Derry game.... my view

We had about 25 fans at the game and made a good bit of noise which is probably a first for City games in Derry and shows once again how good our away support has become.

Anyway, onto the game itself.
The first half was basically a non-event with both sides cancelling each other out.
However, in the second half we dominated throughout, Nwanko and Fenn both had shots from the edge of the box that went narrowly over and Doyler should have scored a second but hit it straight at Jennings. There was also a bit of a scramble with numerous players (Colin, Nwanko, George) having shots blocked. Derry created little and look to be a very poor side imo.
The ref was a disgrace, the worst display I've seen from a ref for a long time and that includes some of the shockers we've seen from O'Neill, McKeon and Stokes in recent times. Remember the name Paul Tuit, he's bound to screw us over again at some stge this season. The linesman on the near side was just as bad, gave throws to the wrong team a few times, failed to recognise a blatant foul throw and did nothing when Colin was pushed and shoved right in front of him. It was this pushing that led to Colin's red card, he threw the ball away and started mouthing off to the linesman. Yes it as a stupid reaction but the linesman failed to protect him when he was being fouled. Couldn't see the penalty so I can't really comment but I heard mixed views on it from Derry fans in the jacks afterwards.

Greg was man of the match, he played really well both defnsively and going forward, right back is definately his best position. George was also outstanding, played well in midfield and helped out in defense on numerous occasions. Nwanko, Doyler and Danny Murphy also did well. In fact the only player who didn't look up to it was Sweeney, he was totally over run in midfield and played a lot of stray balls. Maybe he just needs time but at the moment he's just a little bit off the required standard.

We seem to be saying this after every game but we should have won it quite easily. Again, luck was not on our side. We're not doing anything wrong, in fact we're doing quite well but the amount of bad luck we've had this season has been unbelievable.... we've had 3 penos given against us, scored 3 unlucky og's and there were a couple of silly mistakes be Mick Devine and Dan Murray. Still though evry other team bar Shels is as inconsistant as us and our luck will change at some stage. A good performance last night and a draw in the Brandywell is never a bad result for us.

Colm - good summary, thanks.
I tend to agree with you on a lot of your comments re the season so far.

Now that the hysteria of a few early defeats has died down I also believe our luck will change. The penalties ( 3 against to date ), OG's ( 3 so far ), injuries ( O'Flynn x 2, Hoggy, Coughlan ) and basic errors from set-pieces have been incredible - who else has been struck with so much bad luck so early?

All teams struggle at some stage. In some ways it may be a blessing in disguise for it to happen to us now. Remember Bohs last year. They had a shocker for the first 6 weeks and still went ahead of Shels in the last month only to blow it on the last couple of weeks of the season.

Our team is too good. Players will start hitting form soon and you will see the gap narrowing over the next month, I reckon. It is harder to lead from the start and win, than to come from behind and win.

Drogs will be interesting. Another kicking match I reckon, but I have a feeling we will start standing up for ourselves.

One very interesting point is that our away form is very good this year ( excellent second half vs. Rovers, outclassed SPA totally, good second half vs Derry and did enough vs Longford ) so once we get our home form together .......... who knows.

Keep the faith ........ as Bon Jovi would say! ;)

Mick Devine must be feeling luck has deserted him alright after another penalty.
Conceeding from set-pieces isn't bad luck, it's carelessness. Having said that, it's something that should be easily sorted.

Credit to those that made the trip.

Have to agree ... fair play to all that went up .... i'd love to have gone but cant ... i'll try and go in August alright though.

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Originally Posted by tiktok

Mick Devine must be feeling luck has deserted him alright after another penalty.

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He could have saved 2 of those if he had a stronger hand and a bigger belly.

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Originally Posted by Colm

We had about 25 fans at the game and made a good bit of noise which is probably a first for City games in Derry and shows once again how good our away support has become.

