Weekend fixtures 27th May

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Originally Posted by placid casual

Very, very straightforward victory for the Champions against DamienDuffsShelbourne. Delighted that Towell got a goal, as he really needed it.
Shels have sone decent players but looked toothless up front. 2nd half was a stroll, and neither Byrne nor Mandriou were missed at all.
I predicted dundalk would finish 2nd and that is looking like it could happen.
A few weeks off for most of the players (besides those on international duty), and a chance now for Bradley and mgmt team to get focused on hopefully an extended European campaign.

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Ah you were winding up St Pats fans and got lucky! Not that you will find a Dundalk fan complaining about being 2nd. It is time to ground expectations, we are unlikely to close on Rovers or stay ahead of Derry, We are just in too many tight games that recently we have gotten the edge but that run could go the other way. Maybe a couple of important players out in July being recalled but also if in decent nick there might be a few quid to add to the squad,

Derry colapse due to
No fats no party Duffy's injury/ absence obv not helping either and the bench looks bare.

Another bug win tonight for us over Treaty. If the two local lads aren’t giving the job permanently it’d be an utter shame. 6 wins on the bounce now, some big games to come in the next few weeks.

Waterford on a great run now. First half was poor, not many chances and fairly even. The most exciting thing was a young child aged 3 or so ran onto the middle of the pitch before being picked up by security.
Louis Britton scored from close range in 2nd half. Treaty missed a good chance to equalise and then Idowu scored from a Patterson cross which ended the game. Waterford added 2 more for comfortable win.

Cork fans let themselves down again firing bottles , flares and trying to start fights in Woodquay. The club really have to clamp down on the green street element who are worse than any bunch in the league. A good few fired out of the ground too.

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Originally Posted by Nesta99

Ah you were winding up St Pats fans and got lucky! Not that you will find a Dundalk fan complaining about being 2nd.

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Nah, I rate your manager quite highly tbh.
I think he has the makings of a very decent, successful manager. If he continues to flourish he'd be my choice to replace Bradley at Rovers when he presumably goes abroad next season.
Add in you have the likes of Hoban, Kelly, Slogett, Boyle who have had success in recent past, and it seemed a bit obvious dundalk would flourish - the super mario/crazy yanks era looks in the rear view mirror now.
Derry will be much, much stronger next season as they're bound to flex their financial muscles - they are in Yr 1.5 of their "project" I'd say.
If there was to be 3 teams competing for the title in years to come it would really improve the profile of the league, imo.

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Originally Posted by placid casual

Nah, I rate your manager quite highly tbh.
I think he has the makings of a very decent, successful manager. If he continues to flourish he'd be my choice to replace Bradley at Rovers when he presumably goes abroad next season.
Add in you have the likes of Hoban, Kelly, Slogett, Boyle who have had success in recent past, and it seemed a bit obvious dundalk would flourish - the super mario/crazy yanks era looks in the rear view mirror now.
Derry will be much, much stronger next season as they're bound to flex their financial muscles - they are in Yr 1.5 of their "project" I'd say.
If there was to be 3 teams competing for the title in years to come it would really improve the profile of the league, imo.

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Didnt you say the same about Harry Kenny?

Dundalk play very much like St. Pats last year. Good and tough, but more importantly have a high quality goalkeeper to bail them out and see out a game. Dan Kelly is starting to look like a proper footballer too under O'Donnell.

In saying Pats could have even won the game if Darragh Burns started the game. That must be fustrating. Clancy looks a bit weak with that. Although, Pats must still be somewhat relieved looking at Derrys form, they are most likely to drop out of the automatic European places now.

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Originally Posted by ToberonaTornado

Derry colapse due to
No fats no party Duffy's injury/ absence obv not helping either and the bench looks bare.

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Whatever about the bench looking bare, McEleney wasnt available for much of the 1st round and was nursed back slowly, Duffy out from being signed. As PC mentioned about Dundalk having a core of experienced quality that is worth points, Derry should have more about them than a total collapse in to relegation like form. 30th of April, top, 3 points clear with a game in hand I think. 28th of May in 3rd 9pts adrift, 3 points in 6 games, last nights point was a smash and grab (though in fairness Sligo nicked an injury time winner and the performance in Tallaght was better than the run suggests). But by any measure, even a decimated squad thats worrying form, from beating UCD 7-1, St Pats 0-4 etc. McGonigle top league scorer and Patching a couple behind (Patching's goals alone saving 2 of their 3 points) Now Higgins will ride out the storm, the break could well save their season, but maybe some inexperience showing in knowing how to get out of that rut when it happens, its easy when you're winning. I dont recall such a total turnaround in results/form since Maguire left Cork City and that was an outlier.

Yeah, I don't think there's three players of a difference between beating UCD 7-1 and Pat's 4-0 in successive games, and needing a 94th minute equaliser to draw against Harps.

Sligo had a similar run of form last year - 9-4-1 from their first 14 league games, and 4-2-9 from the next 15 (plus home and away defeats against an Icelandic side in Europe). They turned their season around to hold on for Europe in the end, but Derry will have to be hoping they don't match Sligo's European campaign.

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Originally Posted by Kiki Balboa

Dundalk play very much like St. Pats last year. Good and tough, but more importantly have a high quality goalkeeper to bail them out and see out a game. Dan Kelly is starting to look like a proper footballer too under O'Donnell.

In saying Pats could have even won the game if Darragh Burns started the game. That must be fustrating. Clancy looks a bit weak with that. Although, Pats must still be somewhat relieved looking at Derrys form, they are most likely to drop out of the automatic European places now.

