Pats vs UCD

This will be a very tough game. With the way we are playing at the moment I can see Pats knocking a couple of goals past us. They didn't play their best yesterday but still put three past Cork, although Cork were more attacking that we will be.

Pats' midfield is far superior to ours so I think the best thing to do is play five across the middle and try to stifle them. We will have the minority of possession so keeping hold of the ball and not giving it straight back to the opposition will be important. In that respect I think Bolger should be brought into the team as he is our most comfortable player on the ball. His lack of physicality will be fine with three centre mids.

If we go with one upfront it has to be Timmy. Byrne is not good as a lone striker because of his lack of workrate. Doyle on the left, Reilly on the right. Podge has been poor and he did well when he got a chance so he deserves to start in my book. McNally back in the defence to make things solid. Not going to be easy.

It was Pats' pace that killed Cork on Sunday I thought. O'Neill in particular went past their defence nearly every time the ball was played through. If our back four stays deeper than Cork's did, they should be able to deal with that better. Pats will still be dangerous but we should at least make them try another ploy.

Fitz should be back for this one.

is there any confirmed team news from either side yet?
Is Shorthall suspended for this one?

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Originally Posted by HarpoJoyce

is there any confirmed team news from either side yet?
Is Shorthall suspended for this one?

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Shortall and Mahon are doubts for us, Pats three of their four best defenders, but they're still left with a very good defence.

No, Shortall will miss the Galway game in two weeks.

Pat's they huffed and they puffed (used to that sort of thing)
http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2008/...c_ucd.html?rss

Poor game; Pat's didn't know what to do with us, but of course, the fact the game was boring will be solely our fault. Neither keeper had a save to make; deserved draw and, dare I say it, comfortable too.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Poor game; Pat's didn't know what to do with us, but of course, the fact the game was boring will be solely our fault. Neither keeper had a save to make; deserved draw and, dare I say it, comfortable too.

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Please don't contaminate this forum with your exaggerations. You do an injustice to the UCD team. Hard-fought, Well-earned point. Equal performance with top-of -the-table.

fair result. UCD played better against Bohs than they did last night.

Good substitution at HT by Mahon

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Originally Posted by colmanthesaint

fair result. UCD played better against Bohs than they did last night.

Good substitution at HT by Mahon

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Thanks, there is a belief at Belfield that UCD perform better against footballing teams. It was a very clean game and St. Pat's keep their passing going right through the match.

Defensively we played quite well. The team worked very hard and it was good to see them get something out of the game. Going forward we were poor. There was a few promising passing moves but they always broke down. Facing Bohs, Rovers and Pat's in the last four weeks could easily have resulted in all defeats so it's good to come out of the last four games undefeated.

I see Pat's fans moaning away on their forum and yearning for the day our club meets its demise but they have to face the fact there was little incision to their play and they rarely stepped up the tempo. One fan is complaining that there were three men on Quigley and Fahey all the time. If that's the case it frees up at least two other men and you have to utilise that space.

My favourite one has to be: "UCD fans in McDowells all looked like geeks too, a disgrace to the league":D

We defended well and deserved a point but we were fortunate that Pats were not at their best. Had a couple of good chances to score in the first half and should have made more of a few openings. Second half their passing went astray and most of their attacks just broke down.

As for ourselves our poor performances are continuing but we managing to grind out results. Our attacking play was awful once again last night and it's hard to see where the goals are going to come from. Of our four attacking players last night Byrne and McWalter were particularly poor and should be dropped. Doyle was anonymous once again but we don't have any other option really. Gallagher played LM for the U21s a lot last season but wouldn't know if he would be up to the standard required for first team. I still think it would be worth a try though.

It's been a good round of fixtures. We've taken a point where we'd have expected to get none, Harps and Galway drew and Cobh lost. It's the kind of week you'd have expected ourposition to weaken. We're still perilously close to the relegation zone and even to bottom place and we desperately need a win next week.

There were no goals and not much in the way of goalmouth action in Richmond Park on Friday as a combination of solid defending from the visitors and lethargic play from the league leaders saw UCD become only the second side this season to take points off St Pat's.

Pete Mahon went with his tried and trusted 4-5-1 formation, which stymied Pat's more than even he must have anticipated. It took 15 minutes for the Saints to muster their first attempt at goal after creating space but Alan McNally was on hand to block. The next real scare arrived on 38 minutes, when a header came off Brian Shortall's face, but while he was still momentarily dazed, the rebound was fired over. Gary O'Neill was next to try his luck, but his shot from the edge was straight at Matt Gregg.

UCD didn't pose much of an attacking threat as Pat's won possession back at ease. Indeed, it was the stroke of half time before the Students had a shot at goal, when a free kick was cleared to Brian King, who cleared the roof of the stand with his effort.

There was time for one more surreal moment when the referee awarded UCD a free out after Gary O'Neill was adjudged not to have retreated far enough, even though he was outside the penalty area.

At half time, though, the game did seem to be drifting towards its goalless conclusion with neither side really showing any sort of attacking initiative.

The second half saw more of the same, although Pat's did come to life temporarily around the hour mark. First Conor Kenna had to be alert to put in an excellent interception as Keith Fahey tried to thread the ball through before the same player had a shot deflected wide with Matt Gregg beaten. From the corner, Alan Kirby's shot bounced to safety off the top of the bar.

With 13 minutes to go, Sean Harding came on for his league debut, and immediately gave the ball away to Gary O'Neill Keith Fahey, who slipped it through to Keith Fahey to score, but the linesman had his flag up instantly for offside.

UCD might have snatched all three points at the death, but Pat McWalter's drive was narrowly wide, albeit with Barry Ryan watching it the whole way. That would certainly have been more than they deserved, but the Saints can't really argue with the draw.

UCD - Gregg; Mahon, Bermingham, Kenna, Shortall (Bolger 45); McNally, Finn, King, McWalter, Doyle (Harding 77); Byrne (Purcell 66)

Att - c 1500

i thought we were more comfortable in the second half than we were in the first half. pats carved us open a few times in the first half and should have scored. again i was not impressed with shortall. he has played a fair few games now so lack of match practice is no excuse for him.he is just not good enough, young bolger? did well in the middle and mcnally tightened it up at the back in the second half. again a draw was a fair result but with pats playing so poorly i would have switched to 4-4-2 much earlier so we could have have had a good go at them.

Not sure how much having a real go at them would have done, to be honest. We were as toothless as I've ever seen up front. Couldn't get more than two or three passes together before being tackled or giving the ball away. The point's obviously a good one, but the performance was a bit worrying as well. Three goals in seven games, having scored four in the first two.

Gregg and Mahon (?) in the team of the week in the Indo.

Kenna immense, as always. Masterful display. Midfield all impressive- Podge a step up for recently.