Anyway, onto the game itself.
The first half was basically a non-event with both sides cancelling each other out.
However, in the second half we dominated throughout, Nwanko and Fenn both had shots from the edge of the box that went narrowly over and Doyler should have scored a second but hit it straight at Jennings. There was also a bit of a scramble with numerous players (Colin, Nwanko, George) having shots blocked. Derry created little and look to be a very poor side imo.
The ref was a disgrace, the worst display I've seen from a ref for a long time and that includes some of the shockers we've seen from O'Neill, McKeon and Stokes in recent times. Remember the name Paul Tuit, he's bound to screw us over again at some stge this season. The linesman on the near side was just as bad, gave throws to the wrong team a few times, failed to recognise a blatant foul throw and did nothing when Colin was pushed and shoved right in front of him. It was this pushing that led to Colin's red card, he threw the ball away and started mouthing off to the linesman. Yes it as a stupid reaction but the linesman failed to protect him when he was being fouled. Couldn't see the penalty so I can't really comment but I heard mixed views on it from Derry fans in the jacks afterwards.

Greg was man of the match, he played really well both defnsively and going forward, right back is definately his best position. George was also outstanding, played well in midfield and helped out in defense on numerous occasions. Nwanko, Doyler and Danny Murphy also did well. In fact the only player who didn't look up to it was Sweeney, he was totally over run in midfield and played a lot of stray balls. Maybe he just needs time but at the moment he's just a little bit off the required standard.

We seem to be saying this after every game but we should have won it quite easily. Again, luck was not on our side. We're not doing anything wrong, in fact we're doing quite well but the amount of bad luck we've had this season has been unbelievable.... we've had 3 penos given against us, scored 3 unlucky og's and there were a couple of silly mistakes be Mick Devine and Dan Murray. Still though evry other team bar Shels is as inconsistant as us and our luck will change at some stage. A good performance last night and a draw in the Brandywell is never a bad result for us.

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Almost sounds like you were sober enough to remember the game

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Originally Posted by Colm

I heard mixed views on it from Derry fans in the jacks afterwards..

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Strange place to be meeting the home fans but each to their own.

;)

Yeah, somewhere between 25 and 30 city fans there, which wasn't too bad at all. I'm still recovering from the journey, but what can ya do. Counting Crow has a very good point- the two penalties we've conceded in away games have (from where I was standing) been dubious, and neither Longford or Derry looked much like scoring before they were awarded- we'd have another 4 points if they hadn't been, which would put us third. We're not too far off being a very good team, but I think we will need time to gel. Dolan was criticised on this board (by me and others) for repeating the same mistakes, but he seems to have got it right now over the last few games and I think we could be in for a very good season. provided Shels don't run away with it completely I think there's a good chance we could be there or thereabouts come the end.

As for the game itself, I'd agree with Colm on a lot. Greg was outstanding, as was Georgie; Dan Murray had his best game of the season IMO.

Ratings:

Devine 8 very good performance. As far as i remember he caught every corss he came for bar one which he got a good punch on. Looked like he was back in command of his area.
Greg 9 Excellent since he's come back. Solid defensively and played some nice passes forward.
Murphy 7 Solid as a rock, didn't get forward too much though.
D Murray 7 Much better than in the last few games. Never looked too troubled and tried to keep the ball on the deck
Benno 7 His partnership with Dan is the best centre-half pairing we have IMO. Solid and calm.
Colin T 4 Didn't play badly, but his sending off was sheer stupidity and IMO cost us a win. Whether the officials were right or wrong he'd been booked and should have kept his gob shut.
Nwanko 7 Worked very hard, but Derry looked strong on their right side. Had to track back a lot and Derry marshalled him well when he got forward. Good corners.
Sweeney 6 Took too long to settle into the game IMO. Worked his socks off. Did well when city were on top, but maybe wasn't experienced enough to have started a tough game like this.
George 8 Worked really hard. A real box to box performance, good passing good vision- the guy is a gem.
Doyler 7 Worked very hard, but winning headers against Clive Delaney was never on. Ran and ran and ran and got a cracking header.
Fenn 5 very poor. Easily his worst performance of the season. he just didn't look interested. I would have hauled him off at half time. All well and good having good vision and a great touch, but you need to work too- would do well to watch a few videos of georgie.

