Saw Dundalk against Treaty and wasn't overly impressed but it seemed to click against Bray which is the fear as we saw what happened when it clicked for Cobh after a slow start
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Saw Dundalk against Treaty and wasn't overly impressed but it seemed to click against Bray which is the fear as we saw what happened when it clicked for Cobh after a slow start
Cant see us getting anything out of Dundalk, like Cork last season, a cut above the rest. The 3 games after that Treaty h, Harps a and UCD h would be ones youd hope to get some results.
Would sadly agree, conceding over 2 per game, we aren't scoring 3 in Oriel. GK is a huge concern although Cherrie might give us a chance if we're lucky.
I'm sorry but this keeper is by far and away the worst performing player in that squad so far this season. If you're young McCarthy you have to be wondering what has to happen to get a look in. If it's because he was in goal for that 6-0 in the cup last year, that was not his fault.
Decent effort all things considered. I'd fancy a go at Treaty next week
Brilliant effort from the lads tonight, agree again about the keeper tho
Considering we are likely to be at the bottom ennd of the table the results in other games didnt do us any favours! Could do with getting a result against Treaty, the following week its Finn Harps away, followed by Wexford and UCD.
I'm after noticing Kerry have had their merch available to buy online for a couple of weeks now. So are we now the only club who don't have anything available to purchase?
I don't know what's going on there, but nearly April and not having the new stuff available is a bad look with the league now as popular as it is. Fairly sure the announcement said the jersey would be available to purchase soon as well.
Treaty game will probably be tougher that I realised. In my head they hadn't won a game for a few weeks but they had a comeback draw against Dundalk and probably just fell at the final hurdle against Wexford.
But hopefully we've another good crowd after that cracker against Kerry and the lads should be well up for it after that and nearly holding Dundalk
Treaty should be higher up the table, threw away games against Cobh and Wexford and as you said they are the only team to take points off Dundalk. Having watched them in Oriel that night they are a typical Tommy Barrett side, extremely well organized and they will be very physical, hopefully Aaron Walsh being back fit can help us with that as I'd worry about us getting pushed around a bit here, particularly on set pieces. Their keeper had a mare against Dundalk that night so we need to be putting him under pressure as much as they'll be trying to do the same to Halwax. I can see if Being a fairly scrappy game, whoever keeps their discipline best and wins the most individual battles is likely to shade it. No enda Curran thank God. We could really do with Dean Georgie bursting into life against his former club here.
Delighted with win tonight. Great to get the 3 points after last nights results. Tight table, 3 points between 3rd and 12th!
Thrilled with that. Withheld the pressure and fought hard for that win
Took like 15 games to get to 2 wins last year, this year it has taken us 6. Just gives a bit of hope for the year
A win next week and we are flying. No away win since July and that remains Wayne's only one so we could do with righting that.
A win tomorrow and we could be 4th....a loss tomorrow and we could be last.
I mightn't get to watch it tonight but I'll be checking in on the game minute by minute. A win tonight would make it 3 wins from last 4, and I can't remember the last time we did that. Personally think it'll be a draw but a very winnable game too
Think it will be a tough game with the great Kevin McHugh being Harps new boss. Our record in Ballybofey isnt great. Will gladly take the draw!Quote:
Originally Posted by MoydowMonty
Tough is right. I'd have taken the draw before the game but after being uo against 10 men it's a tiny bit disappointing. Seemed to let Harps bully us near the end.Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinho II
I'm not too annoyed though. This is still a lot better than this stage last season. Onwards and upwards to another tough one against Wexford on Tuesday now
Think with the fiasco over the pts wouldnt mind us gettin a pt from Ferrycarrig!Quote:
Originally Posted by MoydowMonty
They had a very good win last night themselves I'd certainly take a point from that game too. 8 points from our last 12 isn't bad at all in fairnessQuote:
Originally Posted by Martinho II
You'd probably take 1 loss and 1 win, better than two draws. UCD on Saturday is a big opportunity given their start but looking at their squad they've too much quality not too click, strangely enough they should enjoy playing in longford given the state of their pitch.
Big one again tonight, a team similar to us I feel. Home form has been good , a win tonight and we are fringes of playoffs, although cant see us being in the mix for that.
Just not at the races tonight, didn't trouble them enough.
Bray on friday. I still don't think their position is reflective of how they actually are, I'm just waiting for their bubble to burst. Hopefully it's us who burst it
Very very flat performance on Saturday, maybe 3 games in 9 days catching up especially given we made so few changes from game to game (squad depth a major issue).
Bray are flying, maybe I judged them too quickly on the opening night when I thought they looked bang average, this will be a better indication of where both sides are.
Our biggest problem is in the final third, without Morris we have absolutely no goal threat up there.
Young Murtagh running his socks off but feeding off even less than crumbs.
