2015 Fixtures

Been away from the last few games because of all that nonsense with the Blue Army being banned, I'd have some good mates in that group so stood by them. It's over now, there's not going to be a resolution to it unless the crowds seriously nose dive and they ask the lads to come back. My first game back will be this Saturday.

Rather than a new thread for every game, probably easier to keep it all together here.

So season so far?

Rubbish. Bar the Dundalk result and performance against Pats, not a whole lot to see that's been positive.

Sat 25/04/15
Limerick V Rovers
Not really expecting a whole lot from this. Hoping we don't get our arses handed to us on front of an already poor crowd.
Predicitons? Prayers? Hopes? :o

From goalkicks, O'Donnell will pass to a defender, and we will pass the ball round the back, coming under more and more pressure as the opposition close us down, before it is hoofed fairly aimlessly upfield from an even worse situation than the original goalkick. We'll do the same from freekicks and throw-ins, even if they are inside the opposition half.

We've done this many many times every game so far, so I don't expect much to change against Rovers.

We may hold our own until the first goal conceded (we've done that a few times) but we will never look like getting back into it.

Prediction 1-4 but I probably thought the same was going to happen v Dundalk .Can only see a bad beating rovers have built a decent team and have a striker in very good form and with the way we're conceding goals going to be a very difficult night

Great point tonight and very close to bagging all three against the mighty Rovers.Thought we played some lovely football in patches. To hold Dundalk and Rovers proves that this team has something going for it. I think we are well capable of staying up. Galway hammered Bray 5-0 so we are well capable of overtaking Bray and at worst end up in the playoffs.

Good point in fairness but Rovers will be kicking themselves.Good committment out of the lads tonight.Was expecting a bigger rovers crowd.

Excellent point alright, but rovers should easily have had about 4 goals without playing that well. Missed the goal but Duggan played very very well.

Great to get the point last night.

Performances like last nights one are what make the Galway and Bray results a bit harder to take.

I thought once again Clarke was outstanding up front and the only thing he is missing at the moment is goals. Great touch, quick feet, pace and strength. Good attitude also.

Thought Paudie O Connor stepped up with another good performance last night. Again he was far from out of his depth.
Price also had one of his better games.

Good point with a very good rearguard fight throughout the game against a leaderless rovers. Two things are bugging me though. Sean russell is very poor and should not start any game. Equally we have by far the worst keeper in the prem in o'donnell. Sad that the Limerick fans are still banned and that so many rovers couldnt gain entry due to ticket allocation restrictions.

Yeah, Clarke can do everything well except score. Missed a really good chance with that header about 25 minutes in. Missed a similar one against Dundalk also, and missed two great chances against Bray. Hopefully the first one will help him settle and get confident.

Agree on Russell - can't believe that Clarke went off and he stayed on. He offers so little on the wing. Hughes should have come on for hime ealier in the game.

Faherty and Clarke up front looks like our best combination so far. Faherty does a good job winning headers and he and Clarke seem to link together well enough.

O Donnell actually started well enough and made some good catches (great save from a header early on) but missed badly with a punch in the 2nd half and flapped for everythig after that.

Defensively we came under a lot of pressure but stayed strong. Having said that, Rovers missed a sitter through Fahey, had a goal disallowed (was it offside) hit the post twice, and i thought they should have had a penalty for handball, although people around me thought it was his head rather than hand that made contact with it.

Still, a point against Rovers is more than Bray or Galway managed so far.

Good result and tbf you could not fault most of them for effort.in terms of quality the usual problems,O Donnell,Harding,Russell,O Conner[paul] very poor given the positions they play in.once again Duggan outstanding,Clarke until his injury[needs to start scoring.] and both centrehalfs did their bit.have to confess that imo Faherty is a complete bluffer,contributes nothing to the team and is a waste of valuable wages.on another day Rovers would have hit four or five between crossbar,post,blocks on lineand in box, they battered us a bit but the players kept going to the end.pity about the crowd but thats the clubs fault.

