Scotland V Republic of Ireland - Friday, 14th November 2014 - Euro 2016 Qualifier

This is my first post since getting back from the game. I must confess that i was watching the game at an awful angle behind the goal at the Lisbon Lions end, but for me the difference between the 2 sides could be summed up in one word. Composure. They had it, we didn't.

McGeady was rattled by the reception he got. He was taking corners not far from me in the 2nd half and was getting dogs abuse. He lost his composure as a result and was trying to beat the entire Scots defence on his own everytime he got the ball. Scotland had a plan and executed it perfectly. Their full backs and wingers were taking up positions right out on the touchline at every chance they got, but at no point did i see Long drifting out to the wing to exploit that.

Our play was frantic in every regard. At one point in the first half Forde won a free kick and stayed down. There didn't seem to be much wrong with him, but it gave us a timeout and a chance for O'Neill & Keane to try to calm everyone down. It was as bad after the game restarted, just as it was after half time.

To be honest anything that went on at the far end of the ground was too far away for me to comment on. In the 1st half I thought O'Shea did well, as did Coleman & Forde. In the second half I thought Walters was a handful, but it wasn't working.

Scotland were good value for the win. Having seen the goal on TV it seems to fit in with the theme of the greater composure of the Scots. It looked like it came off the training ground and it worked perfectly for them.

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Originally Posted by Crosby87

Is there any Irish player who is a teenager coming up the pipeline who is likely going to be really good?
Someone they could build a team around?
I'd like to see Ireland play in a wc again before im 90. Poor Stutts runs marathons just to take his mind off this.

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Possibly Jack byrne, but he could equally be conor Clifford mark two. He has wonderful ability and viera rates him massively. The chances of him breaking straight into the city team are very unlikely, so his next loan move is going to be crucial.

Alex o'hanlon is another with a lot of ability. He's not as good as Byrne, but he has a good chance of going far. He's well thought off at liverpool.

the mad thing is that if we produce even one world class player in the next few years, with our very functional and disciplined team albeit mediocre team, we could go quite far.

This is what the pipeline looks like

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/detai...l/suche/707431
http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/detai...l/suche/707420

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

I agree with SvD in almost all of the above, but O'Neill needs to prove he has another way of winning the big games and pretty damned soon. Trap lost me completely when we played well in Sweden and then tried to bash the door down at home to Austria. (Note: Austria going great guns in their group btw.).

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If there's one possible upswing of getting beat, at least it surely forces management and team to come up with a game plan for our home games that focuses squarely on winning. We have to get four, probably six points from our next two home games.

I'm praying Hoolahan is fit.

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Originally Posted by Crosby87

Took you less than 48 hours to swim back from Scotland Swan. Not bad. Did you have any scotch eggs?

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I took the leisurely route round the isles, very pleasant. No scotch eggs, but has some battered black pudding.

Any haggis? I could see you drowning your sorrows with a nice haggis.

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Originally Posted by liamoo11

no o hanlon bashing please. he was excellent against real in the 19s champ league 2 weeks ago and against the bulgarians . great coverage on eurosport

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I'm not bashing anyone. Somebody suggested he be brought into the set-up to give him a personal boost, but the reality is that physically he's not close to that level yet.

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Originally Posted by Bungle

It is baffling how doolin doesn't have o'hanlon in the u19s, especially given that he is a regular starter in the uefa youth league, as is Dan cleary. Byrne and lawlor I would wager will become Irish internationals very soon. Both terrific talents. O'hanlon and cleary maybe less so, but still very good.

Anyhow, I believe that unless we beat the USA and Poland, we have feck all chance of being 3rs seeds for the next campaign. In that case, I'd far rather a lot of new talent introduced supplemented by the core of decent players already in the set up. We would stand more from seeing derrick Williams and Shane Duffy in a game than we would John O'Shea. Lawlor would gain more from being around the set up than Shay given. Jack Byrne might be able to impress pellegrini or a good championship club and progress his career on loan. At the very least, it will give these lads a boost.

Mick did it years ago and after some very painful performances such as Iceland and Lithuania at home, we became a very decent side. I'd love something similar now, because the current bunch (good lads the lot of them) will never amount to much. When we're getting outclassed by a Scottish team where Naismith is the star, then I think it's time to rip it up.

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O'Hanlon was, I'm guessing, omitted from the U19s based on how difficult he found the last campaign.

'You always get the impression from Everton that Seamus and James are struggling to walk,' Keane said pointedly. 'So when they turn up and they can walk, it’s praise the Lord, you know.

Maybe if Roy broke their legs to make sure they really were injured it would help?

That way it would work out better for Everton if they played.

Only got back from Glasgow yesterday evening so not had chance to read through the thread fully and post 'til now.

