Weekendus horribilis

A few of us were at both the Longford game and the under 21 game yesterday.

The under 21's played well, with Timmy, Podge, Evan, King and Bolger looking good - first half even with Pats scoring following an error. We were men to the St Pats boys for 15 minutes in the second half but another defensive error gave the winning goal away.

Saturday was bad - no question.

BUT, I am not as downcast as some of the posts. We played reasonably well against Sligo, Rovers and Drogs and got nothing - if we played those games again we would get 5 or 6 points. While Saturday was our worst game of the season (that I have seen) we are not playing badly - if our performances were consistently bad I would be really worried about relegation.

The major problem, as identified here already is up front. Sammo played well in Tolka but had a shocker on Saturday - I blame him for the goal - yet another free header at midfield that he missed by 5 yards. He does not do enough or look interested enough, for my liking, to justify a place up front, given the fact that he is not scoring.

Without Byrne we struggle.

Agree with others - McFaul's absence showed how good he has been this season - Kenna top drawer as usual.

We just need a lucky break - hopefully Friday - I have seen nothing of Bohs that would cause major concern other than the fact that we are not scoring. we are playing well enough to win up to the oppo penalty box.

From there on, we are struggling to carve out chances. A lucky break will give us a kick onwards to ensure the mid table obscurity that we crave.

Any word on McFaul? He seemed pretty down about his injury at the game; said it was his hip, and it hurt to walk.

The word on Sunday was "not as bad as originally thought"

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Originally Posted by Angus

- Kenna top drawer as usual.
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angus you've been building kenna up all season,saying he's been immense and as above, top drawer,may i allude to the fact that the reason he looks as if he's doing so well is in no small part,thanks to alan mcnally. week after week he puts in a solid performance, probably the most consistent player we've had over the last ten years. so maybe we should start giving him the credit he deserves.
dont get me wrong.kenna hass played well,but give credit where credit is due to mcnally.

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Originally Posted by mcglinchey

angus you've been building kenna up all season,saying he's been immense and as above, top drawer,may i allude to the fact that the reason he looks as if he's doing so well is in no small part,thanks to alan mcnally. week after week he puts in a solid performance, probably the most consistent player we've had over the last ten years. so maybe we should start giving him the credit he deserves.
dont get me wrong.kenna hass played well,but give credit where credit is due to mcnally.

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Yeah, that's fair. Kenna's been awesome in the air, but McNally's been class beside him too.

Good call McGlinchey - McNally has been excellent. My ommission - not to say that Kenna has not been top drawer but you are absolutely right - they have been an excellent pairing.

Much better performance on Friday than against Longford. All the way through the team was better.

Sammo looked lively and held it up well, especially for the goal, King and Crowley did well. The 2 boys at centre back top drawer again.

One aspect of Friday is that it is important to differentiate the result from the performance. If Bohs had scored from one of the shots that hit the frame and had won 1 - 0, we would likely be downhearted at the performance, with focus probably on the lack of clear cut chances for us.

Having said that, there is no question that we were better on Friday than against Longford - probably not as creative as in Tolka, where we got nothing despite dominating - then again we were down 4 or 5 since Tolka.

I had a buddy with me at the game who has not seen us play this year and without prompting he came away saying our 4, 5 and 6 were best for us (Kenna, McNally and King) but that Bohs were a level above us in terms of passing and movement.

Not sure I would disagree other than to look to the fact we were missing our main midfield player and arguably our most potent striker.

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Originally Posted by Angus

we were missing... arguably our most potent striker.

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Arguably? Not much argument about it I'd say!

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Originally Posted by Schumi

Arguably? Not much argument about it I'd say!

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You could argue the definition of 'potent'. For example using the definition: "able to copulate -- usually used of the male", I'm not in a position to judge Sammo and co on their potency.