mean? either way, stephen ireland clearly was born to play their.

mcgeady a bit up and down, beat one guy then squandered the ball whereas duff would beat one guy, realise he was in a cul de sac and retain possesion (or just beat the second guy)

fair ****'s, all in all a good performance. still we shouldn't have to endure one torturous game before we get a good one... we've run out of absolute ****e to play til the last game (Wales, and even they won't be as bada again)
__________________

[Qwerty]

A much better performance. I'm afraid McGeady played a little like I expected him to which is a real pity as he really is a wonderful player. A long way to go and some tough assignments but these two results will hopefully give the players some confidence. 2 clean sheets is also nice for a change.

[Cymro]

Czechs once actually

Of course, my mistake! :o

[Condex]

A good result, its keeps interst in September trip alive....

Was in Oirish pub in South London veryfew bandwagon jumpers around..

I think Slovakia were ramped up a bit before the game, they few players
playing a the top level...

Good games by Carsley,Dunne.McShane, Finnan save a lot of the ball
at the back, it was like passing the hot potato...S Ireland was good in patches..

McGeady was dreadful did nothing right, needs to get his confidence sorted... Kilbane is still is a talentless runner..

Doyle showed how a cental striker should perform...

Duff was excellent in the first half..

As I thought in advance we are better off without Keane being the
captain/central striker for the team, his histrionics put his teammates off
would be better to keep him on the bench for the next match..
Just bring Hunt in for McGeady...

[Poor Student]

An improvement on the Wales game and against better opposition. We still need more a lot more improvement to be able to take what we need from our Central European away trips later on. At the least it keeps our interest in the campaign alive.

[eirebhoy]

I don't think Kilbane was bad at all. Fair enough, his distribution is poor but his off the ball work was excellent. He played exactly the way I expected him to tbh.

[YellowbellyRed]

Not a bad performance all told, although I only listened to first half on radio. To the Wicklow man earlier, a friend of mine in work from South Wicklow never tires of reminding us that he played in an all ireland winning club team in the 90s. We reckon he made it up though...(only joking PD)

[craig7042]

People need to back off the team now and the manager. They havent qualified for anything yet, but they've earned respect, so lets have it please. A lot of people in that crowd tonight had very straight faces at the end.
If you hadnt been so vicious previously, maybe you might have been able to enjoy the night to the full like some of us who supported the team through the tough times.

Good man Stan. Fair play. And well done to the team on 6 great points against the odds. Good team spirit.

[FarBeag]

Much better performance. We need to find a left back from somewhere Finnan is not the answer.Hunt was excellent again this evening and set up two very score able goals. BTW sorry to all of ye guys that wanted us to lose this evening.Hope ye have a good night crying into yer pints.:D

[Marked Man]

Good man Stan. Fair play. And well done to the team on 6 great points against the odds. Good team spirit.

Hear hear.

[topfan]

People need to back off the team now and the manager. They havent qualified for anything yet, but they've earned respect, so lets have it please. A lot of people in that crowd tonight had very straight faces at the end.
If you hadnt been so vicious previously, maybe you might have been able to enjoy the night to the full like some of us who supported the team through the tough times.

Good man Stan. Fair play. And well done to the team on 6 great points against the odds. Good team spirit.

6 great points?I think we're getting a bit carried away, we beat a very poor Wales team and a built up under strenght Slovak team.The tough matches are all ahead, take San Marino out of it 7 points from five games hardley qualifcation standard.....And still playing players out of position,:( worring times

[TheBoss]

I was really happy after the first half, that was the best team performance by far under Stan. We passed really well at times and Aido and Duffer were superb in the half also. The 2nd half was more about controlling the game and neutralising their attack, which in fairness was done brilliantly. The defence was Magnicent, showed passion, guts and willingness to play for the country, The Slovaks did not create any great chances throughout the whole game and this was probably their worst game so far.

Wonder if Ireland's style of play caused that, or was it an off night for the Slovaks, whatever, we won the game, got the 3 points and now lets hope for a Welsh victory in Cardiff on June 2nd v the Czech's, 2nd is our only option to qualify, forget catching Germany, its 2nd that is available

[dr_peepee]

You can only beat the team your playing.... Hard to find too much fault tonight.

The Finnan O'Shea thing is puzzling. We were speculating that Carr is his first choice right full and he's trying to build consistency at the back by not unsettling the other three. Not saying it's right by any means. Just looking for reasoning.

Where's robbie gonna play?

