Thats 3 wins for Pats now, hopefully get a 4th one or even a draw will do next week.
Might’ve been an even better year if Drogheda hadn’t thrown in the towel ;)
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2025 Pats in a nutshell, that game. A whole gang of players bizarrely devoid of confidence in front of goal for almost the entirety of the season. Fortunately that chance fell to Git who would be the one you'd trust to show some composure.
They aren't up to much and we should be going through, though we should have made it a much easier task after tonight.
Pats have played their best football of the season in the 3 European games but both home games have seen poor finishing and woeful shots from distance. Still it’s 3 wins and 3 clean sheets. A fortnight ago I was happy with the 1-0 as I saw nothing to suggest Hegelmann could beat us in their place and so it proved. The feeling tonight is much the same. They had 2 shots, none on target, and two of their better players will now be suspended. I’ll be very surprised if we’re not going back to Istanbul.
Also happy to see that Mulraney is gradually getting his form back.
They will, but Pat's getting there with 4 wins would still be a solid achievement. I'd imagine they're very close to having a ranking high enough to guarantee being ranked in ECL rnd 2 every year soon, as long as they continue to qualify for Europe that is :D
Fair play, nothing gets by you does it ;) Among a whole host of Turkish and near full squad of full internationals, they’ve got England internationals Tammy Abraham and Oxlade Chamberlain, João Mario who started in Portugal’s Euro 2016 win, former Arsenal and Villarreal centre back Gabriel Paulista, 2 more senior Portugal internationals in Rafa Silva and Gedson Fernandes, and this summer are linked with buying ex Spurs fullback Emerson Royal from AC Milan for €10 million and Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard for €25 million. I think your post is probably the most obvious one I’ve read on here in a long time. They’d slaughter any league of Ireland side, let alone the one in 6th place in the league
Oxlade Chamberlain left at the end of last season btw. Ye've nothing to be worried about!
Solskjaer is manager now and seems to be doing a proper rebuild as you say
(On that note, I don't agree with the earlier comments about wanting to avoid sides like Besiktas. It's not defeatist to want to test yourself against a side like that and get the experience of playing in a ground like theirs. You have to get knocked out of Europe at some stage - better it be by Besiktas than Nomme Kalju or Ballkani. Or even Qarabag.)
Sure Oxlade Chamberlain’s past his best anyway, no way he’d have got the better of Jamie Lennon ;) I think the comments from others on not wanting to play them were based around wanting to get through the third round. I’d rather have drawn Sabah in the third round again this year than Besiktas from a progression point of view but now that they’ve drawn Besiktas though of course I want Pats to advance past Nomme Kalju and play away to a massive club like that
Yeah, that's fair. Especially with the groups being vaguely attainable now, I can imagine wanting to try scam an easy route there. (And then do a Rovers and scam an easy group draw!)
But as round 3 draws go, there's a lot worse. Even if it has only been 12 months since Pat's were last in Istanbul of course
The 11 i would start against St Josephs given the Derry match on Sunday
McGinty
Lopes, O Sullivan, Kavanagh
Clarke, Mathews
Nugent, Mcaneff, Malley
Oshianvuna, Noonan
Bench
Grace, Cleary, Honohan, Byrne, Burke, Mandroiu, Healy , Grant. McGovern, Greene, Gaffney
That first team should be good enough to beat them and leave us fresh for Sunday
Rovers Derry match might not go ahead this weekend anyways. From Dan McDonnell on twitter:
Quote:
A point of info - the Shamrock Rovers/Derry league game scheduled for this Sunday will not go ahead if the two Kosovan clubs (Ballkani, Prishtina) go through this week. In that event, Rovers playing away leg v Ballkani next Tue Aug 5.
Prishtina 0-0 v Larne after first leg in NI
Shels clearly have an eye on the weekend with the team selection for this afternoon.
Only 3 of those who started last Wednesday are starting.
Speel - Ledwidge, Norris, Sam Bone, Temple - Chapman, Coyle, Kelly - Martin, McInroy, Odubeko
Is that basically a B team? That's a brave call going to a side like Qarabag that weak.
How does the money from Solid Sports get distributed? Does this just go directly to Qarabag as they are the home team?
Brave call indeed but they are off to inform Sligo on Saturday and will probably have an eye on trying to qualify for Europe next season.
I heard that about Rovers match re DErry not going ahead but we wont know before we have to name a team on Thursday the matches all kick off within an hour of each other and you have to name your team an hour before KO.
Id still go with a second string line up and a strong bench.