Bray is a must win game now.
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Bray is a must win game now.
Very annoying result, especially with Longord getting a couple of wins lately and us throwing away a chance to put some space between us...
UCD threw away the chance of moving up to seventh in the table when blowing a 2-0 lead against Longford Town in Belfield on Tuesday. Despite scoring twice in the opening 20 minutes, two defensive lapses allowed the Town back for a share of the spoils.
UCD made one enforced change from the team which had lost to Cork on Friday - Alan Cawley came in for the injured Tony McDonnell, who expects to be out for a couple of weeks yet. However, UCD started where they left off against Cork with some good attacking football, and were rewarded with a brace from Pat McWalter, which seemed to set them on their way to three points. First, a deep cross was knocked across the face of goal, and McWalter was on hand to blast home to an empty net from five yards on te quarter hour. Then, two minutes later, Longford keeper Michael Dempsey was beaten to a high ball by McWalter, whose header bounced over the line to give the College a dream start.
Longford hardly threatened at all until the half hour, when a defensive howler gifted them a goal back. Darren Quigley appeared to have a through ball under control, but inexplicably allowed the Longford attacker to get a tow to the ball to send it across it six yard box, where Fitzgerald tapped home from no more than a yard out.
The Town could have been level five minutes later, but Quigley redeemed himself with an acrobatic save from an overhead kick just inside the area.
UCD lost Brian Shortall at half time through injury, and Darragh Ryan was brought on in his stead. However, within two minutes of the restart, Ryan had contributed to Longford's equaliser, when his back-pass was left woefully short of Quigley in the College goal. Quigley, to his credit, was out quick and made a superb save at the feet of former teammate Robbie Martin, but the repreise was shortlived as Paisley was allowed a free header to equalise from the resulting corner.
UCD took a couple of minutes to regroup, but within five minutes, Darragh Ryan had sent over a superb cross from the left, and McWalter headed just over in searching for his first senior hat-trick. Shortly afterwards, a marauding run from Gary Dicker was only cut short inside the Longford penalty area.
As time ticked down, Pete Mahon sent on Pat Kavanagh, who had scored on his debut the previous Tuesday. Within seconds, Kavanagh picked the ball up inside his own half, ran 40 yards before shooting just over the bar.
As the game continued, UCD had the better of the chances, although Longford were always threatening on the break. However, it was the Students who should have taken all three points when only a last-ditch tackle denied Conor Sammon when clean through on goal; a minute later, Kavanagh was on the end of an Alan Cawley cross - he had time to take the ball down, but his shot was superbly deflected over by the advancing Dempsey.
Overall, a disappointing result given the way the evening had started, but certainly a game with its positive points too. UCD now travel to a Bray Wanderers side without Wes Charles or Éamon Zayed as they aim to continue their recent record of one defeat in their last six games.
UCD - Quigley; Mahon, Kenna, Shortall (Ryan 45), McNally; Cawley, Hurley (Kavanagh 80), Dicker, Doyle; Sammon, McWalter. Subs not used - Hussey, Brophy, Finn
Att - 220
Really?Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
It was the usual case of a UCD without Tony Mac lacking a certain organisation and maturity. Heads really went down after the Longford goals except for a brief flourish near the end. Sammon and McWalter does not work as a partnership. The team needs to realise Sammon is not a traget man. He hardly wins a single high ball with his back to goal. If you want to play Sammon (who is fine with the ball at his feet) then you need another target man up beside him. Hurley also didn't have a great game. I'd like to see Kavanagh starting on the right. He looks like he can take on a man and beat him. Argh, just frustrating to throw away a lead in such a 6 pointer.:mad:
Yeah, we were surprised too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Macy
I thought the game was entertaining enough. Neither team defended well for the goals, and UCD played some nice football for the last 10-15 minutes, but a win would have been a bit fortunate.
dmythetc, you have an interesting concept of "must win". I prefer to use that for games where losing would have a serious consequence.
Poor Student, the thing is, we have to make do with what we have. Salmon and McWalter are fine, once you don't try to play the long ball at them.
I agree, John. But someone should either give the instruction to play it to their feet or find a target man. Brophy may be that. From the brief times I've seen him he's looked strong anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by John83
i think UCD´s problems start from the back the only player who can pass the ball is mc Nally the rest of the defenders just pump the ball up field and the two lads up front have to just chase balls down all day. Why is there never any build up play this way it would even bring the midfielders into the game more instead of by passing them aswell......
Yeah, was saying the same thing during the match...
PS - I don't see why Sammon and Podge can't work together. If we stop giving them high balls. When we play it up to them, Sammon has great control, holds off players well and can then set up a faster forward for a shot. He doesn't score enough, but he's possibly got more assists than anyone else this season - the likes of Podge's goal against Kilkenny and Kavanagh's against Waterford being good examples.
Nice to see us actually take the game to a team who are about as good as us for once too. Very uncharacteristic defending for the two goals, but if we can play like that for the rest of the season, we'll pick up a fair few points against the lower-half teams.
Well we are gradually beginning to lose ground on Sligo in 6th, which is what we should be aiming for. Also we would be 3 games without a win with Drogs and Shels coming up next. Last nights result was 2 points lost so we don't want to lose another 2 or even 3 on Sunday.Quote:
Originally Posted by John83
Being worse than Bray would be quite serious in my book!Quote:
Originally Posted by John83
Yes especially as Wesley Charles is banned for Sunday and Zayed has bogged off to Drog.....
Zayed is ****.
Presumably his replacement on Sunday will be more **** (whatever that was). So it's still good.
Allegedly it's Mark Leech.
Removes the need for the word "presumably" in my above post so!
Mark Leech, has yet to fulfil his undoubted potential.
Mark Leech is a far superior player than Zayed.
Zayed scores against Pat's five minutes into his debut. Must have been the team he was playing in!