Great effort by all to be honest expected a lot more from rovers but a great shift from start to finish. Clarke done a great job up front worked so hard deserved a goal Faherty had his best game I have seen him playing anyway put himself about much more and linked well with Clarke. Price and especially o Connor were excellent and Shane Tracy done a decent job considering it was only his second game back. O donnell for me is a promising keeper and will be good in time but his big weakness is from crosses never looks confident coming out flapped at I don't know how many balls. The goal we gave away was a mess pity we did not hold on but then again hard to argue rovers did not deserve at least a point considering the amount of chances they had second half. It seems we need to be playing the bigger teams to bring out the performance within the team it will be interesting to see if we can keep it going against a struggling Sligo rovers side.

What I liked about Tracy at LB was that we tried that pass-pass-pass across the back, when we came under a bit of pressure he would play a decent ball down the wing rather than let O' Donnell hoof it long, as usually happens.

It looks like Duggan trusts him to play good long passes too, whereas he doesn't seem to trust Harding or Price.

SLIGO ROVERS V LIMERICK
Off to the Showgrounds for yet another relegation 6 pointer tomorrow. The time has come for Russell to prove that he can set this side up to beat fellow strugglers not just nick points off the big guns. Expect the same 11 or 12 personnel again tomorrow night. Heary and Sligo in desperate need of the win probably even more so than us but I expect us to go there and put it up to them on a decent surface with 3 points well within our capabilities. My major worry again tomorrow is Conor O Donnell. With Galway and Drogs losing tonight a win will put us right back in the pack.

Sligo 1-1 Limerick
Last ditch 94th minute Paul O Connor header snatches a point in the Showgrounds. The lads on Ocean FM sounded absolutely dejected. Will feel like a win for Limerick heading back down on the bus. Still no win but the spirit seems to be there and there are positive signs heading in to the second series of games and the return to the Markets Field.

Wow. What a game. Total rubbish from both sides. Robbie Williams motm at center half. Vinnie faherty passing the ball to sligo players and unable to hold the ball up. Sean russell somehow gets another 90 mins under his belt without actually doing anything. With a combined 3 shots on target in the 94 mins you can tell how bad this game was

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gael353

Wow. What a game. Total rubbish from both sides. Robbie Williams motm at center half. Vinnie faherty passing the ball to sligo players and unable to hold the ball up. Sean russell somehow gets another 90 mins under his belt without actually doing anything. With a combined 3 shots on target in the 94 mins you can tell how bad this game was

---

Ah yes Gael ,but its another moral victory snatched from the jaws of defeat ..and ..gives the special few another opportunity to celebrate it in the Icon.we are going to win...soon.

As I reported elsewhere:

We conceded early, through a free header from a corner, and didn't offer much at all in the first half.

In the second, a Tracey corner went all the way through the box, a Bohs defender dallied, and Clarke nipped in to score. We were the better team for a good 15-20 minutes after that, and it was probably the best I've seen us play all season. We created some good chances for a change, although we gave up chances as well. Very lucky to escape after O'Donnell let a Bohs attacker get way too close, and his clearance was blocked down - hit the post and back into play. Clarke did well to create a good chance for Hanlon, but he miscued when in a good position. But as the half went on Bohs pressed more, and when a cross dropped into our box, Jason Byrne turned to score.

Our next 5 games are: Cork (H), Longford (A), Drogheda (H), Pats (A), Dundalk (A). At that stage half of the season will be over, and we may not have even one game.

The games against Longford, Drogheda, Galway, Bray and Sligo this series will be crucial. If we don't start keeping clean sheets and winning, we are definitely looking at relegation.

our last 12 games were crucial,12 without a win..on the Bohs game i thought we were awful at times though we had a decent spell in the second half,Bohs were no great shakes but they were well organised and worked hard all game.delighted Clarke got a goal his workrate alone deserves one.

Conor O'Donnell had 2 (TWO) clearances blocked down on Friday night.

And another one today in Askeaton.

Is this some kind of world record?

Cork at home tonight.
I'm hoping they go the same way all the better ball playing teams have on their visit to Jackman. Pats, Rovers, Dundalk have all struggled to play football there, so here is hoping Cork follow suit and we can get a point.

Things I'd like to see tonight:
- Defenders marking Shepherd (or whoever else is in the box) when the ball goes out wide.
- Everyone marking someone from a corner
- O'Donnell claiming a ball in the air with some degree of authority
- Clarke to score

If any of those things happen and we get a draw I'll be relatively happy.