Shamrock Rovers (H) 01-08-14

Have to say, I am looking forward to this tonight.
After the mess of the last few weeks, there's finally a bit of positivity around again.

I'm hoping all the new lads are ok for this because a midfield 3 of Duggan, Lynch and Prince/ Djilali is a very interesting proposition. Might be a formation tweak as well to accomodate some of the signings.

I'm being optimistic here and say a 2 1 win... and I'll also be realistic and say 1 - 1 draw.
I'd be relatively happy with either result as long as there is a bit of effort from the players and it looks like they know what they're at least trying to do.

thoughts?

Will be interesting to see who of the new lads comes in. In Sligo he played a 4-2-3-1 so maybe a team like

Ryan

Nzuzi Oji Folan Williams

Prince Duggan

Djlali Lynch O'Connor

Gaffney

That is a lot stronger than what we have had recently but he really does need to bring Oji back in you cant drop the best centre back in the league just because Leahy is your pal. I think it could be too early for the new lads to make a difference and can see us losing but ill be happy as long as we see signed of the talent these lads have.

Effort and a bit of attacking is the main thing. At the very least this match needs to be a building block to Bray next Thursday. Once again beating rovers etc... is no good f you continue to lose to the teams around you.

Ryan, Oji, Leahy, Lynch and Djalili start tonight.

Best home performance since we moved to Thomand Park. A joy to watch, stunning goals, beautiful skills, supreme effort from the players. Anyone who wasn't there missed a cracker. Lynch was awesome, Duggan has'nt been better,back 4 solid, Rory was hungry and had fantastic pace and Ryan is a legend. Roll on Thursday night.

Unreal performance....commanding at the back. Lots of energy and good possesion in midfield and gaffney a constant threat up front. I hadnt been to a game for a while but i m delighted i went tonight, total football and some real quality goals. Shamrock rovers are a mess though, croly will get the sack very shortly i think....they were outclassed and outfought in every department. Conor kenna and mcguiness will be having nightmares tonight i d say. Lynch, duggan, hughes, turner and djilali is a nice combination in midfield

Cracking performance tonight.

Lynch, Duggan and Hughes worked brilliantly together. All played for each other and some great football thrown in.

Gaffney was outstanding. I thought himself and Turner looked extremely dangerous when they got running at the rovers back 4. Turner played like a top class winger tonight. Carried out his job extremely well.

Barry Ryan as usual came up with some great saves when needed and the back 4 in general was pretty solid.

I don't know if it was cause it was the first home game under Russell or what but he really got players playing well that have been poor up to tonight. Nzuzi was like a new signing tonight.

Best performance since we came up?

What a difference a bit of quality can do Duggan and Rory looked like completely new players Rory was excellent never gave the Rovers defence a minutes rest.
Lee J Lynch what a debut absolutely fantastic worked so hard kept it simple on the ball just win it move it on really linked the midfield to Gaffney and all of a sudden the problem of strikers being isolated that we had all season were gone. What a ball for Gaffneys goal too.

Another that I had been really disappointed with so far Turner completely changed looked like an actual winger.

A joy to watch and we still have more new lads to come in and Lynch and Djilali to get fully match fit.

We were very good great display at it from start to finish much better shape and look to the team, thank god gaffney did not go to think we could have had zayed a journeyman instead of him were much better off that did not happen he looked a spent force for rovers and gaffney has been our best player for a while, turner was very good as was lynch djilali could not fault his effort but much more to come from him i think i seen him play much better a few times for sligo , saying that rovers were very poor i have never seen them as bad as that and no surprise croly has been shown the door. But who cares great start to martin russells home campaign and great to hammer rovers roll on next thursday we needed that to kick start our season

to get 3pts and be entertained is a rare comodity,we got both with this performance.now before we all get too excited plenty of ..false ..reasons why,russells first home game,new signings buzzing and spreading that buzz and of course opposition players[not all] doing their level best to get their manager the sack.tbf russell did do a fine nights work,good shape to the team,tactics spot on,etc and a few players just might thrive under him,already gaffney looked an improved threat,lets hope it will continue and that points gap to bray widens.the manager still has some spring cleaning to do,will probably leave that until seasons end now.so for rovers its a question of when will fenlon ride into tallaght on his white horse.