Neillierless City 2-1 Champions - thoughts and ratings
Yes, it was only the League Cup, but beating a more-or-less full-strength Shels team is thoroughly laudable under any circumstances. For what it's worth, the Shels XI was: Williams, Pender, Crawley, McCarthy, Rogers, Crawford, Cahill, S. Byrne, Fitzpatrick, Morgan, Heary. Jason Byrne and the tiny winger Robbie Shields (who was breathtaking in spells) came on at half-time.
I was a little star-struck in the first half, as Gary O'Neill, Wes Byrne, Keith Maher, Paul Crowley and Toccy plonked themselves right in front of me. Couldn't help overhearing some very positive vibes with regard to the team's form from Wes in particular, which is encouraging. (Although, like most footballlers on these occasions, they only paid attention to the game for about ten of the first forty-five minutes. Neiller, Wes and Toccy talkative, Marrsy and Paul very quiet.)
Thought Ollie chasing the ref's assistant down the line and roaring abuse in his ear was bang out of order.
Anyway, our record against the (supposedly) big four in Dublin this season stands at - P: 6 W: 3 D: 2 L: 1.
Ratings:
Brendan Kennedy: 8
One dodgy punch aside, looked solid.
Barry Burke: 7
Showed once against that he has enough footballing ability to "bluff" his way through a game at right-back without looking conspicuously out of place. Skinned repeatedly by the impressive Shels sub Robbie Shields, but then many regular full-backs would have struggled against the little man's pace and trickery, too.
Keith Foy: 6.5
The latest midfielder-turned-full-back did well enough, but may have been slightly at fault in the build-up to Shels' goal. Lack of mobility prevented him from contributing anything in attack, but set-piece delivery top-notch as usual.
Ben Whelehan: 6
A slight downward trend evident in recent performances, but nothing glaring.
Derek Griffin: 6.5
Hoho! Very lucky not to walk for persistently rough treatment of Jason Byrne, and didn't always look comfortable. Some isolated flashes of his usual excellence, though. Jayo won't forget his deceptively innocent face for a while...
Ray Scully: 6
Workmanlike (some good work, some not-so-good work and plenty of hard work.) Switched wings with Cottsy for a spell, but looks more at home in the centre.
Cathal O'Connor: 5
Cottsy seems to have only two settings - stellar and anonymous. This performance fell into the latter category, but his workrate remained undiminished.
Jason Colwell: 7.5
Busy and intelligent. Involved in some superb triangles of passing.
Dom Tierney: 6.5
An improvement on early season form. Still hasn't grasped the importance of quick service to the striker in the Viking gameplan, preferring to dawdle on the ball and allow opponents regroup. But the graph's going in the right direction.
Terry Gleeson: 5
Not at the races. Looks to be low on confidence.
Philly Hughes: 8.5 - Man of the Match (mine and official)
Offers an interesting alternative to Gary O'Neill in the lone striker's position. Whereas Neiller's brilliance lies in his ability to win the ball with his back to goal, hold it up and lay it off, Philly prefers to take defenders on face-to-face and cut inside. Lively again last night, and took his goal coolly before calmly feeding Robbie Collins for the winner.
SUBS:
Robbie Collins: 7.5
Scored a last-minute winner with the only chance he was given. Can't ask any more of a striker.
Dave McGill: ??
Now, I'm trying to remember if he came on or not, and I can't. Actually, I'm pretty sure he did. I know Gleeson, Tierney and Cottsy went off, and I'm pretty sure McGill replaced one of them. When I tried to spot him out on the field, however, I couldn't see him anywhere. So he was either pretty anonymous, injured, or else I'm spectacularly unobservant.
Pierre Ennis: N/R
Not on long enough. Seemed to be playing on the left wing, though??
