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Am I the only one who thought the football this season was better than the last couple of years? Granted, Rovers didn't play champagne football, but Sligo, UCD and Fingal have been playing the ball on the floor the way nobody has in this country for years.
Ah man, way to ruin a good post. And yes I am bitter.Quote:
Originally Posted by legendz
;)
Well done Shams. Thoroughly deserved over the season. Still think all in all Team of the season has to go to Sligo. And maybe even Mons. And Lims as well. In fact the LOI had a really good year with an awful lot if positives. Especially the last 3 weekends which were a great example of white line fever. Great season and here's to more of the same next year. Well with us getting promoted.
apart from this bit: "While their victory over Bray Wanderers earned the club €200,000 in prize money......."Quote:
Originally Posted by legendz
Most normal people (I know that excludes you and "Model Club") when they say we took x amount of points off a club this season are on about the amount of points that their own club got not the amount of points that they stopped the other team getting.Quote:
Originally Posted by mypost
For example if someone asked me how many points did Sligo take from Shams this season I would say 2. Not "we stopped them getting 4 points extra"
Please dont tie me in with Myposts maths lesson.I have my own opinions and express them as I wish.Just because we both support the same team doesn't mean we share anything else.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nah Nah Nah Nah
How would you like if I refered to you and "rasputin" as one and the same.
If you have an issue with me take me up on it.
Sorry to cause confusion,twas more a broad remark regarding your brethren.Quote:
Originally Posted by BohsPartisan
We intend carrying on thanks.Thats as much financial advice as we need though-especially from the Anglo Irish bank of the LOI!
Most normal people know that 12-2 = 10. That's a lot of points unclaimed in a season.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nah Nah Nah Nah
As one who followed Rovers at Milltown and used to make the trek across the city as a kid to Dalymount for cup finals and games against Bohs and to Tolka to see the Hoops take on Drums and Shels and who was heart broken when Milltown was sold to property developers by someone who eventually became President of the FAI (!!) (supported by Dunphy), this to me is perhaps Rovers greatest achievement and the best day in its long and distinguished history. The club now has a reasonably secure ground and a good fanbase. Who would have thought this as the club was reprieved by the revenue commissioners just a few years ago. Huge congratulations to everyone involved in the club and those who stuck with it during the dark days.
You nearly f*cked it up, but congrats Shams best end to a league competition in a long time
I think the standard of the league is nothing to what it was just a few years ago tbh.Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
Look at the teams Drogs, Cork, Derry and Bohs fielded, the standard was just higher.
But tbh its neither here nor there, the teams they fielded were compeltely unsustainable on the economic model they had.
Still doesnt change from the fact it is the weakest LOI in years.
Overall the league was probably weaker but I think it's a valid point by Charlie Darwin that UCD, Fingal and Sligo are definitely playing an attractive brand of football. There's also been some incredible games and some stunning goals this season, I think the quality of goals in the goal of the season competition will be exceptional this year. Add to that the fact that pretty much everything was decided on the last day and all in it was an excellent league season.
The top teams are weaker, but that was always going to happen. The bottom teams are probably getting stronger.
Do you really think the likes of Bray, Galway and Drogs are better than the bottom teams over the past decade or so?Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
It's only weaker relative to an unsustainable past. I'll take this season over any other if it is the start of a realism in Irish soccer. The close season (for most of us) is upon us and we have scary days ahead with Bohs and dare I say it, the Fungus. If what the Lep says is true then we just need to concern ourselves with a potential implosion in Phibsboro. But let's leave that speculation til November 15th. There's still a lot of football to be played. And a potential cracker of a cup final.
+ 1. Despite our rivalry can genuinely be glad for the shams that stuck with them through the wlderness years. Know some of them and am aware of the hard work and dedication that turned things round when at times their very existance was at stake. enjoy guys ! :)Quote:
Originally Posted by OwlsFan
Yeah, I think so. But it's hard to tell; maybe it's just that the top clubs are poorer that the bottom ones appear more competitive and so better as a result.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rasputin
This year, for example, Drogheda were very similar to us in 2008, but with more points. Bray in the second half of the season were a decent side - though had they matched their second-half points tally in the first half of the season, they'd still have been in the play-offs I think, so they weren't massively improved - and Galway took ten points off Bohs; don't recall the last side to end in the bottom three to do that to a top two side.
If you go back ten years as you suggest, there were some really poor sides - Kilkenny, Monaghan and Galway for example with 9, 12 and 15 points early in the decade stand out. It's hard to really tell of course.
From my watching of the games this season I think it is just that the top clubs are poorer tbh.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
I didnt think yee were as bad as Drogs were this season.Quote:
This year, for example, Drogheda were very similar to us in 2008, but with more points. Bray in the second half of the season were a decent side - though had they matched their second-half points tally in the first half of the season, they'd still have been in the play-offs I think, so they weren't massively improved - and Galway took ten points off Bohs; don't recall the last side to end in the bottom three to do that to a top two side.
As for the Galway and Bohs thing, I wouldnt read too much into that, sometimes teams can have a bogey team as such.
That is true though that the old Kilkenny and Monaghan teams were just woefull.Quote:
If you go back ten years as you suggest, there were some really poor sides - Kilkenny, Monaghan and Galway for example with 9, 12 and 15 points early in the decade stand out. It's hard to really tell of course.
But the difference this season is the standard of the bottom of the league was worse IMO, Drogs, Bray and Galway were 3 poor teams to be in a 10 team premier.
You've also got the likes of the Waterford and Bray teams in 2006 who didn't even meet Dublin City's points tally even when City went bust half-way through the league; fairly bad teams both of them. Bray last year weren't great I think (wasn't paying as much attention to the Premier obviously).
Granted, Waterford in particular suffered that year cos they were thrown into the Premier at a week's notice. I'm sure there were other poor teams too.
Generally speaking I thought the standard in the Prem was poor this year but some clubs (Sligo, UCD, Sporting Fingal spring to mind) play a very attractive standard of football. Shams probobly the most consistent which is wjhy they won it (usually is) especially as the clubs around them Bohs and Sligo had more ups and downs than a rollercoaster. Do not see enough of the first Divisionto comment on standard so will leave that to those that can but reports I heard were that it was a good standard this year.
Very difficult to judge who was/were better champions as there are so many variables involved (champions team, opposition etc etc) all that can be said is that the champions were the best that year.
The standard of the individual players was higher but I think as a team game the standard of football has improved. Certainly, I'd never thought I'd see an Irish side go to Portugal and take them on with a passing game and actually succeed.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rasputin
I wouldn't put that all down to the economic model, either. That was obviously a big draw for players, but there were also a glut of homegrown players who were at the peak a few years back and are heading towards retirement now (specifically J Byrne and Crowe). There are a lot of very young players in the league now who will be a lot better in a couple of years. Also, the circumstances that relegated Cork and Derry and Bray's not having had time to recruit a proper squad meant a lot of Prem-standard players were operating in the second tier.