Not taking our chances
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Roddy promised a war of attrition, which was thinly veiled code for setting up his team to play in a negative defensive manner.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sp...-30160200.htmlQuote:
"But it's going to be a war of attrition for the first hour and the side who are conditioned properly and can sustain things after the war of attrition will, in my opinion, come out on top.
Perhaps this was prophetic - Dundalks' fitness and conditioning has been superb this season and last (credit to Strength & Conditioning Coach Graham Byrne), with the opening goal scored on 63 minutes.
I really can't imagine Derry fans putting up with this negative style for long, especially when there is very little return.
http://extratime.ie/newsdesk/article...ing-first-win/Quote:
"It's too early to look at the table. You look at the table with six games gone not now."
I was talking to a few Derry fans after the game, and while dissappointed with the result, it was the performace and style of play that they found hard to take. I feel for them, Derry have brought a lot of quality to the league down the years, and they deserve better than the football their team served up last night.
It is how quickly Derry have gone downhill thats shocking! I cant remember a poorer Derry side visiting Oriel, they had that clueless look about them that McCaffreys Dundalk sides had (albeit with more quality in the team that could dig them out of a hole). On the McBride injury, that was an awful 5 or 6 minutes where he looked in real trouble, as said the quick action of the ref and subsequently the physio and Dundalk club doctor was excellent. Ive no great confidence in volunteer first aiders but tbh they were just keeping out of the way while the Doc and physio got on with their job and were just there as stretcher bearers.
I hate to agree with Roddy Collins on any matter as I think he is the lowest form of pond scum but that Dundalk pitch looked horrible on Soccer Republic last night.
Happy enough with the point last night but it was completely overshadowed by an injury to one of our players, Austin McCann, who suffered a severe leg break after a horrendous challenge from Jeff Henderson. The sound of the leg breaking will live long in the memory, it was sickening. A scum tackle from Henderson who should be completely ashamed. Referee Padraigh Sutton should be equally ashamed as he felt the wreckless challenge only warranted a yellow card. Not a good night.
Agreed - the pitch should be much prettier. Maybe some ribbons and nice floral patterns around the edges would do the trick.
But do you agree with the Rodster when he says it is the worst pitch in the world, or is he understating it?
Quote:
"It's the worst pitch in the world, not even in Ireland, but the world, but we won't be even mentioning it because at the end of the day we are going to have to play on it.
It looked absolutely dreadful on the TV. It always does. Most negative views of the pitch arise due to how it looks on the box.
However, sitting in the stadium it looked fine. The ball ran perfectly and the new programme of maintenance has eliminated the occasional strange bounce.
I don't know why a pitch can look fine to the naked eye but terrible through a TV camera.
Well as Roddy is in good company up there with Pelligrini ..........
CSKA Moscow have answered criticism of their pitch by taking the only logical way out – painting it green.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/oct/23/cska-moscow-spray-pitch-manchester-city
No such problems accross the city at the Luzhniki, wonder why?
Dundalk pitch always looks a lot worse on TV than at the game or on the pitch. Maybe it's the high angle the camera is at, I dunno. It plays very well, it's consistent and bounces are no less predictable than an average to good grass pitch. A problem for the likes of Collins is that it favours a team that wants to play football... and I should say for a number of years this worked against Dundalk!
Deflecting attention away from a dire performance by creating a new controversy is not exactly a new tactic, but Roddy takes post-match defection to a new low by trying to label Pat Hoban as a coward for his part in the clearly accidental clash of heads with Ryan McBride
http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/irish...lowing-injury/
First-off, hope McBride is okay. Disgraceful from Collins - but that doesn't come as a surprise. Credit to Dundalk 14 (Massey?) - while players from both sides made their case for level of punishment for Hoban, he was the only one to make a bee-line for McBride to try and help. A few players stood looking at McBride, but Massey tried to actually do something. Not criticising anyone, there would (I imagine) be an element of shock involved, just wanted to single out Massey for praise