Printable View
Burke has been playing all season. Picked up a knock on Friday by the looks of it. Had an ice pack on. Hopefully just a dead leg. Pitch and Shels approach to football would have been risky.Quote:
Originally Posted by ger121
Byrne is gargled. Or possibly on the run from the mob. Genuinely wish I knew. Bradley did seem more confident of his return recently tho....but....I've heard that before!
A frustrating Monday night trip to the Brandywell but for different reasons this time. Pats statistically were the better side tonight in all stats bar the most important one - goals scored. Created a lot more chances than most if not all games this season and should really have gone in ahead at half time but if you don’t take your chances and give away goals as cheaply as they did tonight you’ll struggle to win
Watched the Rovers Shels match from afar on the stream,and it looked absolute dog$hit to my old eyes- perhaps it was more entertaining in the flesh?
Wether through injury or rotation Bradley put out a weak side against an extremely limited Shels side,and not much was gained
One point,move on, forget about it.
Pitch was atrocious. Affected both sides. Both keepers made a hash of at least one backpass as a result. I'd have had a lot of sympathy for either if they'd made a bad mistake from a backpass.Quote:
Originally Posted by placid casual
Ball was bobbling up just before contact all over the pitch.
Decent point for Rovers. Probably should have won, could easily have lost. Win the game in hand and we're on top. That's quite something after just over one full round of games given the start we had.
Towell is frustrating as hell.
Another really good save at a key time from Pohls. Like ontheotherhand says, there's a good keeper in there. That's two really good games in a row now.
Decent point for Rovers and good weekend's work overall - keeping title pace despite a ton of missing bodies to contend with. We need to talk about pitches though, Tolka was a disgrace last night and it's far from the only one (including the plastic abominations). All sides are being held back by crappy surfaces and it's simply not good enough.
You do realise how expensive it is to keep pitches in the condition you expect. The kit to do so would be the equivalent of about what harps need to raise with the sale of a football ground. If every pitch was lifted and proper underground drainage installed places like Tolka could still struggle. Clubs couldnt afford 24hr atrificial sunlight electricity bills never mind the equipment. In an ideal world every pitch has a surface like a snooker table, never going to happen except with advancements in artificial pitch tech. So pragmatically you play the conditions like very football team must. Im not talking about a pitch being used to augment tactics, not cutting grass, no work done at all cause a cut up pitch nullifies a team that tries to play on the deck. Arguably money would be better spent on having a squad to suit - Towell would possibly be a sensible pick before a brittle Byrne on a heavy and uneven surface. Sometimes it just is what it is and we have to suck it up and know that usually pitches improve as the season progresses. We may need to consider the future impact of more seasonal rain especially along the Atlantic coast and those discussions will come to a conclusion of the lesser of two evils and that is the dreaded artificial surface. Id guess the MFA have at least had a rethink on the abominations! Oriel, Tallaght, Dalymount etc are not on flood prone areas and could/should always have reasonably consistant surfaces throughout the season if use is managed, others are not in such a position. So now we talk...
I find the reaction to Duff's comments a bit strange. I didn't think he slaughtered Farrell but didn't wave it away either. It's probably a necessary reality check for a player who could be shown the door in July if they don't improve and that type of thing is needed in a lot of cases. I've seen plenty of players at Bohs given chance after chance and just not live up to it so better to let him know now that he's not at the level than ignoring it and telling him to find a new club in the summer
will galway hit 25 goals this season?
Everyone would need to close their grounds for 18 months and put in proper sand based pitches at a cost of a minimum of €100k, conservatively, possibly upwards of €150k.Quote:
Originally Posted by WeAreRovers
Alternatively, you could vastly increase that cost and put in hybrid pitches.
We've had one of the wettest 12 months on record, and pitches are going to suffer from that.
I'm not entirely sure what people expect from groundstaff in this country. The weather has been atrocious. It goes back to my points made previously about winter/summer football, summer football is great until you realise you cannot grow and repair a pitch during the winter off-season.
Scored, Conceded Or both combined?Quote:
Originally Posted by Jd2793
I would have happily settled for 4 points last Thursday so im pretty happy now.
Galway to break the statistical anonomely this weekend??? hopefully not :)
Delighted with last nights results. Takes the heat of Higgins for a while longer and puts us back in the mix.
A lot of people mentioning St Pats having more possession and potentially being the better team. If I had a Euro every time i have said that about Derry the last few years id be minted. First time Higgins decided to concede possession by going two men more or less up front allowing us to be short in midfield. St Pats where always going to have the majority of possession due to this.
