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Harps have travelled with almost a whole squad of reserves tonight. Could be an absolute walkover in Wexford. All 5 of the senior registered under 19 squad has travelled as far as I'm aware.
Not the ideal preparation for a cup semi final, but sure, this is the FAI after all, who have also organised the Inter-pros between the four provinces on the same weekend. Insane planning.
HT scores:
Bray 1-0 Derry
St Pats 2-0 Bohs
Rovers 2-0 UCD
Wexford 3-0 Harps
The Wexford v Harps fixture tonight; one example of why the Loi is in such poor state. Pass time there was 1 division league and if possible a regional feeder league. Teams should only play each other twice in the league each year.
Harps are playing mostly kids apparently. Saving themselves for the semi understandably. They can do what they like after last Friday anyway ;)
Actually the team tonight had more front line players than I would have expected. Not that it helped.
Form will have little bearing on Sunday, anything can happen in Cup football.Ive seen us turn over a few so called bigger teams in Europe in my day so there is a game to be played, looking forward to it.
Did it? Fair enough so. Just saw someone saying ye were sending the kids out earlier so had a flutter on Wexford -2 which worked out well in the end!Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr A
Of the starting team that played against Shels, which is expected to be close to our first 11 against Pat's, there was three players. The average age of the starting team was 21. There was two 16 year olds and an 18 year old on the bench, and of the five, the oldest player on the bench was only 23.
There wasn't much in the way of experience about Harps.
A nice rest for Harps so, we played our strongest 11 available tonight bar Brennan and O'Brien who were both on the bench but had knocks, Brennan came on for Fahey. Sean Hoare went off with a knock so hopefully he is available on Sunday otherwise Ken Oman will play and Harps will win at least 5-0.Quote:
Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954
Nice of Bohs to play like a mid table first division side to give us an idea what we will face on Sunday.
I was at the match myself, Pats had it easy, could have had 5, but your keeper made a right balls of that Bohs goal!
Taking the league around the back and shooting it would be a better idea than doing that. At least it would kill it quicker.Quote:
Originally Posted by wonder88
From what I understand, most of the clubs realise a single-tier league might become necessary in future, but ultimately it's not their decision.Quote:
Originally Posted by gufcfan
Very poor attendance in Tallaght tonight, although it's to be expected with the malaise around the club at the moment as well as the weather, schoolnight, etc. UCD were rank bad, which is frustrating because there are moments when you can see how talented some of those players are. I'd take Benson for Rovers tomorrow, and I'd hope Fenlon was thinking the same thing watching him out there. It could easily have been 10-0 Rovers, but in the end UCD hit the post twice which, had things been slightly different, could have made for a very difficult finish (like the first game here between the sides). First time all season Rovers have scored more than two goals at home in the league - that is a horrendous stat.
I would be surprised if it wasn't against UEFA regulations to only have one tier. Even Gibraltar has two divisions.
Nobody ever seems to back up the argument for a single tier LOI with a good argument.
I'm not going to make an argument for a single tier because to be honest I don't have any set position myself as I can see merits and demerits on both sides.
As far as I know, UEFA's requirement is for at least two tiers allowing for some sort of merit-based promotion and relegation, but that doesn't necessarily mean two closed leagues like we have now. Look at it this way, we have 19 clubs (plus a B team) right now. Any single-tier league, to be properly functional, would probably need to be 16 teams, which would leave at least three sides in junior football and outside the league.
Potentially, if you tinkered with the junior structure, you could have it so the bottom-placed LOI teams would be faced with the peril of relegation and the top junior teams would have the carrot of promotion, should they meet the criteria to join the league (a premier licence would be a requirement, you'd imagine). That kind of set-up might be amenable to UEFA as long as you could show it's not a completely closed system.
I think the problem is many of the top non league teams have no desire to enter League of Ireland. If you look at the state of Salthill Devon now after their brief spell in the league you can see why.
I don't know why Tralee and Carlow weren't let in when they expressed an interest.
Funny - I was thinking if I was a Rovers fan, I'd have been annoyed at that performance last night. We were there for the taking - couldn't keep hold of the ball at all - yet Rovers "only" scored three. One of those was a cracker, one a lovely inswinging cross and one a penalty. I guess with all Rovers' possession, I'd have expected them to create more. Granted, O'Donnell made a couple of top class saves, but still.Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
We're going down this year, or else next year for sure.
Because clubs are dying at an alarming rate over the past ten years, and maybe a bit of stability could be brought to one division?Quote:
Originally Posted by gufcfan
Like CD, I see merits to both keeping two divisions and joining both, but the reality is, the problem lies much deeper than just League of Ireland and absolutely anything that is attemted with the league, can only be a short term fix.
We put some stunning moves together against Bohs last night. The move of the night didnt come off for Forrester, but was great to watch. When Forrester is on form like that, it really is worth the entrance fee alone. We are playing with the swagger of last year now and look so threatening with every attack............. but still suspect at the back
Any Idea why Callaghan did an impression of Phil Brown at half time ?Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Bray v Derry was a decent game. Was quite surprised that Derry played a pretty much full strength team though.
We dominated pretty much from start to finish, how we didn't pick up all 3 points i'll never know. Poor Jake Kelly missed chance after chance, well Doherty pulled off a couple of fantastic saves and the woodwork came to Derry's rescue as well. 2 points dropped for Bray. Actually gave them a nil all hammering earlier in the season to so should have an extra 4 points on the board and be safe.