One-third in - how's it going?

See if we can get a bit of midweek discussion going. (I miss the good old days when there was some insanity happening every week it seemed! The LoI is getting old and a bit dull :p)

So by way of random discussion - we're just gone past the one-third mark in the Premier. The weekly match threads seem to have more fans giving out than being optimistic. I wonder if that translates to a majority of clubs' fans not being happy with the season to date?

A quick run through as I see it, but interested to get the views from around the league.

Derry - have to be delighted with their start. One point from six against Drogheda and Shels was really poor, but the response has arguably been worth the blip. Let's say 9/10 on the absolutely rigorously-scientific-not-at-all-to-stir-debate "supporter satisfied scale".
Rovers - only three points behind and grinding out wins, but how are they always struggling for goals? Is there cause for concern ahead of the European games? They really should be targetting the Conference League groups, but a repeat of last year's disaster isn't impossible at all. 6/10?
Dundalk - have to be happy with third. Given the chaos of pre-season, that's surely about as good as they could have hoped for at this stage? Not sure if they can keep it up, but for now it has to be 7/10 at least.
Sligo - only lost three games, but seem to be underwhelming so far? Seem to see regular complaints from Sligo fans about the season. 4/10?
Pat's - inconsistent and the 4-0 against Derry was a bit of an eye-opener in terms of how far off the top they may be. Doyle and Forrester in the team but fewer goals than everyone bar the bottom three. 3/10.
Bohs - going backwards the last couple of seasons it seems. A tough few games coming up too. 4/10.
Drogheda - to not be in the bottom two at this stage has to be a result given the exodus in pre-season. Defence is a worry, but for now they have to be up around 7/10.
Shels - have won away to Sligo and Derry, and lost twice to Harps. It's not dull anyway, but is it any good? That last-minute goal in Harps last week has probably dropped them from 6/10 to 4/10. Thin margins at times.
Harps - seem to be ****e except when they play Shels. Again, last week probably moves them up a bit, from 3/10 to 4s?
UCD - was always going to be a struggle, but I think we should still be going better than this. Don't think we're that much worse than last time (Scales/O'Neill/Farrugia/8 other punters v Todd/Kerrigan/Whelan/8 other punters), but the table doesn't lie and the end of the season looks a long way away. 3/10.

First Division clubs - nobody can be happy down there. 0/10 :p

Anyways - discuss...

In regards to Rovers, up until yesterday, I would have said that we are going along swimmingly, and in a decent ace to kick on and be successful this season.
That all goes out the window if the Rovers mgmt team decide to leave tho.
Derry are doing better than expected, and everyone else bar the students are just a mish mash of some half decent players and little consistency.

We just haven’t replaced the players we lost with the same quality of player,our best signing is probably a fella we signed from Letterkenny Rovers which speaks for itself,it’ll be a long struggle of a season for us but from I’ve seen from Drogheda,UCD and Shels they aren’t much better!

For Dundalk, pretty happy. We play with a bit of steel. For me, that back 5 is able to win leagues. I think eyes should already be on shoring up contracts for next season and all the winter transfers seem to be able to offer something. Mark Connolly might be signing of the season. There is a buzz about the team, and hopefully we can continue on improving, while adding depth.

There is definitley problems in the team. Lack creativity and we rely on Keith Ward too much. Center midfield has been an issue for years, and doesn't have the best ability to boss a game or to open teams up (although recent performences might indicate a change). Bradley is very good, but hasn't gotten a good run. Other than that, we don't have another decent winger. Team is still trying to find itself going forward. When Bob Benson comes back it should pick up another gear. We also had one horror show away to Drogheda, which was a dire performence. The team also is fairly thin, and we have a consistency problem, even during games. I dont think we played a game yet that we were good in both halves.

But to be honest, it is a long term thing, and it is great building blocks. Each lad coming in has a great attitude and seem to be enjoying playing for the club. And while we have issues with the team, they are addressable. It will be interesting race for 3rd spot. Pats were the better team against us and are only 1 point behind, but there seems to be more bad feelings over there. In saying that, I really feel like we are only 2 players short of challenging for the league.

So all in all, pretty happy, the team is young and seems to have some potential. Hopefully we get better in each round, and next year hit Europe again.

I would say im happy enough with Rovers , unlucky to lose in Derry , cant believe Sligo drew with us twice but as you say comes down to not scoring enough goals.
Do feel we are close to clicking , would have been 5 wins on the bounce if we'd beaten Sligo which we should have.
More concerned about how good DErry look tbh, huge game next Friday
Management leaving will be a problem and the replacement if it happens will be seen as the reason we do or don't win the league.
I think its more likely a run in Europe costs us the league than anything else.
Looks like we we are seeded now for Q1 so a win there gives us 6 more weeks guaranteed and if we win one of the 3 rounds we have 6 more (14 weeks of midweek matches) so i honestly reckon we need to be at least 8 or 9 points ahead of Derry by the time we get to Europe (5th July).
So that's ten games between then and now including 1 against Derry ....we need a hell of a run.

If we dont have a decent lead by then id nearly be happy getting knocked out early and winning the league.

