Dublin City 0-1 Set Piece City/McKeon
Very, very frustrating. Why did Robbie Horgan start? Why wasn't Foy replaced with Brennan when it became clear that he was, to lapse into the vernacular if one may, boll*xed? How could we dominate a game for 75+ minutes and only create one decent chance (a chance which Cottsy should have buried)?
And most importantly, WTF was McKeon playing at? He made his intentions clear by booking Paul Crowley in the first minute for a desperately late but totally harmless challenge. He then went on to award every single 50/50 (or even 20/80) decision to Cork City. Having seen them almost take the lead (very much against the run of play) with one erroneously-awarded free that hit the post, he evidently decided it would be a lark to award them another (for no discernible reason) in the same position a few minutes later, from which they eventually scored off a rebound (Robbie should have reacted more quickly to both shots.) There's no obvious reason why he should have favoured Cork City so overwhelmingly, unless he's just a sadist who picks one team to p*ss off in each game he handles. This is the only possible explanation.
Brian Kerr was sitting beside me, I think my constant swearing at McKeon and kicking the (empty) seat in front of me after Cottsy's miss may have startled him.
Service to the forwards was very hesitant, and we never got any momentum going. Defensively we were okay, Cork only began to open us up when we became perceptibly tired in the final ten minutes and began playing a formation which looked something like 2-1-4-3. Still, if that's a championship contender, we should be okay.
AAAAARGGGHHH. Another one that got away. Can't aford to make it any more of a habit than it already is.
