Derry 0-1 UCD

[Schumi]

Timmy Purcell scored with 8 minutes left after a mistake by Dave Rodgers. RTE's report (http://rte.ie/sport/2007/0420/derrycity.html) has Purcell coming on for Conan after 6 minutes, was he injured?

[pineapple stu]

No, that's just wrong.

Report, except I'm recalling the second half from memory 'cos I deleted my summary text to text about the goal...



A late goal from Timmy Purcell - his first for the club - secured an excellent win for UCD in Derry and heaped further pressure on beleagured Candystripes manager Pat Fenlon. The win was UCD's first in Derry since 2003, when a 2-0 win marked the end of Dermot Keely's reign as manager.

Despite two league wins on the trot, Pete Mahon rang the changes to the line-up, with Ian Bermingham coming in at left-back for his debut in place of Evan McMillan, with Conor Kenna moving to centre-half, Derek Doyle coming in for Bogdan on the left wing and Shane McFaul coming in for Brian King, himself born in Derry while his father Noel was manager.

The first half was open, although few real chances came about. UCD's best chance came midway throught the half when Alan Mahon sent in a cross from the right, and Paul Byrne's header was well tipped over the bar by former Student Pat Jennings. At the other end, Kevin McHugh skied a far-post volley, but Derry should have taken the lead on the stroke of half time when Alan Mahon was robbed inside the box, but Derry's shot from 12 yards went wide when they really should have hit the target.

UCD, however, were well in the game, with Paul Byrne causing the Derry defence plenty of problems, and he set up a dangerous chance for the Students when he ran on to his own flick on only to be hauled back on the edge of the area. Alan Mahon stepped up, but his free kick was saved by Jennings and cleared for a corner. It was the start of a decent spell of pressure for UCD, which resulted in three corners and another Alan Mahon free - this time wide - in the space of a few minutes.

UCD did have the ball in the net on 70 minutes after another Paul Byrne flick sent Conor Sammon through, but even as he rolled the ball past Jennings, the linesman was flagging for offside.

But the Students did take the lead their second half performance probably deserved on 82 minutes - Conor Sammon seized on a Dave Rodgers error to bear down on Jennings; PJ saved well, but only as far as substitute Timmy Purcell, who tapped home into an empty net from two yards out and spark mass celebrations from the UCD players.

The goal woke Derry up, and they went close to an equaliser on several occasions in the twelve minutes which followed, including injury time. Derry forced several corners, one of which saw Alan McNally hook superbly off his line and over the bar after Matt Gregg misjudged the flight of the ball. Gregg, however, did make amends with an excellent near-post block from a McCourt shot, while he also denied Peter Hynes after the Derry sub found time to turn inside the six yard box. Alan McNally also went close for Derry - his header flying inches past his own post, but as the game entered injury time, the Derry avaulanche lifted, a couple of frees allowed UCD to clear their lines and bring play up the other end to run time down and seal a superb victory.

UCD - Gregg; Mahon, Bermingham, McNally, Kenna; Crowley, C Byrne (Purcell 76), McFaul (Finn), Doyle; Sammon, P Byrne (McDonnell 90). Subs not used - Quigley, McMillan.

Att - c 3000

[Student Mullet]

Shane McFaul coming in for Brian King, himself born in Derry while his father Noel was manager.Given my youthfulness, I'll take your word on this one but Brian must eat his vegetables!

[pineapple stu]

It was actually the last question in the quiz in the programme!

[Schumi]

No, that's just wrong.Thought it might be alright.

[DmanDmythDledge]

Think we were 12/1 to win 1-0- I'm holding you responsible pineapple for the lack of profit for me from this game !

Great win, absolutely delighted. Wasn't there but it seems from all the reports that we were definitely the better side and outplayed Derry. Great to see Purcell get the goal- I think he has great potential and wouldn't be surprised if he was a regular by the end of the season. Also good to see that we are scoring more this season and that all our recognised strikers have scored already.

Another thing that has stood out has been another good peformance from Matt Gregg. He's taken his chance well and Quigley has his work cut out now to get back into the team IMO.

How did Bermingham do?

[pineapple stu]

You didn't ask for any money to be put on it, and your account is frozen until you pay your back debts.

Do you watch Family Guy? ;)

Don't think we outplayed Derry, but we were definitely as good as them on the night, and played about as well as I've seen all season - passed it around, got stuck in in the mid, winning possession many times in Derry's half and defending as well as ever. Derry were poor though - no ideas about them until we scored.

Bermingham did OK - nothing spectacular. Didn't really notice him in the first half as he was in the far corner, and I was a bit late too.

Paul Byrne was our man of the match, I think. Derry defence didn't know what to do with him.

