Who do footballers hate more Officials or Journalists?
Interesting report in the Sligo Champion on the Athlone game.....here is a few snippets...
"In yet another poor advertisement for the Eircom First Division, a league in which Rovers have floundered for past five years, it must have been fairly clear at the final whistle to Connor that major surgery is needed to build a championship winning team at The Showgrounds.
This present side is definitely going nowhere and on a night when the players should have been giving that extra special effort in front of a new manager they fell into mediocrity after a promising enough start.
Goalkeeper, Kenneth O'Malley was less than assured, particularly on crosses and he had a very jittery spell just before the break before settling somewhat in the second-half.
Full backs, Ramuel Miller and Philip Gallagher had reasonable performances but the centre back pairing of Gerry Carr and Barry O'Dwyer looked far from comfortable.
Collectively, the back four lack assuredness and a certain amount of finesse which should be expected at this level, even if it is only the Eircom League First Division. Far too often balls were literally hoofed over the touchline when a confident player would have sought out a colleague.
At midfield, Rafaele Cretaro was Rovers' best performer. Though deservedly booked on 86 minutes for making a meal of an innocuous challenge, he was Rovers' busiest player and displayed an appetite to win that was sadly missing in a lot of his colleagues.
Mark Cassidy was again largely anonymous in midfield and though he has played in the middle of the park before, Steve Feeney looked out of position against Athlone and perhaps his best position is at centre half.
Gareth Gorman's contribution was hardly noteworthy and even when switched to fill in at full back in the second-half when Miller was taken off, he gave the ball away on several occasions and looked to be totally ill at ease.
Up front, Paul McTiernan again struggled to make an impact as he continues to struggle with injury.
Though he managed to grab a well taken goal, Ciaran Foley doesn't appear to be quick nor mobile enough to play up front and for the most part caused no difficulty for an Athlone rear guard not noted for its pace.
The introduction of Stephen O'Donnell for the second half prompted something of a mini revival for Rovers but with Cretaro the only real option he could link with this line of attack was soon running out of options.
Connor couldn't have wished for a better start as Rovers pressed early on. Gerry Carr was unlucky with a header after six minutes and four minutes later, Rovers had taken the lead thanks to a calamitous error from Athlone goalkeeper, Anthony Fennelly."
We would all agree that Rovers were poor on the night (quote "even if it was only the First Division") but the problem I have with this report is that it was written by Paul Deering who was the FOURTH OFFICIAL on the night...................Only in Ireland would you get this, should the FAI allow this particularily his remarks about "even if it is only Eircom First Division"
I would suggest Mr Deering to stick to his day job, but I am not sure which job that is !
07/10/2004, 3:41 PM
gustavo
he must be a crap ref if thats the "only" level he can ref at
07/10/2004, 6:39 PM
DonalE
He is terrible
08/10/2004, 10:09 AM
gustavo
simple do you ever stay on topic to the thread or are you just going to use every post you have to push your own agenda
08/10/2004, 5:49 PM
DonalE
Just ignore him and he'll eventually stop,just dont respond. Seriously
