Games weekend 14th to 16th Feb 2025

Isn't tonight what makes our league great ? it does for us that have watched it for decades

Floodlight issues can happen anywhere so wouldn't be giving out about that. The LOI App is very poor though, everyone giving out about it. Even had lads giving out who couldn't get it on firestick

On serious side, I was in Oriel poor enough game, 2 poor teams but Dundalk deserved the win (for Dundalk Dervin Kenny and back 4 were decent rest less said better)
If Athlone are going to be one better teams this year, I'd be confident we will win this league easily

I didn’t see the game but the result shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone,we’re going to be nowhere this year ,we’ll be far worse than last season…..

That was a very "Greatest league in the world" start to the season. I hope the app difficulties were due to unforseen demand and nothing else. I know that the previous iteration had its problem but I never had an issue loading a game on it unless there were issues in the ground itself.

Shels v Derry was an entertaining affair, not necessarily for the best reasons. Derry were unimpressive. I don't know that 442 will work well in this league unless you're being ultra defensive. They seemed to lack creativity and any plan b. Their entire attacking output seemed to be crosses from Thomas across the goal. It worked once and that was it. Defensively they were as bad as I've ever seen and I've seen a lot of bad defending from Bohs in recent seasons. Sam Todd is not a premier division defender based on tonight. I suppose a lot of Derry fans probably already had that opinion since he was sent on loan last season after he couldn't get into the team past Shane McEleney who has since been released. Derry just didn't seem organized, made multiple sloppy mistakes, didn't close down well and were frankly lucky to only concede 3! I think a lot of work to be done in Derry or they're in for a long season.

Shels on the other hand knew exactly what they were doing. Was it pretty? No but it was certainly effective. If Mipo starts hitting the target he will get plenty of goals in this league. I'd be concerned a bit about their defence, it didn't seem as solid as the start of last year in the bits I've seen and they did drop off a bit the 2nd half of last season. Tolkas pitch looked like there was schools rugby played on it recently that also needs to be addressed. I know the rain has been torrential recently but tonight was the first game of the season if the pitch is being taken care of it should at least look decent at the start of the game.

Stole the win against Treaty tonight, didn't play well but Ramblers showed great heart and determination to rescue the game.

Were gonna be entertaining.

Defense is not as bad I as feared but not as good as I might have hoped. Some young players back there though so potential for improvement as the season goes on.

We created a tonne of chances in the first half, carving through Galways midfield and defense but didn't take them and their physical advantages definitely made a difference late on so while we could have been 3 nil up in the first 30 minutes we were eventually happy to get out with a draw.

Cathal O'Sullivan took a couple of heavy knocks and had to leave with an injury. Hopefully not too serious.

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Originally Posted by dundalkfc10

Isn't tonight what makes our league great ? it does for us that have watched it for decades

Floodlight issues can happen anywhere so wouldn't be giving out about that. The LOI App is very poor though, everyone giving out about it. Even had lads giving out who couldn't get it on firestick

On serious side, I was in Oriel poor enough game, 2 poor teams but Dundalk deserved the win (for Dundalk Dervin Kenny and back 4 were decent rest less said better)
If Athlone are going to be one better teams this year, I'd be confident we will win this league easily

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Thought same, and the standard really showed PD over FD, but this is what we have for the year, miss placed passes, missed chances, overall too much stop / start, but look its going to take at least 4-5 games to get going for most, including Dundalk, did what they had to do and won the game.

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Originally Posted by D24Saint

Disjointed performance I’d call it. I’d be very disappointed in the display tbh. It’s no surprise to even the casual pc football manager that Drogheda wouldn’t come out to play football tonight but we couldn’t break them down.

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I don’t know that I’d be that harsh. If we’d taken a couple of the chances we had then we’d be talking about a comfortable enough win. Yes, disappointing that we didn’t create more, but I’d give Drogheda some credit, they defended well.

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Originally Posted by TonyD

I don’t know that I’d be that harsh. If we’d taken a couple of the chances we had then we’d be talking about a comfortable enough win. Yes, disappointing that we didn’t create more, but I’d give Drogheda some credit, they defended well.

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Agreed. Drogheda kept their shape excellently and defended well. As the game went on Pats resorted to putting poor deliveries into the box and Drogs held out easily enough. As you said though enough chances were created to win that one. Redmond hitting the bar from close range, Mulraney chance in the first half, Elbouzedi with 2 or 3 chances, Baggley, Keena from a corner, the disallowed goal which was certainly debatable. Overall one of those chances should’ve been taken and then you’re talking about a win. Very defensive stuff from Drogs, not having a single shot on target in the game but they came for a point, executed the game plan very well and got their result.

I envisage a similar match away to Galway next week if Pat's don’t take the lead. An early goal is vital in those sort of games as it can be very hard to break down teams that sit back like that (I don’t think Galway will be as out and out defensive as Drogs but they'll be hard to crack). Kian Leavy would’ve been the ideal option for those games to beat 3 or 4 men to unlock a defence but he’s unfortunately out for 2 months after getting surgery for an ankle ligament injury during the week

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Originally Posted by Another Bohemia

Tolkas pitch looked like there was schools rugby played on it recently that also needs to be addressed. I know the rain has been torrential recently but tonight was the first game of the season if the pitch is being taken care of it should at least look decent at the start of the game.

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Work was put into the Tolka pitch over the winter, it was in decent shape last week for the Drogheda game best I have seen it in a long time I didn't see anyone complaining about the pitch last week but it was incredible how badly it cut-up last night even if rain had been bad earlier in the day or over the week, it's definitely a disappointment amplified with the perfect storm of it being opening night of the league season live on TV first game of deal and the floodlights going pop

I see Forrester and Melia on the bench for Pat's last night - not 100% fit or a sign of strength in depth or a misjudgement by Kenny?

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

I see Forrester and Melia on the bench for Pat's last night - not 100% fit or a sign of strength in depth or a misjudgement by Kenny?

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Forrester was ill and missed the two friendlies last week end and didn’t train during the week. Melia missed all of pre-season with the back injury he sustained towards the end of last season. He’s only been back in training this week

what are pats/ucd fans thoughts on alex nolan?

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Originally Posted by Jd2793

what are pats/ucd fans thoughts on alex nolan?

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There is definitely a player there. It’s a consistent run of form and games he needs badly. On form he is a very skilful tricky winger , unfortunately off form he can have no bearing on games and seems to vanish.

I'm kind of thinking which one is he again. The last few years we've had a lot of players who are ok but you don't really get a feeling they'll go much higher - like with players like Benson, O'Neill or Whelan in recent years

Stu summed him up, which one was he. Think he only spent a season at UCD, maybe 18 months, was very surprised when Pats came in for him. End product wasn't great and drifted in and out if games. He wasn't even an automatic starter when he was there.

While I'm on, good to see the refereeing standard still as crap as always. Longford had a stonewall pen turned down tonight. It's the thing that frustrates me most season after season, it's consistently awful. Why can't we produce decent referees ?

Anthony Elding's son on the mark for Sligo last night, in case anyone wants to feel old!

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Anthony Elding's son on the mark for Sligo last night, in case anyone wants to feel old!

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Aaron Greene's son Jack played for Rovers in some of their Leinster Senior Cup games if you want to feel even older!

Pleasantly surprised at the reduction in seat kills at the front of the stand in Lansdowne.
Maybe the FAI are starting to trust us a bit more?

Rovers need to get the finger out, looks like we are thinking of Thursday already

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Originally Posted by sbgawa

Rovers need to get the finger out, looks like we are thinking of Thursday already

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Burke is destroying Bohs down our left,draw on the cards