[pineapple stu]

Given my youthfulness, I'll take your word on this one but Brian must eat his vegetables!
On that, Noel was manager of Derry between 1985 and 1987 according to the never wrong Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_King). Brian was born in January 1987.

[CollegeTillIDie]

Noel won the First Division title with Derry in the 1986/87 Campaign and eleven seasons later was at Belfield. :D

[CollegeTillIDie]

Bermingham did OK - nothing spectacular. Didn't really notice him in the first half as he was in the far corner, and I was a bit late too.


Is young Bermingham the answer to our no. 3 shirt dilemma?

[DmanDmythDledge]

Is young Bermingham the answer to our no. 3 shirt dilemma?
Dilemma? We have Conor Kenna...

[Schumi]

Dilemma? We have Conor Kenna......who should be playing in the centre.

[DmanDmythDledge]

...who should be playing in the centre.
Irrelevent. I'm just saying that we have no problem at left back.

[Schumi]

The problem may be elsewhere but the solution is at left back.

[CollegeTillIDie]

Irrelevent. I'm just saying that we have no problem at left back.

When your best left back is a better centre half... you do have problems at left back. For example what do we do if Kenna get's injured?

[DmanDmythDledge]

The problem may be elsewhere but the solution is at left back.
Are you suggesting that we have a problem in central defence?


When your best left back is a better centre half... you do have problems at left back.
No. You have problems if you have a player playing in a position he is poor in. The fact that he is a better centre half is irrelevent to his capabilities at left back.


For example what do we do if Kenna get's injured?

The same thing we would if somebody in any other positoin got injured- put in the next best replacement. Gallagher has played there and done well, Bermingham has come in and been solid, Alan Mahon can play there. You're making a big deal out of nothing.

[Schumi]

Are you suggesting that we have a problem in central defence?Centre midfield. Tony Mac should play there rather than in defence.

[DmanDmythDledge]

Centre midfield. Tony Mac should play there rather than in defence.
Even though our central midfield would be better with Tony Mc playing there I think the team is better overall with Crowley CM, Tony Mc CB and Kenna LB.

[Poor Student]

Absolutely delighted with that result. While it might be going too far to say we outplayed Derry I think we shaded them for the first 70 minutes. We came under pressure towards the end particularly after the goal but that's only natural for the away team. Mahon selected his midfield well and substituted wisely. I thought Paul Byrne's link up play was great. He won a fair few headers and flick ons. Gregg was pretty solid again for the most part and I thought the centre back pairing did great in clearing our lines a few times. Conan put in another decent shift down the right. Fair play to the manager, he set out to snatch the win with his lineup and made the positive substitutions to grab it in the end.

Bermingham is not the answer to left back in my opinion. He wasn't woeful or anything but he missed a few headers and wasn't particularly inspiring. Not sure why Gallagher has drifted out of the picture.

You'll probably note we had a ridiculously strong bench. Three players capped at U-21 level and also 'B' level in Quigley's case. I think this is the strongest UCD squad I've seen.

[GavinZac]

You'll probably note we had a ridiculously strong bench. Three players capped at U-21 level and also 'B' level in Quigley's case. I think this is the strongest UCD squad I've seen.
The results certainly suggest that. How are other things going? Crowds? If UCD are successful, and say, qualify for europe this year, would you (the club) be attempting to build on that, or will it be business as usual?

[Poor Student]

The results certainly suggest that. How are other things going? Crowds? If UCD are successful, and say, qualify for europe this year, would you (the club) be attempting to build on that, or will it be business as usual?

Crowds aren't great but our last two home games were Waterford and Bray (teams doing badly) and we hadn't won a game this season before we played them. We have some fairly solid long term plans. We're meeting the FAI's grant and have hired our CPO fulltime, we have plans to establish a full time academy and we're moving to a better ground soon. With the way we're churning out players, if we lose a few more will fall off the conveyor belt.

[DmanDmythDledge]

The results certainly suggest that. How are other things going? Crowds? If UCD are successful, and say, qualify for europe this year, would you (the club) be attempting to build on that, or will it be business as usual?
Don't think the results suggest that just yet. Granted we've just beaten Derry who have been one of the best teams over the past few seasons but our other wins have been against Waterford and Bray.

Crowds seems to be up- average is around 900 at the moment, compared to 500 or 600 previous years. For example there was 744 at the Cork game when in previous years it would only be 400/500.

The club have very high (perhaps unrealistic) ambitions. One of our goals is to win the Premier Division every 5 years.

[Schumi]

The results certainly suggest that. How are other things going? Crowds?Difficult to tell. The crowds for Waterford and Bray were terrible but they were played respectively on a bank holiday weekend and a Thursday and I don't think they can be considered representative and the Rovers game had a big crowd but loads of Rovers fans so again hard to tell. The Cork game had a better crowd than usual for Cork so maybe crowds will improve, it's too early to tell though.