Disappointing result with a lot of huffing and puffing from both teams. Scotland just shaded it though with a greater intent to play the better football on the ground. It was all very deflating after the tense build-up. We had a strong spell at the beginning of the second half but unfortunately it came to nothing and Scotland broke the deadlock soon after that. Their goal was a moment of magic and it was actually quite similar to one Maloney scored for Wigan at Old Trafford a few seasons ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pypCgKOiT8

We were admittedly caught sleeping though with Brown left completely free in the box. Both McClean and Brady were standing in space doing nothing as the whole move progressed. I think Brady had only just come on(?), but still sloppy. Otherwise, we had looked disciplined at the back and I had thought we'd be able to keep them out, so the goal was unexpected when it did arrive. I thought Keogh certainly stepped up to the plate, in spite of his limitations. He showed fearless endeavour throughout the game and didn't look out of place.

Marshall was solid and composed in their goal; the more the game went on, the harder it was for me to imagine how we were going to get something past him. He pulled off a few top saves and completely nullified any potential threat we might have offered from corners. He calmly plucked the corner balls out of the air. Robertson looked decent for them too, especially going forward, but their defence generally was probably made look stronger by our ineffective strategy. We didn't really threaten them or even attempt to penetrate, besides launching the ball at them. Hanley could have had two separate straight red cards, it should be said. I don't know how the assistant behind the goal didn't spot the elbow to Forde's face.

Our midfield was non-existent and the lads up front were barely in the game either as a result; simply chasing scraps. Coleman looked a shadow of his Everton self, but we need a midfield with the ball at their feet to bring his attacking abilities into the game.

McGeady was obviously eager to prove something and seemed to be overdoing things. The occasion (and possibly the booing) got to him. I can't really fault him though as I can understand the emotions would have been running high in his head; I was just a bit disappointed for him that it didn't really work out in the circumstances. I'd have loved for him to have shut the booers up too. He spent a lot of the game wasting energy with rampant chasing down and over-ran the ball a few times when all that was necessary was a simple pass off. If the booing of McGeady was indeed pantomime stuff as was/is being claimed, then fair enough, but what about the booing of our anthem? Is that just a laugh and a joke too?

McClean, who also had a poor game, was also on the receiving end of a bit of booing. McClean got a bit of abuse over the poppy matter from a guy near us, but the idiot was quickly told to shut up by another Scotland supporter behind him. By and large, the Scotland fans where we were standing were good-natured though and the atmosphere was positive otherwise. Credit to our fans for their loud support of Aiden and for never once stooping to disrespectful responses in testing conditions.

Very sad news to hear about the young Scotland fan who died from a fall inside the stadium. Rest in peace.

Just watched most of the game again. Jeez, what a contest. Short on quality but commitment, tempo and organised chaos in an intimidating atmosphere made it something to behold.

I think Roy Keane got it right. In tight games the home team shades it 70pc of the time. We weren't as bad as I had thought. As Geysir said we did actually try and work the ball out from the back and then wide before hitting a wall and hoofing it!

We got lucky with one or two Scottish missed chances, Long could have scored and Brady's delivery when he came on was very dangerous. I tried to watch the game from a Scottish viewpoint in the last 20 minutes and I reckon I'd have been behind the sofa.


Walters put in a monumental shift. You know what you're going to get with him - brawn rather than brain, but still I think he outshone Long. The team is crying out for a guy who can get time in the ball in the final third.

We did have chances. It was just there was no real pattern or design to them. It would have been a relief had we equalised, but it wasn't something I would have foreseen.

Just saw this: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152597372862946

It was a pretty amusing, loose-on-facts Fox Sports pre-game build-up segment.

http://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/...ager-tells-you

Scientific proof that we're better than Scotland.

"Scotland can do subtle nowadays. They can do brilliance when the mood strikes. They have that in their make-up. The game was a gruntathon, but it was decided by the kind of creativity and skill that is becoming something of a hallmark of the Scottish team.

Think Steven Fletcher and Anya in Germany and Maloney, again, in Poland. Strachan's team can scrap when they need to scrap - Charlie Mulgrew was a colossus in that regard - but they have another dimension and three or four players who can get them there.

There was the late miss from Georgia's Irakli Dzarla at Ibrox when all the stadium closed their eyes in fear of the worst. There was the late scare in Poland when Kamil Grosicki slapped a shot off David Marshall's right-hand post. There was another late fright on Friday when Grant Hanley headed on to Marshall's crossbar. Good fortune - but deserved. "

They should never have had the corner. Scot offside from the free kick which was headed away for the corner. On such matters are games decided but I had better stop this as I sound like a Premiership manager moaning in the post-match interview.

