W/E 8th May Match Previews

Monaghan United v Wexford Youths


Having collected full points in their last two outing against Kildare County and Athlone Town, Monaghan United should go into this week’s game against visitors to Kingspan Century Park – Wexford Youths with an air of confidence. Wexford have made a good start to the season with 5 victories from nine in the league and defeating Cork City to get through to the quarter finals of the EA Sports Cup. This should guarantee the punters a keen encounter. There has never been much between United and Mick Wallace’s squad.

Monaghan had a difficult start to the season meeting the top four teams for whom they might have shown too much respect and are unlucky not to have accumulated more points to their total tally so far. It was expected that they would account for Kildare County who would appear to be the whipping boys of the 1st. Division, however Athlone were a different matter. Going to the Lisswollen grounds many thought that a point would have been good result. But when Athlone struck their first goal within 2 minutes of the start such a result looked ambitious to some. But the manner in which United played through this game was inspiring and when all their good work appeared to be undone again in 44th minute when the home side against the run of play scored their second to retake the lead they didn’t flag.

If United can sustain this recent form they should be in a position to continue their good run with a victory against Wexford Youths.

True football people around the country admire what Mick Wallace for what he is doing for football, he has built his team around local talent which is the aim of those of us involved in Monaghan United. Except on the field of play Mick’s hospitality to visiting teams and officials is legendary.

Mick Cooke-United’s Manager should have a full squad to pick from. Again we look forward to a good local support, hopefully United have turned the corner and plenty of encouragement from the fans can make the difference.


Injuries and Suspensions



Suspended : David Freeman



Injuries: none



Results of Last fixtures

Div 1 Athlone Town 2 3 Monaghan United
Div 1 Monaghan United 5 1 Kildare County
Div 1 Waterford United 6 0 Monaghan United
League Cup Monaghan United 1 2 Sporting Fingal
Div 1 Monaghan United 0 3 Sporting Fingal

Next 5 Fixtures

Sat May 16 Finn Harps v Monaghan United 8.p.m.
Fri May 22 Monaghan United v Longford Town 8.p.m.
Fri May 29 Shelbourne v Monaghan United 7.45.p.m
Fri Jun 5 Monaghan United v UCD 8.p.m.
Fri Jun19 Mervue United v Monaghan United 7.45.p.m.

Manager Quotes “I would like to extend a very warm welcome to Mick Wallace the players and officials of Wexford Youths on their long trip from the South East to Kingspan Century Park for tonight’s League meeting. Wexford are on a good roll at the moment having won 5 out of their last 6 games from which they collected 15 points and accounted for Cork City to qualify for the quarter finals of the EA Sports Cup.

Having won our last two games I too would like to think that we have started on our own roll. Everyone expected us to beat Kildare County which creates its own pressure; however I got great satisfaction from our performance against Athlone. I was disappointed to concede the first goal after just two minutes but I knew we had the whole game to come back; the second goal was a harder blow because coming against the run of play in the 44th. minute it undid all our fine work in the first half, nevertheless going in at the interval I believed that if could maintain our performance into the second half we would at the very least share the points. The one goal winning margin in the end did not flatter us.

This is Wexford Youths third season in the league and so far there hasn’t been much between us in any of our games. I would count myself amongst the many admirers that Mick Wallace has for what he is doing for football in Wexford, but for this evenings encounter I will have to leave the admiration to one side as I will be hoping to continue on our winning way against his side. To beat Wexford we will have to replicate the performance we displayed particularly in the second half against Athlone Town anything less will not do. We are injury free and have no suspensions.

I hope the last two results will encourage a good turn out of supporters."

Monaghan v Wexford Youths


Wallace aims to keep players feet firmly rooted

Wexford Youths FC take on Monaghan United at Kingspan Century Park this Friday night hoping to keep their winning streak in tact. Mick Wallace’s men have won seven out of their last eight games and expectations are gradually becoming higher at the club. One of the victories that will live long in the memory for Wexford fans was achieved on Bank holiday Monday when they beat Cork City 6-5 on penalties after the game finished up 1-1 after extra time. The Youths put in a hard fought and passionate performance against a star studded Cork side and every player can be proud of the result.

Their reward for a famous victory is another glamour tie against Pat Fenlon’s Bohemians FC at Ferrycarrig Park on the 19th of May.
In terms of injuries Shane Dempsey is back for the Youths after missing out on the Cork City game with an injury that he picked up against Kildare on the Saturday. David Miller is also out after he limped out of the Cork game at half time after picking up a knock. David Breen will be hoping to slot back into the centre back position on Friday night, but may face competition from Paul Rossiter who put in a solid performance against Corks Denis Behan. Again Marty Kelly and Jimmy Keohane have failed to recover from their respective injuries in time for the game.