Couldn't make it to the game nor stream it. But sounds like I didn't miss much. We did not burst their bubble as I had hoped. 3 games in a row now where we've been decisively beaten in different ways. Concerning after it felt like things were looking up with the treaty win.
Athlone on Monday, they have to be looking at our form and thinking there's 3 points for grabs there
Just copped from FAI Connect, cuz I was curious who was in the dugout for Athlone last night after Costello left. It was Robbie Rock, who was managing our u20s last season. I didn't even realised he had left us
Seems like a poor start to the season.. A loss against Athlone will probably confirm another shocking season for LTFC
Not that I have even seen a minute of LTFC this year bar highlights, if I am going to look at a Dublin team I might as well look at one of the decent ones! Hopefully I'll get a look at some stage anyway, but don't expect much tbh..
I was looking at our current U20 team. This team should be flying as its the 17s from 3 years ago where we won our first underage national league title playing top class football - best underage team the club has had IMO. Now there is a total of 1 player on the 20s from that team lol.. what an absolute waste of time but very interesting to see what is happening - this is supposed to be our reserve team.
Any proper manager says that the first team is all built on the academy, Duffer has said it recently. LTFC must be one of the only clubs in world football that the academy and first team do not train in the same location. How is a young talent from the midlands, say 16/17, expected to travel up and down to Dublin for training with first team, its a farce. These local players are being let down and just leave. Proper clubs have youth players training with the first team and bleeding them in, also making them better players and improving the academy. LTFC seems to be more a social club than a football club atm. IMO the league table speaks for itself, and it's a poor reflection on the chairman, the academy, the committee, the club media, etc. Was LTFC set up over 100 years ago to benefit people from Dublin? I doubt it... I accept that this is basically what happened during our glory years, however this was a completely different time for LOI.
No strikers, pity we didn't keep Elding and in so doing young Owen Elding, current top scorer in premier with the Sligo. Most promising talent in LOI, because he has been trained by the best coach in the country. Will probably be sold for a few million the way things are going. That cash would have come in handy no doubt for the club, so the club have literally made a decision there that is likely to cost them millions lol and all we hear is how the club has no money sob story. So yes not keeping Elding the worst decision made by a mile. Shur there are multiple Longford players playing for Sligo underage, they and their parents know where to go. There is top talent in the midlands that will not play for LTFC academy because of the quality/results and zero interaction with First Team, and personally I wouldn't blame them one bit. We have lost Guilly too, another top talent that could potentially be sold for good money too. Many other local players gone from our 17s that would be walking into the first team squad if there was proper structures in place, however they have just left - many left when Anthony Elding left and followed him to Sligo which speaks for itself.
Maybe I'll get a bit of abuse again but I just can't stop remembering that I have a LOI medal as a coach in my back pocket so I'll say my piece and if people don't agree they should check their own back pocket for a medal before hounding me lol .
Time to get successful football people into LTFC, and recognise that the current set up is laughable. I can basically guarantee Anthony Elding would be successful, but I feel some turkeys will never vote for Christmas no matter how awful the club is performing once they maintain their involvement. For now we will have to put up with some nobody coaches that will get us nowhere. Any LTFC manager that keeps this training in Dublin is not a manager at all, because once they are training in Dublin the academy is one big waste of time and money. It made me sick to hear the current manager Groves say last year that young players need to be ready before getting into first team, how would they be ready when ye train in Dublin and all the young players are from the midlands. Longford is the most disadvantaged place in the country, why are we not supporting our own and instead supporting all these Dubliners from the most advantaged place in the country - doesn't make sense to me!
Very strange game we actually played very well in the first half, created loads of changes but we are really missing a proven goal scorer.
We started the game like the UCD game very flat and passive and conceded a stupid goal as a result but that woke us up and we dominated until Andy Spain had a Gerrard like slip and they made it 2-0.
Again, we dominated up to half time but couldn't put ball In net. Boudiaf, who was out best player by far, missed a sitter from a few yards out. We needed a goal going into the break but couldn't get it over the line.
Second half is inexcusable, flat, second to every ball and wide open at the back, there can be no excuses made for it.
HUGE response needed on Monday. Also, very disappointing to see how town fans were treated in bray even older supporters at the game said they had never been treated so poorly at an away ground.
excellent post Keen2win. I too have being the victim of abuse and havent attended games this season due to personal reasons. The club has sadly lost its way. Im not going to say anything any more as I was reported on a previous post here for telling the truth. I will only go to matches when it suits me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Keen2win
An undeserved point in my opinion. Couldn't string 2 passes together most of the 2nd half. But the lads rallied together the last 10 and stole a point. I'd love to see Manny James upfront with murtagh cuz I'm slowly coming round to him, but think he needs help up top. He's often left doing it all for nothing by himself.