Delighted though that changing the way we play meant we where a bit more clinical and took our chances when they came.
On a seperate note we look so much more balanced with Coll at left back and Doherty as the left winger opposed to Duffy. The width was there last night with Doherty being naturally left footed. It does work with Duffy cutting in onto his right foot and nor does he offer any defensive help. I would like to see Higgins use Duffy as a right winger this year instead to see how he gets on but for me now I wouldnt be changing Coll and Doherty.
We missed out on a striker at the end of the winter window. To be 5th at this stage is a lot higher than I expected. Brendan Clarke and the defence in front of him have been superb so far. If we get a decent goalscorer in the Summer we'll finish in the Euro spots! Each game that we've scored in, we've won. It's not pretty but the few pints help!
Really enjoy reading detailed posts about pitches and pitch growth (tone: sincere)
Certainly enjoyed it a lot more than I enjoyed the visit to Tolka last night.
They had a fire brigade (one engine) at the showgrounds pre game last night. I assume they were after watering the pitch, I noticed Alan Keane there, so it is not for lack of effort of clubs that pitches are bad. Also with the ladies league there is extra games being played on some pitches like Tolka. League of Ireland managers have been giving out about the poor pitches after games for many years now (also missing light bulbs, B Kerr), so don't expect the complaining to change.
A very competitive game between Sligo and Galway with I think a draw was a fair result. A really nice and friendly venue to visit. Great work being done by the folks there to keep the show on the road and I am sure they are not too concerned about the opinions of Stephen Bradley etc.
Do people in Sligo think that the gate would drop by much if the kick off time was brought forward to say 7pm, especially for Monday games?
It could as interesting and useful as watching the pitch grow in Oriel Park! I am a total nerd when it comes to ground development, new build techniques, pitch options type stuff. I also find it interesting that no matter how unpopular artificial surfaces are, there is a pragmatic need for acceptance at times and imo more is needed on improving the simulation of natural grass rather than dismissing or banning artificial surfaces.Quote:
Originally Posted by cláirseach
The issues with the new Wembley and the pitch I still look out for - height of the stands prevent natural sunlight getting to the pitch, the money spent on design and building sliding stand roofs to try fix the issue along with artifical sunlight sources would build a new ground for each LoI club, and it has been a complete failure. Computer models of air movement, sunlight, wear etc made prior to the redevelopment in 2003 (at a cost of €1.6billion in todays money) were useless. Within 5 years the pitch was laid 11 times and the FA eventually conceded that the pitch would need to be relaid approximately 65 times by last year and developed a seperate business plan to factor this issue in to their ongoing costs. A pitch that doesnt get weekly use!! Not unusual for stadia to relay a pitch with just the surface turf during a season but they cant get it to bed in at Wembley so its not just the average half a mil per laid turf pitch. White Hart Lane learned from it and why they can wheel the pitch out of the stadium when they need to (and have artificial surface overylay the grass for American Football etc. Solution for Wembley long term is to perfect the artificial surface.
Seeee nerd level of interest so I hope the sincere tone was sincere;)
For clarification there isn't anything overlayed on the grass for the NFL games. The regular pitch is actually on top of a purpose built NFL field so the regular pitch is actually removed for NFL games.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nesta99
You can see the process here ya big nerd ;)
https://youtu.be/ScPBxYAmNtg?si=sHONY6BVmB0gTpwV
Indoobleoobleitely. We're well on course to score a grand total of 20 goals by season's end. If we stay up having scored so few it'd surely go into the history books.Quote:
Originally Posted by sbgawa
Typo typo I meant 'under-lay not overlay.....:eek:I need to nerd up!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Another Bohemia
.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nesta99
I don't think any club in LOI would need sun lamps as the stands are not high enough to block the sun and wind, even tallaght has open corners, and wind is a huge factor. Etihad stadium in Manchester has huge controllable vents in the corners to allow the wind to blow through it and these are closed on match days.
If a club in LOI had a stadium large enough to block the sun they could afford sun lamps. As for the artificial pitches, in general they are uneven due to both under and over application of crumb rubber in areas of the same pitch and not brushing the pitch regularly enough.
Also clubs don't include cannon sprinklers in the capital cost of the pitch and depend on Johnny and Mick with garden hoses to soak the pitch prior to kick off.