Only after getting through all the comments since the match there, the time flew on the train to Dublin!

My biggest gripe, and it's a massive one, is that MON is so Traplike in fitting players into his formation instead of picking a formation to suit the players.

Firstly, starting with a 4-4-2 was daft. I honestly feel it could have been a totally different match with an extra body in midfield.

Talk of 4-4-2 being a positive, brave formation is misguided I think. It's only brave because it's so obvious you're giving your two midfielders too much to do.

We need to start looking at what our players do best.

Hendrick is clearly better in a three man midfield, he'll help out defensively but his main attributes are in the opposition's half, linking up with the front man and wingers.

Gibson's best work has been in a three man midfield as well, in the deep lying role. I've been highly critical of him over the years, but I think some of the comments regarding his performance on here were very harsh. I thought he protected our back four very well on the night.

Shane Long is better as a lone striker, the more space he has to run into the better. Walters has great heart but not enough quality. Both are better (and excellent) sub options anyway I think. Keane might not do much but he's more likely to be in the right place at the right time. There are plenty strikers that do little other than score, he's still my number one up front.

McGeady, over the years, has done his best work on the left cutting in. I don't think McClean is creative enough to justify putting McGeady on the right. I would be interested in the McClean left back experiment at some stage, but for now I'd play Brady on the right with McGeady on the left.

I was willing to cut Trap some slack. He had taken us so far, made us competitive after a shambolic period. He was old and unlikely to adapt to new formations and systems. MON has no excuses, he has to learn from Trap's mistakes, as well as his own. It's hard to believe that 4-4-2 can even be considered for games like Friday night anymore.

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Originally Posted by backtowalsall

This is my first post since getting back from the game. I must confess that i was watching the game at an awful angle behind the goal at the Lisbon Lions end, but for me the difference between the 2 sides could be summed up in one word. Composure. They had it, we didn't.

McGeady was rattled by the reception he got. He was taking corners not far from me in the 2nd half and was getting dogs abuse. He lost his composure as a result and was trying to beat the entire Scots defence on his own everytime he got the ball. Scotland had a plan and executed it perfectly. Their full backs and wingers were taking up positions right out on the touchline at every chance they got, but at no point did i see Long drifting out to the wing to exploit that.

Our play was frantic in every regard. At one point in the first half Forde won a free kick and stayed down. There didn't seem to be much wrong with him, but it gave us a timeout and a chance for O'Neill & Keane to try to calm everyone down. It was as bad after the game restarted, just as it was after half time.

To be honest anything that went on at the far end of the ground was too far away for me to comment on. In the 1st half I thought O'Shea did well, as did Coleman & Forde. In the second half I thought Walters was a handful, but it wasn't working.

Scotland were good value for the win. Having seen the goal on TV it seems to fit in with the theme of the greater composure of the Scots. It looked like it came off the training ground and it worked perfectly for them.

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He got an ugly deliberate elbow to the face and it hurt.

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Originally Posted by OwlsFan

They should never have had the corner. Scot offside from the free kick which was headed away for the corner. On such matters are games decided but I had better stop this as I sound like a Premiership manager moaning in the post-match interview.

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Not every epl manager. I was reminded in particular of your favourite manager, Neil Warnock.

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Originally Posted by geysir

He got an ugly deliberate elbow to the face and it hurt.

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Like I said. It was my first post since i got back from the game, and i was watching it from an awful angle.

I see the FAI boycotted the pre-match reception with the SFA as John Delaney sought to make a petty protest over the SFA's 5 per cent allocation, which was, of course, in accordance with UEFA's regulations: http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-30750037.html

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Originally Posted by John Fallon

Relations between the FAI and Scottish FA hit a new low on Thursday when the Irish delegation boycotted the traditional pre-match reception for the Euro 2016 qualifier between the nations.

The FAI's chief executive John Delaney had been publicly scathing of the SFA’s decision to allocate the regulation 5% (3,200) tickets for Friday’s 62,000-capacity fixture at Celtic Park.

In an interview with Radio Kerry last week, Delaney described the SFA as “unprofessional”, while suggesting that allowing Irish fans to buy up tickets in the home sections of the ground through the SFAI website could generate “tension in the air’.

Irish fans continue to dispute this, saying the problem lies with the FAI and how they allocated the five per cent.

The FAI took their displeasure to a higher level by refusing to attend the pre-match dinner hosted by SFA President Campbell Ogilvie.

This is the traditional gathering of legislators from both teams, along with the UEFA match delegate and match officials.

The delegation, including Delaney and recently-elected President Tony Fitzgerald, didn’t show up neither for the hospitality at the match venue hours before the game.

The FAI have refused to comment on the boycott by their officials.

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Embarrassing stuff.