Inter-Toto burn out

Is it really worth it taking up a place in the inter-toto when you get it.

Look at the last three Irish clubs to qualify, UCD, City and Pats all started to fade badly towards the end of the season that they played in the inter-toto.

Fullam in England have played some thing like 40 compeditive games so far this season and are going through bad patch at the moment.

Would City or Rovers really benefit from it when you consider that unless they make serious progress in the competition they will end up making a loss

different next season though as it will occur in our mid season. no need to start pre-season early.
in the new set-up its a definitite plus

I don´t see the point in it at all. I mean the chances of winning it aren´t great and there aren´t any co-efficient points in it, so why bother. That said, we´d never have made it latvia otherwise :)

I think it's only worth it if you get the right draw.
By "right draw" I mean get a club from Scotland, Wales or maybe France(?) in the first round, beat them and then get a well known club to attract the bar-stoolers and take their money!...;)

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Originally posted by oddboy
I think it's only worth it if you get the right draw.
By "right draw" I mean get a club from Scotland, Wales or maybe France(?) in the first round, beat them and then get a well known club to attract the bar-stoolers and take their money!...;)

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Yeah in that case it´s probably a handy number, but the chances of getting as good a draw as that are not great

I think city would get 4-5k attendance no matter who they drew in the toto cup.

Any irish club would be expected to at least get to the 2nd round which would mean 2 home games at least.

Pretty much no chance of tv money so will only make cash out of it don't have to travel too far & get some reasonable home attendances.

From a fans' point of view, it's not bad. We had a great day out in Drogheda (no, really!) when we had to win 5-0 to get fourth in the league and into Europe, and then had the excitement of Bulgarians visiting and a thrilling match, etc.

UEFA should give ranking points though - even half points would be enough to give some reward.

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Originally posted by pete
Any irish club would be expected to at least get to the 2nd round which would mean 2 home games at least.

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???????hmmmm, where do you get that from????


Pats are the ONLY Irish team to get the second round in its current format...and that was a rare exceptional performance by an Irish side in europe, I doubt any Irish entrant will be repeating that for a long time

What iwas saying was that given that the toto will be in the middle of the season this year it should lead to greater expectations of eL clubs progressing further than before.

I'm not knocking Pats performance last year, just saying if ye were in the middle of your season as opposed to the start ye might even have gone further?

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Originally posted by wws
Pats are the ONLY Irish team to get the second round in its current format..

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True but UCD only went out on away goals after two draws and should have won the home game so it's more than possible that in the middle of the season a team should progress.

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Originally posted by pete
What iwas saying was that given that the toto will be in the middle of the season this year it should lead to greater expectations of eL clubs progressing further than before.

I'm not knocking Pats performance last year, just saying if ye were in the middle of your season as opposed to the start ye might even have gone further?

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I think you are seriously underestimating the toto Pete, an Irish team winning in the first round is FAR from a foregone conclusion. in our case with the season we had and how it panned out in the end we started amazingly (basically cause of all the preperation we did for Europe) and than totally ran out of steam spectacularly so in the case of certain players....so we probably would have been knocked out if we faced the croations later on in our season (although funnily enough they're form completely went after we beat them and they recently went on a record run of defeats!)

I didn't say you were knocking pats but I'm suprised that you think an Irish team would easily get to the second round of the intertoto...if I was putting money on it I'd have to say all things being equal that they wouldn't...but you never know.

either cork or rovers would be doing well to win a round in my opinion as you HAVE to score away from home to have any real chance

I think Pats probably got some of the harder toto cup opponents last year. Drawing a western europe team is probably best in terms of attendance plus they won't even have started pre-season training for their 1st team players. Everyone seems to think the eL teams will do better in the CL & Uefa Cup cos of greater fitness so surely it'll be more noticable in June?

btw i take your point about city winning away from home. :(

Sure i suppose if we can't score at Richmond Park what hope have we in europe ;)

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Originally posted by pete
Everyone seems to think the eL teams will do better in the CL & Uefa Cup cos of greater fitness so surely it'll be more noticable in June?

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Hope this proves to be the case. Be nice to have an involvement in European football beyond August for a change!:D

Murphy Out Now!!!

theres no seeding in the first round of the inter-toto so it is possible to get a completely crap team.
some northern irish team slaughtered a team from Andorra this season;)

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Originally posted by eoinh
theres no seeding in the first round of the inter-toto so it is possible to get a completely crap team.
some northern irish team slaughtered a team from Andorra this season;)

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In croatia , after the game we drank till about 8 am in this bar,whilst walking home (uphill in the glaring sun) we stopped for drinks, i picked up a local paper to see any pictures of the game, then i see glenavon won 9-0!

What you say is valid !
Things will be different from now on in my opinion.
I think that won't be an issue with the new season starting in April as a third of the season will have almost passed when Shamrock Rovers play in next season's Intertoto Cup, it will be no more strenuous than a Leinster or Munster Senior Cup tie wsould be for Rovers or Cork City for thast matter