Bray

[Aberdonian Stu]

Positives: We actually took shots from outside the box
Negatives: We we terrible, in particular Barry Andrews was particularly bad. We didn't look like we had any chance of scoring until after Wes Charles was taken off.

[Schumi]

It has to be said that if we had a keeper in the game we probably would have won 2-1. Robbie took his goal well.

[@ndy]

fu ck sake.

7 on the spin. We can't even beat Bray. Doolo needs to find his best 11 fairly sharpish...all this chopping and changing is making me dizzy. Glad i decided to miss it...wuda been fairly pis sed.

:mad:

So...did he play an understrength team, bar andrews, assuming that he was using the game to see if andrews' form was better than jennings..

nice to know we have a decent back up then!

[Schumi]

The team was:
-----------------------Andrews----------------------
Sullivan--------Tony Mac----Donnelly----Darragh Ryan
Johnny Martin-----Whelan------McNally------Davey---
------------------Griffin----------------Finn----------

Bambi came on for Griffin, Robbie Martin came on for Finn and Mick O'Donnell came on for Whelan in the 2nd half.

[Aberdonian Stu]

Cawley's is out for the time being with a foot injury (we didn't ask him how long).

Whelan picked up a knock so we'll have to wait and see there.

Sean Finn has no confidence whatsoever (it's not an injury but it's worth a mention).

[UCD_4_Life]

was there and got a load of abuse of the Bray fans.

I didn't realise that Dessie Baker was cup-tied until Johnny Martin told me and I remembered he played against Dublin City a few weeks ago, has he been at any of the games that he hasn't been allowed to play in? I would have thought that he'd like to see us as much as possible.

In fairness we worked hard, played some good football and cause Bray some real problems. But in saying that there was too much hoofing (even from throw-ins!) and Donnelly and Andrews were absolutely shocking. Donnelly won his fair share of headers but he hesitates a lot (in one not-so-hilarious case he let Zayed in only for "Eamo" not to take his chance), what happened for the third goal? I was texting someone and when I looked up all I saw was the ball looping into an empty net. Andrews also looked really nervous, his kicking leaves a lot to be desired and he was one of the main "hoofers" out there.

Hugh Davey's crossing was terrible as was Darragh Ryan's and this is one of the biggest reasons why we didn't score more.

In the end I'm now convinced that a new defender MUST be brought in ASAP or we will go down, no question. If it wasn't for the defence we would have ran out comfortable winners but instead we leave having lost 3-2.

[@ndy]

So we were beaten by Bray with our first team out.

[Aberdonian Stu]

Two of the goals have to be blamed on Andrews and a draw would probably have been the fairest result as while we were the better side overall Bray probably deserved something out of this awful game but for us to get nothing is down the man between the sticks.

UCD_4_Life said Andrews and Donnelly looked nervous...my view is that Donnelly looked nervous while Andrews looked like a bad player.

[Schumi]

Originally posted by Aberdonian Stu
UCD_4_Life said Andrews and Donnelly looked nervous...my view is that Donnelly looked nervous while Andrews looked like a bad player. I'd go along with that, Andrews let in a bad goal against Kildare in the pre season friendly as well so that's 3 bad goals in 1½ games for him (and 5 goals in total).

[UCD_4_Life]

In fairness to Bazza II, Pat Jennings has made his fair share of mistakes too.

B2 made an excellent save in the first half to deny Flood (it was later called off for a foul) and made some other decent stops. I wouldn't judge him on one and a half games...

[sadloserkid]

Originally posted by Aberdonian Stu
We didn't look like we had any chance of scoring until after Wes Charles was taken off.

Is big Wes the coolest dude in the eL??? I think so, yes I do!!!

[CollegeTillIDie]

I have no issues with him. He was offered a chance to be a full-time professional football on higher wages. Who wouldn't take a chance like that? Damn it I would have at the same age if it had been offered to me. I'd have stayed a UCD fan though and Robbie still is cause he came to the game. He must have known he'd be abused by the Shepherds but such is life.

He never got a fair crack of the whip out there and we made his name for him. My only grouse with Doyle is not him per se but with a system where by players leave clubs and get no compensation for having developed their abilities to the point where Bohs wanna sign them.
We didn't even get a bus far to An Lar for Doyle or any of the others that left.

We lost a player to the Premiership for God's sake and we didn't even get the price of a stamp for a post card for him. Now that they are relegated Clive should get his game next season.

Anyway that is my little rant finished for now

[pineapple stu]

Pat Jennings has been looking a bit dodgy, but I reckon that's down to two seasons on the bench and then the pressure of suddenly having to perform or this new upstart will take his place. Having said that, I though he did very well against Shels - took some good crosses, which he hasn't been doing, and made another couple of good saves. Whatever Rico said on TV3, I though he was unlucky with the second goal against Shels, and the first was Darragh Ryan's fault.

Donnelly's a good prospect for the future, but this is the present, and we can't be messing about. McAuley should come in again, with Baker and Robbie up front.

At least we scored twice (or to be precise, we scored again and they scored for us as well), but Drogheda are a bad team while we're a low-confidence team, and I'd be very disappointed if we didn't get at least a draw tomorrow.

[@ndy]

Good stuff. I don't think i'll make it by the way. I'd like to but i'm smashed and really tired.