[dodgycanadian]

topfan is right, these are matches we should have won without question to qualify. i wouldnt call the slovaks top opposition. we will see how the next away trip goes before im praising stan and the bunch of them

[geysir]

My next wish is for a second goal, ease the strain a bit.
Only had RTE´s coverage, fans sounded good and enjoying the win, it's been a long time
For me it was the centre halves, outstanding, the best performance from a pairing in ages. Midfield lost their way for long stretches again in the second half. I guess I was not alone in shouting for Hunt to come on.

[craig7042]

6 great points?I think we're getting a bit carried away, we beat a very poor Wales team and a built up under strenght Slovak team.The tough matches are all ahead, take San Marino out of it 7 points from five games hardley qualifcation standard.....And still playing players out of position,:( worring times


get a life...this is the night that the negativity....and never ending STUPIDITY of this sort of comment died.........

The headlines on Sunday arrogantly said "Now do it against a good team Stan".


Well he did....so eat that!
you must find it hard to take eh?

[pineapple stu]

Only had RTE´s coverage, fans sounded good
Atmosphere was superb. Better possibly than Stuttgart and Paris and Dublin against the Czechs. Superb. Still the same few songs, but still the noise was something else.

[dr_peepee]

I still think Hunt is too over rated. Don't get me wrong, some excellent crosses tonight and he has sometihng to offer but he's not as good as some people make out.

[eirebhoy]

My next wish is for a second goal, ease the strain a bit.
Only had RTE´s coverage, fans sounded good and enjoying the win, it's been a long time
For me it was the centre halves, outstanding, the best performance from a pairing in ages. Midfield lost their way for long stretches again in the second half. I guess I was not alone in shouting for Hunt to come on.
How did the reaction to Hunt come across on TV? He's a bit of a cult hero. :D The atmosphere was 20 times better than Saturday. It's always a good sign when you can't hear yourself sing. It got quiet a bit but that was just because the Slovakians were dominating at that point.

The bloody mexican wavers are annoying me. Who are they? About 100 people in the Canal corner with white tops on. The game was really tense at one point and all they care about is starting a mexican wave off.

The Slovakian fans were a lot better than the Welsh which helped the atmosphere. When they sang we sang.

[Casei11]

great result and at least wer improving with every game

[DmanDmythDledge]

The bloody mexican wavers are annoying me. Who are they? About 100 people in the Canal corner with white tops on. The game was really tense at one point and all they care about is starting a mexican wave off.
I think it's the schoolboy section.

[tetsujin1979]

Great result, top performance.
back 5 pretty much picks itself these days
finnan was better at left full than at the weekend, o'shea was about the same
best performance by duff in a long time
i said recently the kilbane in central midfield experiment is over, but tonight proved with the right partner he can do a job there
mcgeady was poor, but gresko was stuck to him all night, improved slightly when he moved infield, and the subsitution was coming
Stephen Ireland was excellent, Vittek was stuck to him whenever Ireland had possession, otherwise he would have been all over them.
doyler, great goal, although visibly tired in the second half
the substitutions were spot on, although i was disappointed with alan quinn's input. he badly needs first team football
hunt - what a pass to long!! i don't think he'll ever start on the left wing if duff or mcgeady is fit, but he's proven himself as an impact player now
long had the 2 best chances of the game, and was unlucky not to mark his home debut with a goal

the 2 wins should ease the pressure on staunton, things will be different when the next game kicks off in september, but we're top now, so let's enjoy it

[topfan]

get a life...this is the night that the negativity....and never ending STUPIDITY of this sort of comment died.........

The headlines on Sunday arrogantly said "Now do it against a good team Stan".


Well he did....so eat that!
you must find it hard to take eh?

Good Team?Maybe with Marek Mintal playing, we should be brushing teams like this to the side and going for the big teams.International football is all about good management just look at Euro 04 and Greece, Stan and Robbo good management? lol......Sad thing is there's good potential:ball:

[Billy Lord]

Good performance, but Stan's still clueless.

[dr_peepee]

I heard it was Stan that started the Wave!!!

Seriously though... The wave is annoying!!

[theworm2345]

From the short highlights I saw all I saw was Slovakia peppering the Irish goal and our one chance we seemed to get a bit lucky and score, is that accurate?

[pineapple stu]

No.

Slovakia forced two or three good saves out of Given, but we had decent chances too (McGeady skied over when he should have at least hit the target and Long headed over from ten yards). Play was about even - Ireland better in the first half and Slovakia better in the second.

[eirebhoy]

From the short highlights I saw all I saw was Slovakia peppering the Irish goal and our one chance we seemed to get a bit lucky and score, is that accurate?
Not at all. We dominated the first half. Naturally the players sat deaper in the second half and Slovakia had to come at them. We deserved the win, no doubt about it. It could and should have been 2-0 with Long's free header.

