LOI fixtures 10th/11th April

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Originally Posted by Dalymountrower

Interesting to compare and contrast what should be two sides of a similar standard

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I'd imagine the players are similar, but when it comes to managers, we lose out to most in the PD I'd wager, I wasn't at the game, but we've had TC for long enough to know that he's never been much of a man for having game plans and setting the team up with any sort of system in mind that they could carry out. Sure we've been playing a very slow center mid on the wing for two seasons now and he's not tried to remedy it yet :D Connor Powell is cat altogether, whatever has happened to him.

Long has been nightly impressive the past two seasons, very Long season to go, but I'd imagine Bohs could sneak 4th if they keep this up, maybe more, with Town, I'd say most will be happy enough with 8th, any lower and I'd not be impressed.

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Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954

Couple of mystery refereeing performances in the First Division again tonight.

Athlone miraculously escaped Finn Park without a red card. Some of the tackles going in at times would have had raised eyebrows at rugby matches.

Waterford denied a goal for some absolutely ludicrous reason by the referee there who instead awarded them a penalty despite them already scoring.

Some craic.

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I understand that the ref had already blown the whistle for the penalty when the Waterford player scored. To be honest if he'd allowed the advantage nobody from Ramblers would have had any complaints. That said the usual kamikaze defending nearly cost us.

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Originally Posted by Acornvilla

....., with Town, I'd say most will be happy enough with 8th, any lower and I'd not be impressed.

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From what I've seen so far, LG are better than Limerick and Galway , as good as Bray and not as good as Drogs.Haven't seen Sligo or Derry yet.I think that you will do very well to finish eighth with TC in charge.

Fair enough assessment probably. We could do with strengthening in July, and I would imagine we will. Hopefully in defence in particular.

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Originally Posted by SkStu

Long was a very astute appointment and Heary was never rated by the Bohs masses.

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Basically the reverse of what happened with Sean Connor leaving us so.

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Originally Posted by SkStu

Long was a very astute appointment and Heary was never rated by the Bohs masses.

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One was an assistant manager at Bray and a first team manager that got relegated with Athlone. The other was an assistant and first team manager of a half decent Bohs side.

Hardly astute in fairness.

Well in fairness to Long, Athlone were as good as relegated when he took over. To get them to the last game of the season with a chance of staying up was remarkable. And to see what he's doing at Bohs now compared to what Heary did and what he's doing at Sligo at the moment is proving Bohs are moving forward whereas Sligo are been left behind.

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Originally Posted by Martinho II

I thought Heary was liked at Bohs SkStu why was he not rated?

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He was never universally liked as a Bohs player Marty - rightly or wrongly a lot couldn't get past the Shels years -but he definitely won over many when he stayed on post-collapse. However, when Callaghan started doing poorly there were rumours that this was exacerbated by Heary who undermined him constantly and then Aaron eventually lost the dressing room completely which allowed **** pants to sweep in and assume what he clearly felt should be his. In fairness, he did lead Callaghans team to safety that season. However his first proper season with HIS signings he was poison. His results were atrocious, his selections were haphazard and lacked continuity and the style of play - which I can't comment on from my own perspective - was supposedly awful. He was detested by the time he left by most of the fans and he just wasn't a very inspiring or good manager.

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Originally Posted by redobit

One was an assistant manager at Bray and a first team manager that got relegated with Athlone. The other was an assistant and first team manager of a half decent Bohs side.

Hardly astute in fairness.

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What Town Legend said.

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Originally Posted by SkStu

He was never universally liked as a Bohs player Marty - rightly or wrongly a lot couldn't get past the Shels years -but he definitely won over many when he stayed on post-collapse. However, when Callaghan started doing poorly there were rumours that this was exacerbated by Heary who undermined him constantly and then Aaron eventually lost the dressing room completely which allowed **** pants to sweep in and assume what he clearly felt should be his. In fairness, he did lead Callaghans team to safety that season. However his first proper season with HIS signings he was poison. His results were atrocious, his selections were haphazard and lacked continuity and the style of play - which I can't comment on from my own perspective - was supposedly awful. He was detested by the time he left by most of the fans and he just wasn't a very inspiring or good manager.

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Yeah I remember when we played ye in the LC last season even at 2-0 up the Bohs fans were giving Heary awful stick from the stands

Doesn't sound like Bohs fans at all...are you sure it was us? ;)

Bray 4-0 Limerick.