10/10 for Harps. Lured everyone into a false sense of security and we mount our title charge from here.

I'm not convinced Rovers' management leaving will be that disruptive. I can't help linking lack of goals to management which have frustrated me for a while. It's pretty football by numbers and technically sound but not very effective at penetrating a low block. Maybe new ideas will unlock the real potential of this squad.

Who would be the manager then, If they do decide to leave. Apart from O'Donnell there isn't any other decent managers in the league. Recruiting from outside the LOI is always fraught with danger, imo.
Surely players want stability in the dugout more than anything, so a lack of security about who's running the team will lead to a drop off in performances.

I expected some ups and downs this year with the new set up. I didn't anticipate an abject performance like the one on Friday. After the first two games this season (Presidents cup v Rovers & Away to $hels) I was hopeful of at least a third place at minimum, now id see that as an fantastic season. I think we wont win the cup this year and wont qualify for Europe via the league. Hopefully is a sunny away trip in July. 4/10

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Originally Posted by sbgawa

Do feel we are close to clicking , would have been 5 wins on the bounce if we'd beaten Sligo which we should have.

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I think there's something in this alright, but then I wonder why Rovers need a third of the season to click?

Surely they should be a fairly established, settled, squad at this stage? Manager in his sixth full season. Two-time reigning champions. Not a huge amount of squad turnover over pre-season (certainly compared to Derry). Surely it should be a well-oiled machine at this stage?

Great

Came into the season not knowing what to expect from our team. Definitely thought Waterford and Galway had better teams on paper than us. Was definitely worried about a lack of goals, aside from Cian Murphy and Barry Coffey, definitely wasn't expecting much from Ruairi Keating.

After 13 games we are in first place 3 points/1 game played more than Galway and we're 12 points clear of the rest of the pack having beaten everyone. One more point and we'll have matches last years total, and we're only 6 goals behind our total for last year, while only conceding 6 goals in total.

We've been winning comfortably and playing well in most games, though Galway and Bray in particular came to Turners Cross and stifled us and that is somewhat worrying. On the plus side we had a bit of a shaky period recently and aside from dropping points at home to Bray we won the rest of our games so thats probably a good sign.

Matt Healy is probably the player we are most surprised by/excited by and whether he stays beyond his current loan will have a lot of influence on how our season ends, as will Barry Coffey to a lesser extent. It says a lot that 6 goal Barry Coffey is not considered our best player. Both are out of contract with their mother clubs so there is some hope they might sign permanent deals with their "hometown" team (Healy is from Cork, Coffey from Nenagh) Ruiari Keating has been very good, in addition to his goals. Very happy with his performances. Ally Gilchrist has been key as well, and we're all wondering why Shels let him go.

We also have a number of key players to come back from injury so we're feeling confident about the season, though everyone has their eyes on the Galway away game at the end of May. I would expect a sizable traveling crowd for that game.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

I think there's something in this alright, but then I wonder why Rovers need a third of the season to click?

Surely they should be a fairly established, settled, squad at this stage? Manager in his sixth full season. Two-time reigning champions. Not a huge amount of squad turnover over pre-season (certainly compared to Derry). Surely it should be a well-oiled machine at this stage?

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Form can just suddenly come though, in any sport. I can see the points for continuity but I just think the squad is experienced enough to handle a couple of games without Bradley and I think some new ideas could well get more out of the squad. Pure speculation of course.

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Originally Posted by D24Saint

I expected some ups and downs this year with the new set up. I didn't anticipate an abject performance like the one on Friday. After the first two games this season (Presidents cup v Rovers & Away to $hels) I was hopeful of at least a third place at minimum, now id see that as an fantastic season. I think we wont win the cup this year and wont qualify for Europe via the league. Hopefully is a sunny away trip in July. 4/10

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One plus point for me this season was that we were fairly solid at the back despite losing the likes of Desmond and Jaros and with Paddy Barrett out injured , but even that fell apart against Derry.

I'm not happy with Shels on the field, everything off the field looking so much more promising for the club after a mostly miserable 15 years

In terms of where we are this season we have ripped up a decent part-time FD title winning squad and swapped for a mostly poor full-time PD squad who will be struggling to finish above 9th so I'm pretty disappointed so far and I don't see it getting better unless there is serious July transfer window activity. Duff's appointment has brought a huge buzz around the club, sold big numbers of season tickets and generated alot of sponsorship revenue so all great on those aspects. Duff likes to play football and is committed to a 3-4-3 wing back system, everything I've heard around his professionalism and training is all very positive but he doesn't have the quality of players to execute what he is trying to do though they have dug in to pull off surprise away wins at Sligo and Derry. I'm concerned if our home win drought continues all the early season positivity around the club may start to turn sour. After suffering relegation in 2020 it cannot happen again. Any of Shels, Drogheda, Harps or UCD settling for 9th spot and a play-off is asking for trouble with one of those 3 full-time FD teams as likely opponents

Having seen most of the teams in action this season I don't think any team is up to much so I'm positive if we can get things together on the field as the season goes on we will be in good shape to push up the table come 2023 and 2024

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Form can just suddenly come though, in any sport.