Also, Duff was free in the first half and surely would have scored if Doyle spotted him but he skied a shot instead.

We definitely didn't score against the run of play.

[delabonnuchi]

From the short highlights I saw all I saw was Slovakia peppering the Irish goal and our one chance we seemed to get a bit lucky and score, is that accurate?


Wouldn't think so. They dominated possession for most of the second half but never really penetrated. They made one great break that was cleaned up by McShane and one at the end that Given saved due to a bit of centre back confusion. Otherwise nearly everything else was pot-shots by their 11. Nothing too dangerous. Our defence looked in control all the time and we realyl should've taken our chances to get a bigger lead.

[kev mcq]

From the short highlights I saw all I saw was Slovakia peppering the Irish goal and our one chance we seemed to get a bit lucky and score, is that accurate?

Tell me you're taking the ****. How did we get lucky with the goal, it was a great header. And no, they didn't pepper our goal.:rolleyes:

[dr_peepee]

Alan Quinn nearly gave me a sh!te hemorrhage toward the end too!!!:eek:

[soccerc]

Atmosphere was superb. Better possibly than Stuttgart and Paris and Dublin against the Czechs. Superb. Still the same few songs, but still the noise was something else.

Fair fcuks to your bohran player who either started or followed the lead of those around him.


Magic feeling in that section apart from the tossers behind me who kept prodding me to sit down. For you two*again, in section 318 row MM seats 15/16 - It's football not a fcuking day out.

* Tickets were from an LOI club allocation, yet the p ricks using them hadn't been to a live LOI game ever nor did they support the LOI - their admission

[cheifo]

No question we were the better team.Even Josh played well.McGeady has got great talent but has a way to go yet IMO before he is considered a definate starter.Having Doyer up there as a focal point for our attack seems to give the side a better structure.Feel much happier tbh.Dont think we will be able to handle injuries to our better players though.

[McGinty]

if anything the slovaks were resorting to long shots because they couldnt penatrate

the back 2 were unbelievable, thought McShane is the bravest centre half i've seen in a good while whilst dunne compliments him nicely. very strong back four.

Only let down tonight was the second half, while they didnt do much with their possession we still let them come at us and we played very deep. Experienced players like Duff were hoofing the ball forward to no-one when we just needed someone to run the ball.

all in all a good 6 points, but it'll mean nothing if we dont get something in slovakia

[eirebhoy]

Fair fcuks to your bohran player who either started or followed the lead of those around him.


Magic feeling in that section apart from the tossers behind me who kept prodding me to sit down. For you two*again, in section 318 row MM seats 15/16 - It's football not a fcuking day out.
Were you wearing a black leather jacket over an Ireland jersey at the match on Saturday? I know your face from a clip of you on the news (I think?) and it looked like you anyway. :)

[soccerc]

Were you wearing a black leather jacket over an Ireland jersey at the match on Saturday? I know your face from a clip of you on the news (I think?) and it looked like you anyway. :)

No, I was elsewhere in Croker last Saturday.

Tonight I was with my breathren, the "real" supporters in the Lower Davin.

[eirebhoy]

I looked down there at one point and they were all standing. Must have been you starting it all off. :D

[danonion]

Well my da reckons we will qualify now, and when you get a monaghan bogger to be anyway optimistic..., well you never know

[Noelys Guitar]

Noely told yus! Believe. The signs were there on Saturday. Now lets go on and qualify.

[mypost]

The atmosphere was 20 times better than Saturday. It's always a good sign when you can't hear yourself sing.

The atmosphere was better, why? Night-time ko. :)

Back to the normal no atmosphere for the 3.0ko next home game against Germany. :( :rolleyes: Why???

If we can't be seen to drop the crazy 3pm ko for the Germany game, can we do away with the similiarly early 7.30pm ko for night games? As was shown tonight, you can't get 75,000 Irish people into a stadium for a ko in rush hour.

[theworm2345]

Tell me you're taking the ****. How did we get lucky with the goal, it was a great header. And no, they didn't pepper our goal.:rolleyes:
All I had seen was 4 shots on goal by Slovakia and the one goal that appeared (From the one angle on the ****e quality Chinese highlights) that the ball had hit him in the back of the head and gone in
Please forgive me if thats not up to your standard :rolleyes:

[Dallasirish]

Great to see the lads lift the performance tonite. Thought the senior players that flanked Staunton in the press conference were very good. Great to see Duff back to his old self. I hope the press give them credit. Given is world class. Hope keane the muppet was watchin.

On the phone to the travel agent in de mornin to figure out how many dollars for the trip in September. Two or three countries in 7 days, warm weather, cheap drink and in with a good chance of Qualification!