“Monaghan is a tough game to have on Friday, in terms of the fact that we had an away game on the Monday as well, so it’s not ideal in that sense. We would have preferred a home tie, but we’ll be prepared and no one is getting carried away after our recent run of results” said Wallace.

“Monaghan is a tricky place to go to and we’ll be lucky to come away with a point. Some of the top sides in the country go there and come away empty handed, so we’ll be aware of that and we’ll make sure everyone his focused for the game” Wallace said.

“They (Monaghan) have had an unlucky start to the season, but they won last week and you can sense that their coming into a bit of form at the moment” said Wallace.

Injured:
Tim McGrath
Kyle Dempsey
Danny Furlong
Paul Murphy
Lee Aust
Gary Sheahan
Jimmy Keohane
Marty Kelly
David Miller

http://www.finnharps.com/News/090506LimerickPreview.htm

We are without, Havlin, Funston, Cullen, Gethins, Forker and maybe Mukendi who is a doubt. Its going to be interesting to see who we have on the bench tonight.

http://www.derrycityfc.net/cityweb/L...bohemians.html


Derry City v Bohemians
Friday, 08 May 2009 09:28

City face defensive crisis.

STEPHEN KENNY will wait until the last minute to give Peter Hutton a chance of playing amidst an injury crisis that threatens to derail Derry City’s challenge against Bohemians.
Hutton, Clive Delaney, James McLean and Ger O’ Brien have all been ruled as doubtful for todays game and as things stand Kenny has only three fit defenders in Mark McChrystal, Eddie McCallion and Stephen Gray.
The Derry City captain suffered a shoulder injury in Drogheda last week while McLean finished Monday’s game against Galway limping quite badly. Both O’ Brien and Delaney meanwhile have longstanding injuries.
The defensive news is only the tip of the iceberg for Kenny though who could also be without Ciaran Martyn and Gareth McGlynn as he attempts to mastermind a victory over Bohemians which would close the gap at the top of the table to two points.
Speaking to the Derry News, Kenny admitted he has multiple selection concerns ahead of tomorrow’s crucial game but retained his belief that his team could secure the necessary result.
“Some people are now saying that this Bohs team is the best team of all time,” he said. “They have a lot of international players in N’Do, Crowe and Jason Byrne. They won the double last year and they have signed the last two players of the year in N’Do and Brian Shelley, so certainly they’re a formidable team.
“We’ll have to show what we’re about and we know that a victory will put us right back in it, and that’s a tremendous incentive.”
Derry City’s home form of late has been a huge concern to all involved with the club with only one point secured from games against Sligo Rovers, Galway United and Dundalk. Those results have led some commentators to dismiss Derry as title contenders but Kenny believes that is a presumptuous assessment.
“I think it is definitely too early to say that,” he insisted. “Our players have been terrific this season but we’ve just shot ourselves in the foot. We’re unfortunate not to have more points. That’s the reality. “We’ve dominated games and just come out with nothing in games against Bray and Dundalk and I feel we definitely deserved something from the Sligo game also. We’ve been unfortunate.”
The Derry boss also rued the fact that his squad have suffered already from both injury and suspension.
“None of our defenders has played ten games,” he explained. “It’s one of those situations when we haven’t been able to get any consistency. It’s just been one of those periods so if we can see it through we’ll get stronger as the season progresses. It’s a big game on Friday and we must enjoy it.”

http://www.kildarecountyfc.com/?p=1425


lawrence added to squad in time for Waterford game

20 year old centre half Dean Lawrence has been added to the Kildare County in time to be considered for the trip to the RSC tonight to face Waterford Utd.

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Lawrence made his League of Ireland debut as an 18 year old for Shamrock Rovers against Derry City and he went on to make 13 laegue appearances for Rovers during the 2007 season. He spent last season on to loan to Shelbourne but found it hard to break the partnership of Damian Brennan and Alan Keely and he ended up making just four league appearances under Dermot Keely.

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Manager Joey Somerville said, “Apart from the qualities that Dean brings as a player, he is an execellent talker which we have been sorely lacking at the back. We are way too quiet as a team esepecially at the back and Dean will help that. If you look at the goals that we conceded last week, better communication could have helped avoid all three.”

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Joining Lawrence in the squad will be Baba Issaka who returns after a suspension although he will miss out on the next two weeks from a suspension resulting from his sending off against Monaghan Utd. Teenager Craig Purcell is also pushing for a first start after he had a 30 minute run out against Wexford last week.

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On paper this is the biggest mismatch of the season, Waterford have won their last six league games while Kildare have lost their last eight. Waterford strikers Wille John Kiely and Graham Cummins have scored 14 league goals between them while Kildave managed just three as a team.

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Kildare did manage to score in all four league games against Waterford last season, the only team to do so, although Waterford were victorious in all four games.

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Kick off in the RSC is at 7pm.