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Very much agree with this. Sheppard has been excellent and another young keeper that looks far more composed and confident than he should for his age. I do fear, for all his potential, he could suffer a bit like Shay Given and not get the interest he should being a 5'10 keeper. He looks smaller than that even at times though maybe he also just looks very young among some animal sized players crowding him and protecting him at corners eg. That said he can pick a pass (he needs to take some distance off his hoofball) so the trend toward keepers needing to be ballers maybe has helped things move away from expecting all the top keepers being well over 6ft.

23 points from first 9 matches and then 10 points from next 10.
They didnt have Duffy or much of Fats for the first 9 matches either so it is a head scratcher.

Dundalk are a bigger worry at this stage, could be tasty match up in the Oriel in a few weeks time, be a great chance for Dundalk to force their way into a title fight before Rovers hit a run of European matches. Also a chance for Rovers to give ourselves a massive cushion before Europe.


Shout out to Waterford with 6 wins on the spin since getting rid of the bluffer they had as manager.
Next match away to Cork then they have Bray , Athlone and Wexford. only 7 points behind Cork now , a result in Cork followed by the 3 easiest games possible in the division and its back to a 3 way race.
If the Waterford Chairman doesn't appoint the lads running the team now he deserves to be run out of town.
He's prety much proved he cant PICK a manager , can he actually avoid finding the right lads by accident?

Bohemian FC (aka 'The People's Club') are the only team in the league who I've noticed seem to be adding on a euro to tickets for a 'handling charge' (when buying tickets online). How can electronic tickets have a 'handling charge?
That's what you can always expect from The Woke - double standards and hypocrisy.

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Originally Posted by Straightstory

Bohemian FC (aka 'The People's Club') are the only team in the league who I've noticed seem to be adding on a euro to tickets for a 'handling charge' (when buying tickets online). How can electronic tickets have a 'handling charge?
That's what you can always expect from The Woke - double standards and hypocrisy.

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That euro is paying for the bee hutches, show a bit of appreciation.

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Originally Posted by Straightstory

Bohemian FC (aka 'The People's Club') are the only team in the league who I've noticed seem to be adding on a euro to tickets for a 'handling charge' (when buying tickets online). How can electronic tickets have a 'handling charge?
That's what you can always expect from The Woke - double standards and hypocrisy.

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It’s becoming a thing. I was charged £2 fee for e-tickets for an event in the UK. It just a rip off for e-tickets.

Genuinely mad that people are charged actual money to watch this sort of horrendous coverage. Also gas that Bray have shared it by screen recording a WhatsApp message and failing to crop that out of the clip

https://twitter.com/braywanderers/status/1530499741963804672?s=21&t=srxbZF6uJjcnOAeiRu3Eqw

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Originally Posted by 2 Year Contract

Genuinely mad that people are charged actual money to watch this sort of horrendous coverage. Also gas that Bray have shared it by screen recording a WhatsApp message and failing to crop that out of the clip

https://twitter.com/braywanderers/status/1530499741963804672?s=21&t=srxbZF6uJjcnOAeiRu3Eqw

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It’s been a bad week for Brays “media” team all round!

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Originally Posted by trevy

Waterford on a great run now. First half was poor, not many chances and fairly even. The most exciting thing was a young child aged 3 or so ran onto the middle of the pitch before being picked up by security.
Louis Britton scored from close range in 2nd half. Treaty missed a good chance to equalise and then Idowu scored from a Patterson cross which ended the game. Waterford added 2 more for comfortable win.

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Yeah, Treaty held their shape well enough in the first half and Waterford didn't do much with all the possession and territory. That moment when Treaty missed a good chance from a well-worked set piece only for Waterford to go down the pitch and score was the end of it, and Waterford could take their foot off the gas after the 3rd just a couple of minutes later.

You're a very different team from the disinterested, disjointed bunch that lost in Limerick a couple of months ago.

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Originally Posted by sbgawa

Dundalk are a bigger worry at this stage, could be tasty match up in the Oriel in a few weeks time, be a great chance for Dundalk to force their way into a title fight before Rovers hit a run of European matches. Also a chance for Rovers to give ourselves a massive cushion before Europe.

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As much as its fantastic rising to second spot, I really don't think anything has changed in terms of pre season ambitions, that was always to qualify for europe. That said its easier to do that when you are in 2nd, but for me I just think qualifying for europe will be a brilliant achievement given the circus of most of 2020+21. If we finish 3rd I don't think there would be many complaints locally, we have to be realistic with what we have panel wise.

If we get europe for 2023, coefficient last time was 10.5, should be worth 8.5 then, and that will be enough to be seeded in two rounds.

Half way stage, report has to be 8.5/10.

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Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954

Harps fully deserved the win tonight.

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Yep, we robbed a point out of that game.

It was up there with the Sligo match the Monday before as our worst performance of the season. The midfield is non-existent, and I don't get what Higgins is at playing Matty Smith where he is. Absolutely wasted in the middle. If he insists on starting him, then why not up front beside McGonigle? We did miss Dummigan on Friday night (and most of Monday as well) too.

Harps, as teams seem to do these days, came to the Brandy to win. Not used to seeing that from an Ollie Horgan side! McWoods was likely offside for his goal, but Harps still deserved to win the match. We certainly caught lucky with some sloppy defending at the end.

Don't know what's gone wrong with our team. Perhaps it's been discovered that if the opposition press us, we can't really handle it? Higgins has got some things wrong in the past few weeks. Himself and Reynolds need to sit down and work on things during this break.
The players are certainly tired, but they've played the same amount of games as anyone else, so it's not much of an excuse.

A good break will do us a good. We should have Dummigan, P McEleney back by 17th June, and hopefully Duffy a couple of weeks after that. Then maybe we can see about strengthening over July.
If we don't sort things out quickly, we'll be getting tanked in Europe.