We completely disintegrated in the 2nd half, and have at least 3 or 4 players that are nowhere near good enough. Defensively shocking and handed Bray three points. They didn't have to work hard for any of their goals. Very worrying.

RTE will do well to get any highlights from Galway/Rovers last night, one of the worst games of football ever, two poor sides (although still hopeful we'll improve).

It will be interesting to see the penalty decision from Galway/Sligo on rte and what the experts make of it. Looked very dodgy to me, and I used to think Doyle had the makings of a good ref.
Stuart Byrne rates Heary as a manager, but blames his poor start at Sligo on the lack of 2/3 year player contracts in the LoI (Mirror last week). If friday (and few Bohs matches I was at last season) is any indication of his management I would have to disagree with Stewy on this one.

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Originally Posted by wonder88

Stuart Byrne rates Heary as a manager, but blames his poor start at Sligo on the lack of 2/3 year player contracts in the LoI (Mirror last week)

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What?

The approval of Stuey Byrne: Kiss of death if ever there was one.

The key to Stephen Kennys success - Stuey Byrnes disapproval during live on air rant!

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Originally Posted by Town Legend

Well in fairness to Long, Athlone were as good as relegated when he took over. To get them to the last game of the season with a chance of staying up was remarkable. And to see what he's doing at Bohs now compared to what Heary did and what he's doing at Sligo at the moment is proving Bohs are moving forward whereas Sligo are been left behind.

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I always see people saying this but didn't he take over with 20+ games to go?

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Originally Posted by bluewhitearmy

I always see people saying this but didn't he take over with 20+ games to go?

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23 but they were gone already having lost the opening 10 games under Mick Cooke

With Cooke - 0 points in 10 games
With Long - 22 points in 23 games (4 wins, 10 draws, 9 defeats)

By anyone's standards, that's an excellent improvement

Many of those draws Athlone were very unlucky not to get the additional 2 points.

Long also had to work with the squad Cooke assembled. The damage was already done when Long took over.

How many points were they behind 2nd bottom when he took over?

8, we went 10 behind after his 1st game.

We only took 1 win from 5 against Bray and UCD just above us, under Long.

10 points with 22 games to go is hardly gone tbf and with the stats there against Bray and UCD it seems he had the chances to get em out of it. Not saying the improvement wasn't impressive but to make out he hadn't a hope of keeping em up is plain wrong imo.

If it were Sligo, Rovers, Dundalk or another team with a similar squad then fair enough. But it was Athlone, a newly promoted team with a squad put together by someone else. For a team like that to give a 10 point advantage to anyone is a lot. So to get them to the last game of the season with a chance of staying up was remarkable.

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Originally Posted by Town Legend

If it were Sligo, Rovers, Dundalk or another team with a similar squad then fair enough. But it was Athlone, a newly promoted team with a squad put together by someone else. For a team like that to give a 10 point advantage to anyone is a lot. So to get them to the last game of the season with a chance of staying up was remarkable.

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Admit it! You were thinking of Sligo but decided upon including Rovers and Dundalk for balance or to keep peace...

Haha I just listed those 3 cos they've been champions the past couple of seasons! I suppose I can throw Pats in there too.

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Originally Posted by Town Legend

Haha I just listed those 3 cos they've been champions the past couple of seasons! I suppose I can throw Pats in there too.

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We don't do relegation. Those 3 yoyo clubs that you mentioned were a good example.

Well Dundalk it was more yoyooooooooooooyo! You're sounding a bit like Roddy Collins PartySaint..

Did you have to bring Roderick into this? :p

Terrible decision by ref for Sligo peno, even 80 yards away it looked wrong to me on the night. In 3 of the 4 league games in Galway so far this season the refs have being very poor.

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Originally Posted by wonder88

Terrible decision by ref for Sligo peno, even 80 yards away it looked wrong to me on the night. In 3 of the 4 league games in Galway so far this season the refs have being very poor.

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Same bull**** with Shaw being brought down at 1 nil Bohs.

I thought at the time from the far end of the stand that Shaw's one was a penalty and there was no reason for him to go down. The replay makes it even worse than I thought then he books Shaw.

Sean Grant has a lot of history against us. Booked Alan Kirby for diving a few seasons ago as well when he was also cleaned out.