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True. I fully agree with your previous comment though ("I can't help linking lack of goals to management which have frustrated me for a while[...]Maybe new ideas will unlock the real potential of this squad") and that's why if I were a Rovers fan, I wouldn't be as satisfied with the season so far as others seem to be. But that's their call of course.

But certainly can't deny that they have that habit of grinding out wins without playing well. Maybe it's unrealistic to expect a 2020 season every year.

For Galway United promotion is the target - anything less is a failure.

As we saw last year getting promoted from the playoffs is very tricky. In the last few years Longford and UCD have been very lucky that the Premier Division side have been in turmoil when they've faced them but all things being equal should we face Harps or Drogheda in a playoff after getting through 2 rounds of the Division 1 playoffs they'd be favourites.

We had a brilliant win on the first day down in Cork but at half-time in the second game against Waterford we were 0-2 down and it looked like we were going to fall 6 points behind them and that they'd run away with the league. A brilliant second half display saw us nearly beat them and re-find Stephen Walsh as a striker. It also seemed to completely blow their confidence.

Because of the nature of the fixture list and having the bye so early, while Cork have theirs towards the end we've always been playing catch-up on them. We had a few poor performances against Treaty and Athlone where we got away with wins but then went to Longford and were absolutely woeful and got beaten. Since then we've bounced back and the style of football has improved.

We have now achieved the best start in our history, though there is such a gap in standard between the top and bottom in this Division it's hard to imagine the top sides dropping too many points.

I'd say 7/10 so far - the football could improve a bit to add more excitement but ultimately promotion and ideally the title are what it's all about and we're pretty much bang on track for that.

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Originally Posted by El-Pietro

Came into the season not knowing what to expect from our team. Definitely thought Waterford and Galway had better teams on paper than us. Was definitely worried about a lack of goals, aside from Cian Murphy and Barry Coffey, definitely wasn't expecting much from Ruairi Keating.

After 13 games we are in first place 3 points/1 game played more than Galway and we're 12 points clear of the rest of the pack having beaten everyone. One more point and we'll have matches last years total, and we're only 6 goals behind our total for last year, while only conceding 6 goals in total.

We've been winning comfortably and playing well in most games, though Galway and Bray in particular came to Turners Cross and stifled us and that is somewhat worrying. On the plus side we had a bit of a shaky period recently and aside from dropping points at home to Bray we won the rest of our games so thats probably a good sign.

Matt Healy is probably the player we are most surprised by/excited by and whether he stays beyond his current loan will have a lot of influence on how our season ends, as will Barry Coffey to a lesser extent. It says a lot that 6 goal Barry Coffey is not considered our best player. Both are out of contract with their mother clubs so there is some hope they might sign permanent deals with their "hometown" team (Healy is from Cork, Coffey from Nenagh) Ruiari Keating has been very good, in addition to his goals. Very happy with his performances. Ally Gilchrist has been key as well, and we're all wondering why Shels let him go.

We also have a number of key players to come back from injury so we're feeling confident about the season, though everyone has their eyes on the Galway away game at the end of May. I would expect a sizable traveling crowd for that game.

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echo most of that . healy bolger and keating all excellent this year, two lads in midfield especially. been a little disappointed with coffey overall but still cant mumble at 6 goals.

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Originally Posted by JC_GUFC

For Galway United promotion is the target - anything less is a failure.

As we saw last year getting promoted from the playoffs is very tricky. In the last few years Longford and UCD have been very lucky that the Premier Division side have been in turmoil when they've faced them but all things being equal should we face Harps or Drogheda in a playoff after getting through 2 rounds of the Division 1 playoffs they'd be favourites.

We had a brilliant win on the first day down in Cork but at half-time in the second game against Waterford we were 0-2 down and it looked like we were going to fall 6 points behind them and that they'd run away with the league. A brilliant second half display saw us nearly beat them and re-find Stephen Walsh as a striker. It also seemed to completely blow their confidence.

Because of the nature of the fixture list and having the bye so early, while Cork have theirs towards the end we've always been playing catch-up on them. We had a few poor performances against Treaty and Athlone where we got away with wins but then went to Longford and were absolutely woeful and got beaten. Since then we've bounced back and the style of football has improved.

We have now achieved the best start in our history, though there is such a gap in standard between the top and bottom in this Division it's hard to imagine the top sides dropping too many points.

I'd say 7/10 so far - the football could improve a bit to add more excitement but ultimately promotion and ideally the title are what it's all about and we're pretty much bang on track for that.

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Surely the best bit for Galway all season has been developments off the pitch as well ?

For us I was extremely sceptical after a lot of our players leaving us plus local favourite Aodh Dervin. We made a poor start after a stop start to season with bad weather and drew with Cork and lost to Bray. Then we hit our mojo and played brilliant football and went 7 games unbeaten. Darren Craven and Eric Molloy the stand out players for me but since we played Cork City and Galway Utd we have gone backwards and I think the lack of confidence in getting a standalone striker has gone against us. For me 6/10 so far and we will make the playoffs just about.