If UCD are successful, and say, qualify for europe this year, would you (the club) be attempting to build on that, or will it be business as usual?In terms of marketing, promotion, etc. I would assume so. Out CPO has been putting in a lot of work on this sort of thing and a successful season would only help that. In terms of improving the team, I don't know really. We're clearly not going to throw money we don't have at the team but a successful team will obviously be more attractive to players so we may not need to.

[GavinZac]

we're moving to a better ground soon.

I've never been up to belfield so this one interests me. Is there more info available?

[DmanDmythDledge]

I've never been up to belfield so this one interests me. Is there more info available?
We're moving to the Belfield Bowl, where the rugby team play at the moment. The club hopes to move in there before the end of the season. Some info here (http://foot.ie/showthread.php?t=47984).

[Schumi]

Some photos I took (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v239/SchumiUCD/Bowl/?) There's another thread here (http://foot.ie/showthread.php?t=33518)too.

[GavinZac]

Some photos I took (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v239/SchumiUCD/Bowl/?) There's another thread here (http://foot.ie/showthread.php?t=33518)too.

photobucket is blocked at work, ill take a look at home later.

[pineapple stu]

The problem may be elsewhere but the solution is at left back.
Evan McMillan has done perfectly well at centre-back so far. No problems with Conor Kenna at left-back; certainly no problems or dilemmas (well, no bad dilemmas anyway) in the defence.

The Sun (was down the barbers...) gave Sammon man of the match and Bermingham 7, the best of the defenders. For what that's worth.

[DmanDmythDledge]

The Sun (was down the barbers...)
Don't which one I'm more surprised reading.

[Schumi]

Evan McMillan has done perfectly well at centre-back so far.Prone to lapses though. The start of the Bray and Waterford game for example.


Don't which one I'm more surprised reading.:D

[pineapple stu]

Crowds seems to be up- average is around 900 at the moment, compared to 500 or 600 previous years.
You've a game against Rovers in there though, which had a large crowd, so you can't compare the two figures.

Cork was up about 200 on last year, Waterford was up about the same ('cos it wasn't clashing with the World Cup) and Bray was down about 100.

[Poor Student]

The Sun (was down the barbers...) gave Sammon man of the match and Bermingham 7, the best of the defenders. For what that's worth.

They gave Ally Mac and Kenna only a 6 then?:confused: I wouldn't give much consideration to those ratings.

[Grey Boy]

You've a game against Rovers in there though, which had a large crowd, so you can't compare the two figures.

Cork was up about 200 on last year, Waterford was up about the same ('cos it wasn't clashing with the World Cup) and Bray was down about 100.

If that game had been on the Friday against Bray you would have had a decent crowd.

[pineapple stu]

Well, a better one anyways. Bray don't really bring much of an away support anyway, but obviously having it on our regular day would have increased the crowd a nice bit. Sillyto have had to go and change it, but it's done now.

[Poor Student]

Oh no, I just checked the fixture list. For some bizarre reason we play Derry at home again on the 25th of May. Let's hope Fenlon can hang on that long.

[pineapple stu]

:confused:

[Poor Student]

:confused:

That's 4 league games away. We could be caught out with Derry on the bounce from his sacking.

[pineapple stu]

Cool - didn't realise the link.

I think it's more likely he'll still be lurching towards the inevitable, and we can do the double over them.

[Poor Student]

What's goingn on though, how can we be facing them so soon again?

[DmanDmythDledge]

What's goingn on though, how can we be facing them so soon again?
Basically the first series fixtures were reversed for the second series, except it begins from the 8th game of the first series, going backwards, presumably so teams wouldn't be playing the teams the will be playing 8th, 9th, 10th or 11th too soon.

[Poor Student]

http://rapidshare.com/files/27676248/eLW_Part_2_23-04-2007.flv

That's the 2nd half of eL weekly courtesy of Raheny Red. We're at the very start of the file. I have it paused on the offside decision and I honestly can't say, it was close enough and well taken by Sammon. Purcell actually tapped in Sammo's saved shot.

I'm not fan of Dermot Keeley but fair play to him he gave us credit for the win rather than focusing on Derry. As usual Welch couldn't give a toss about us and his Cork bias came through in his UCC Freudian slip.

[Schumi]

[I have it paused on the offside decision and I honestly can't sayYeah, I didn't think it was offside on the telly last night but it looks a lot tighter having replayed it a couple of times on that.

[pineapple stu]

In fairness though, the flag went up immediately, and PJ didn't make an attempt to save, so you can't say whether Sammon would have scored or not had he been onside. Especially not given his record in one-on-ones!

[DmanDmythDledge]

Alan McNally and Paul Byrne were named in the eleven-a-side team of the week (http://www.eleven-a-side.com/blogs/viewblog.asp?bid=27).