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Friday 9th (19:45 unless stated)
Premier Division
Drogheda v St Pats
Shelbourne v Sligo
Cork V Dundalk
Derry v Bohemians
Shamrock Rovers v UCD (20:00)
First Division
Kerry v Athlone
Treaty v Cobh
Waterford v Bray
Wexford v Galway
Longford v Finn Harps
After our slip ups against Drogheda and Cork (both playing with 12 men) wins over Dundalk and Sligo mean with a win against UCD (not taking anything foe granted) will leave us in decent but not great shape heading into the break...still think we need to be at least 8 or 9 ahead by the time Europe starts...as providing we win the first round we face 8 midweek games pretty much in a row.....even if we lose first round its minimum 4 weeks.
Derry and Bohs draw combined with Drogs taking something off PAts would be ideal.
I cant help but feel a loss for Derry which could see them 4th at the break might be a problem for Higgins...we will see i guess, youd have to hope for a reaction from Derry to the surrender in Inchicore if you are a Derry fan.
If Shels beat Sligo which on current form they will they will be right in the mix for Europe, credit to Duffer no one had them there.
Big game for Dundalk in Cork as being in 6th at the break with Shels ahead of them was not in the script and SOD despite hos legendary status in Dundalk is being questioned for the first time,,,no imediate danger there though.
First Division...What can you say...First place Galway have almost double the points of 3rd place Athlone (23 pts ahead) while 9th place Harps are only 8 points behind Athlone....To say the top two are in a different league is an understatement ....
Assuming Galway win the league , Can Waterford **** it up from here ?
There's nothing for Waterford to **** up though. 2nd to 5th are the playoff spots.Quote:
Originally Posted by sbgawa
This is the first game of the third series of games in Division 1. Galway United took a full 27 from the opening 9 games and dipped to 22 for the next 9. Surprisingly when I looked at it earlier Waterford actually took 1 more point from the first series compared to the second series (20 v 19).
The Waterford v Galway meeting is actually the last game of the third series and looking on paper the way we've been playing at the moment and probably the way everyone else has been playing too, it's hard to see us dropping too many points before that Waterford game comes around.
I meant can they manage to lose to another first division club in the play offs......considering the gap....Quote:
Originally Posted by JC_GUFC
They could still lose the play off against whoever finishes second bottom and have to spend anothe year in the first division with a full time squad and budget. Long wont have given up on realing Galway in and given the uncertainties of the otehr route to promotion they may even add to the squad in July.
Beat Galway twice and the gap is only 4 points......
Yeah - dropping points in Bray wasn't the end of the world by any means for us, though it was the first weekend of the whole season we lost ground on Waterford (when we lost in Longford, they'd lost at home to Wexford earlier that day).Quote:
Originally Posted by sbgawa
In some ways Friday is a big game, it's a long trip, we won't have many fans and Wexford have had a bit of form of late but we really should be beating them.
If we win that we return after the break with home games against Longford and Kerry where 6 points would be expected, so then Waterford just have to keep matching our results. Both sides have scored 51 goals this season - our top scorer has 10 goals - Ronan Coughlan has scored 23! They drew a blank in Longford when he was suspended a few weeks ago - what if he leaves in the transfer window?
I wouldn't be confident on Waterford winning the playoff at the moment. I think they're not as good as last season yet and whoever the 9th club in the Premier Division will end up being they'll be a better side than UCD were either of the last 2 years.
Only thing is though Ronan Coughlan is on fire for Waterford at the moment! Is that his first season at Waterford or not?Quote:
Originally Posted by JC_GUFC
Yes it’s his first season at Waterford. On the topic of Coughlan he’s now just 3 goals away from equalling his entire pre Waterford career leagues goals tally.Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinho II
He scored 26 league goals in 108 appearances over 5 seasons with Bray, Cork, Sligo and Pats in the premier division before dropping to the first division this year where he’s now on 23 goals in 16 apps
We just need the break, unprecedented injury crisis not to mention a few stupid suspensions on top. Avoid defeat against Harps, get bodies back and a few quality signings in and we'll give it a good rattle second half of the season. If either team lose on Friday I sense the negativity will be absolutely crippling and could be hard to come back from.
No better indicator of how brutal the league is,Coughlan is a bang average striker and he’s been made look like Harry Kane in this league!Quote:
Originally Posted by 2 Year Contract
The Marco Negri Of LOI Division 1!Quote:
Originally Posted by 2 Year Contract
I always thought he was a poor finisher hence his bang average hall of goals pre this season. Has his finishing improved ir is he just getting way more chances..?
Yeah I'd agree - I'd have always thought he was very good at hold up play and a clever player in terms of building attacks but just terrible in front of goal. This season definitely a bit of both. There has been some calamitous defending for his goals but maybe as a consequence of scoring some "bad" goals he's gained confidence. Certainly his finish in Galway in the recent defeat was a nice instinctive finish. I did read an interview with him recently where he'd got some sort of mental coaching on it - maybe it's that - maybe it's confidence but 23 goals in 16 games is off the charts!Quote:
Originally Posted by sbgawa
I'll be very interested to see if anyone comes in for him - even Fleetwood!
Can only really speak for his time at Pats but for me he's a good finisher that just doesn't get into position enough. Can't think of a huge amount of chances he missed for us really and he scored some lovely goals, just not a huge amount of them. He'd probably be more use in the PD as a kind of second striker where he can drop in and link things up as he's a good footballer, but equally not really athletic enough or good at dribbling to play as an attacking midfielder.Quote:
Originally Posted by sbgawa
I didn't think the standard of the First Division could have got any worse than the 2015-2017 era but it sounds like 2023 is a very special season I might even be able bang in a dozen goalsQuote:
Originally Posted by joey B
Worked very hard for us but was awful at finishing apart from penaltiesQuote:
Originally Posted by Jack B
RTE really know how to pick the games lately. The live match in Derry has been v poor quality so far - littered with mistakes. Pitch probably doesn’t help mind.
Our match v Cork was also a poor show, madness of the last 10 minutes excepted. (not that I enjoyed that obviously).Quote:
Originally Posted by Philosophizer
Not showing anything like the same form as earlier in the season.
I'm here and both teams are playing absolute p1ss.Quote:
Originally Posted by Philosophizer
It’s awful stuff.Quote:
Originally Posted by Candystripe
Devine really isnt helping the situation by playing McDonnell as no10. He’s not comfortable there at all.
I get that Devine wants to pack the middle with grafters and stop Derry playing but I think he’d be better off playing Coote or Clarke there.