You need the sun lamps if you are trying to regerate the pitch in the off season, or during the winter months. Drainage is as much a problem. I cant disagree on the upkeep of the artificial surfaces, the simply must be maintained as per guidelines and not in an ad hoc manner than seems to have been an issue for different owners in Oriel and in Derry. Under SK Johnny and Mick did a perfectly ok job watering the pitch as requested by SK.
Are you saying the pitch has not been watered since 2018?Quote:
Originally Posted by Nesta99
https://scontent.fbhx1-2.fna.fbcdn.n...Kw&oe=662F15ECQuote:
Originally Posted by Nesta99
Those are the pitches of a Junior club in Fermanagh with both having being laid down from scratch (i.e. brand new site) in 2015. Now as it happens, they spent a decent amount of money, at that level at least, and employed top quality pitch installers (do lots of GAA and Rugby as well as football). And while they've had the contractors back to do some bits of repair and maintenance since, nonetheless the day to day stuff is all done by volunteers.
The point being that the main (lower left) pitch is used every week by either 1st team or Reserves and I don't think they've had a single cancellation due to pitch problems this season (maybe one?). Indeed there have been weeks when nearly every other match in the area had to be called off bar theirs. While the upper pitch, which has floodlights, has been usually available for training, or boys/girls matches, throughout the season, too.
Of course, they've not had the problem of the sun being shaded by big stands etc, then again, it's Fermanagh, so they never get much sun in the first place! While this is for a winter season, with Fermanagh being a wet place at the best of times.
P.S. Not only is the pitch physically playable, but it's actually a very good surface too, so it can be done.
EDIT: Don't know whether it needed to be made clear, but those are both grass pitches.
You're wasting your time trying to water an astro in this country, you might as well be pishing on it, it drys as soon as it hits it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nesta99
In Scandinavia where a lot of the pitches are astro they have proper watering systems, until we have that we are wasting our time with astros.
I seen Derry had a lad with a power washer out at the weekend, a total waste of time as I said.
Derry get a suspended closure which only matters if they don’t cause any trouble at the next game. Crazy stuff. Could imagine what would have happened if it was the Shams fans who caused the trouble. The FAI really are a shower of total imbecile's.
I wonder what the logic is - that the trouble came from outside the ground?Quote:
Originally Posted by Nah Nah Nah Nah
You'd always get a few rocks thrown at buses on the way out, but the last two games in Derry have been particularly bad for us and I've heard similar from other clubs. Metal bars, rocks and flares thrown in last week and before that we had a borderline warzone created in the car park by people who may claim some affinity with the club but don't represent the Derry fans I know. Such a shame. It's a wonderful away trip and Derry's support are good craic but it's getting to the point we will see boycotts unless something is done about these scuzzbuckets.
Suppose so. We don't actually know though, since the disciplinary process isn't transparent.Quote:
Originally Posted by ontheotherhand
It's a wake-up call for the club. I honestly am not sure what the solution is though. It probably needs to involve the PSNI, despite the difficulties that would bring.
The other solution is to move out of the Brandywell, which plenty would like to see done in the longer term.
I feel for you brendy. We haven't been short of a few toerags bringing the clubs name down in the past obviously. It's always hard to take. This stuff is on another level to most of the trouble in the league in recent times though (bar maybe the bohs/wrexham clowns at the cup final) and the Derry Ultras post today about the PSNI makes me think it's going to be very, very hard to solve.Quote:
Originally Posted by brendy_éire
Moving the away fans back to the other side would maybe help? Would need seat kills but the loss of ticket revenue might be better than the damage these shower are doing. Moving games to Sunday afternoons maybe?
Totally correct, cannon sprinklers are the only answer.Quote:
Originally Posted by outspoken
What would the point of that be? No one kicks off at 7pmQuote:
Originally Posted by wonder88
Has it rained since 2018?Quote:
Originally Posted by Shinkicker
Again yes the system designed for watering artificial surfaces should be used simply as they use less water with greater effect than what happened in Oriel in the past which was essentially flooding the pitch with hoses running to differnt areas of the pitch for half the day before match natch night. I havent seen that level of effort with the pitch under more recent managers, a garden sprikler might have been switched on the odd time an hour or 2 befor KO. We opted against embedded water cannon spriklers for fear of Ollie breaking them, he only liked a pitch watered when it was going to turn it to mud!Quote:
Originally Posted by outspoken
That's why I got outQuote:
Originally Posted by Nesta99