The rogers v o’dowd is all a bit one sided here. The bottom line is rogers had to be dropped – not just for the teams sake but for his own sake as well (confidence being shattered etc.). whenever I played as badly as gary did in his last few matches I would have expected (and always bloody did) to get dropped. Plus when you drop a goalkeeper, it is never for just a couple of matches! The only think I would disagree with doolin about this is what he said to the papers (even though it was true.)
I think coltron has said our season ended with the Longford defeat, I think it was slightly later than that – the second shels goal in the tv game. That was the killer for our season, and it was another mix up between defence and goalkeeper – we have seen it happen often enough. (Now some will argue that there was still plenty to play for after that game (and their was), but the game realistically knocked the stuffing out of us. People can blame doolin for our results since then, but a big blow always knocks the stuffing out of teams, even the best ones – look at how arsenal have done since man united beat them.)
Anyway back to the goalkeeping. Rogers is easily a better shot stopper imo, however there is a lot more in goalkeeping than stopping shots. To me, Gary had ‘lost’ the back four after the shels match. How many times this season have we seen gary and grey argue after a mistake? In the shels match, grey just looked and didn’t even bother to argue – what was the point. Tony talks a lot more during the game, and does have a better command of his box than gary – and despite what people here will say, is not prone to as many silly mistakes.
I would love to see a confidence restored gary back as no.1 next season, with the silly mistakes eliminated from his game, but I imagine doolin only said what he did because he does not plan to use him though.