As for the ref, I don't think he was too bad to be honest. He got 2 or 3 important calls badly wrong, but he wasn't helped by a terrible linesman on the near side. Don't think he was anywhere near as bad as stokes or O'Neill.

A point isn't a bad result, I think we'd have held out if Colin hadn't lost the head, but my only criticism is that we defended too deep towards the end. If we keep performing like this we'll pick up a lot of points away from home

Jees I thought it was a terrible game with two very bad sides, that was one of the worst Cork teams I've seen in the Brandywell. I'm not just slagging - we were poo as well, but I think youse are giving your performance far to much praise.

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Originally Posted by Colm

The ref was a disgrace, the worst display I've seen from a ref for a long time ... Paul Tuit

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He was brutal in our game against Bray at the start of the season too.

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Originally Posted by Candystripe

Jees I thought it was a terrible game with two very bad sides, that was one of the worst Cork teams I've seen in the Brandywell. I'm not just slagging - we were poo as well, but I think youse are giving your performance far to much praise.

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When you look at some of our results in Derry in recent times, a draw is a good result. Last minute goals are a killer and again fair play to everyone that made it up to Derry...it's a bit of a trip alright.

Well its finally happened, Dolan has lost it!

In the echo today in his post match interview he is speaking of "conspiracy theories", due to amount of spooters we have been conceding. He has no clue for what the penalty was for, reckons Colin is a "future Taosieach"(daily mirror) and is "an altar boy", and hasnt a notion what the sending off was for!

I assume he is just playing the meeja again as pretty much everyone said that Colin, whether he was fouled or not, fcuked up and deserved a second yellow.

It certainly was interesting reading . :confused: :D

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Originally Posted by Gary

I assume he is just playing the meeja again

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Yeah, i'd say thats all it is. If ya have a big mouth- use it :D :D ]

And what do ya mean he's finally lost 'it'??? He hasn't had 'it' for years if you ask me :D :D

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Originally Posted by Gary

In the echo today in his post match interview he is speaking of "conspiracy theories", due to amount of spooters we have been conceding.

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It's the best theory I've heard so far.... doubt it's true though. I'd say it's far more likely that Ollie Byrne has been posting brown envelopes to the homes of el refs!

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Originally Posted by Gary

I assume he is just playing the meeja again as pretty much everyone said that Colin, whether he was fouled or not, fcuked up and deserved a second yellow.

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Yeah Colin deserved a second yellow for his reaction alright. However, he wouldn't have reacted like that if the linesman had signalled a foul when the Derry players were pushing and shoving him. Yet again the ref/linesman failed to protect our players, maybe that's what Dolan is getting at.

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Originally Posted by Colm

Yeah Colin deserved a second yellow for his reaction alright. However, he wouldn't have reacted like that if the linesman had signalled a foul when the Derry players were pushing and shoving him. Yet again the ref/linesman failed to protect our players, maybe that's what Dolan is getting at.

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to be fair the look on colin's face when he realised what he had done showed that he knew he had done somethin stupid. still though, throwing tantrums like that when you're on a yellow card is only going to result in one thing.

one other thing... drop neale fenn, when Flynnaldo's fit. He hasn;t fit into this team and his work rate is terrible. georgie's vision and playmaking are sorely missed up front.

Bit harsh to say drop Fenn.

He was signed to play upfront with Flynn, they have played together as the two upfront twice/three times. Flynny himself rates Fenn very highly.

How about Doyler up front though, the only striker in the eircom league who scored in every game he's played(as a striker);)