Slater could be a big boost as well coming back. Glad to have stopped the rot of 3 losses in a row. But that away form really needs to pick up. In a few months if it stays as is we'll be saying we've only 1 away win across 24 months which is grim.
Dundalk on Saturday. They're not world beaters. Well able to give them a shock of some sort
As bad as we were for the first 30 mins of the second half, and by god we were bad, I actually think we deserved a point out of it. We should have been ahead at HT, Campbell missing a sitter amongst other decent chances/opportunities that we didn't make the most of. Athlone were desperate too, but I still think on the overall balance of play we didn't deserve to lose. Delighted to get the equaliser in the end, a lovely goal it was too.
But christ, that first half an hour of the second half was as bad as I've seen in a long, long time.
Would agree that LWS on the right brings a bit of extra quality. Be great if he could stay fit now and if we could get Norris back on the left too. Be much more threat with those two fit and firing. Anyone know when he's due back from injury?
Norris not that far away fwiu, second half yesterday was as bad a performance as I've seen from any Town team, had two athlone players not fallen over each other it was game over. I don't think anyone was under any illusions after that we got out of jail and have to improve and quickly. My worry is how we've gone from being hard to play against to looking so wide open in midfield and defence in last two matches. LWS made a huge impact yesterday, if we can get him and Norris back hopefully Murtagh can get more service as he's proven he's our best striker. Manny James isn't making enough impact off the bench to push for a start, barely touched it after coming on yesterday.Quote:
Originally Posted by De Town
I'm not close enough to it in recent years to know the ins and outs of who decided what and when, and so these are genuine questions. What kind of team would we able to put out based on our current budget if we were training in Longford? And are the facilities at the ground away from the main pitch sufficiently up to scratch to be training on at night a few times a week? If they're being used for the first team where do the academy teams train?
I wouldn't know the inside and outs of budgets but I know what the likes of Dundalk are paying players and we are lightyears away from it. Hard to know with the likes of Bray they clearly spent big last season but lost a lot of those players and have a mods youthful team now. Wexford and Harps both youthful but still have some experienced PD players on their books. Cobh spent massive. Even Kerry are now housing players so we definitely appear to have one of if not the smallest budget.Quote:
Originally Posted by Longfordian
The back pitch doesn't have floodlights and astro only 7 aside size so pretty much a NR for first team training.
I do think we'll see the club attempting to do more in the community in the not too distant future. You only have to look at the events being run this weekend in honour of the late Cian Nearl and Cian's Kennels to see the club want to reach out more and support causes like this which can only be a positive.
That's good news about Norris. Would definitely help us to have a threat on both wings for sure.
With regards the budget, we're surely the smallest in the FD by a long way?
I don't know the full details or licencing requirements regarding underage and women's teams, but wasn't there something brought in a few years ago where they (underage/women's) were made a requirement for licencing purposes, rather than a nice-to-have/optional extra? Each of these teams costs a nice whack to run each year I'm sure.
From the outside looking in (and I could be completely wrong on this, open to correction), it just seems our whole club budget of €X per year has probably stayed in or around the same as it has been for years, but we now have to run 6 (I think) teams from the budget, rather than the 1 or 2 we used to have to run. This has then had a knock-on affect on our ability to sign players for our first team.
Again, that's my guess on things looking from the outside, could be miles off the truth there.
Yeah it's definitely a licencing requirement to have underage LOI teams on the men's side of things. Not sure on the women's but wouldn't surprise me. It's hard to see a long term future in the LOI the way things are going to be honest, and that's not a criticism of those keeping the show on the road.
The third tier could be a good jolt for us to wake ourselves up from this slumber we've been in the last few seasons or it could effectively be the end of us, difficult to know.
Again I feel like I need to say I'm not close to how things are operating day to day but it's hard to see where more money comes from. The town is a struggling town, and the wider county isn't exactly booming either. So I imagine there's no big queue of sponsors knocking on the door. I've no interest in any fly by night "investors" coming in and taking control either, so it's hard to see how things improve.
I've a genuine fear that the club won't be around in 10 years. Maybe I'm overthinking it. But like you say it's hard to see investment coming in anytime soon. The 3rd tier is on the way and we've been dancing around those bottom places recently since we still haven't really seen the same boom that other clubs have had since covid.
I'd expect attendances to drop even firther in 3rd tier cuz that's what people are like in this county. JH can't keep the show going forever either, we're blessed to have him even now when we're struggling.
I hate being negative that way, but it's very worrying to me what the future holds for the club
I'd sadly agree.
The Cian Neary stuff that was done tonight was a nice touch, and I'm happy that the effort was put in there as stuff like this is what fans would like to see more of.
6 games now without a win though. After that Treaty win I thought we'd be a bit better off by this point, but most games have been decisive losses. Kinda gave Dundalk something to think about at least in the first half but offered SFA in the second.