Kelly should not be in the squad. Trapp knows he is a complete shambles. No way!!
He is far from a shambles. A lot of people here seem to base him totally on that mistake he made in the first minute at home to Georgia. He played every single minute of the 2006/07 premiership campaign, and is no back in the premiership with a team in the Europa league. Id rather have him in the team than Darren O'Dea, a player who couldn't hold down a position in one of the worst ever Celtic defences
I think the truth is somerwhere in the middle.
Kelly can be a decent enough player but he totally lost his nerve in the first half against Georgia. It was correctly pointed out here that Dunne & O'Shea were culpable for that goal too but Kelly was partly to blame and was a bag of nerves afterwards. You could tell he just didn't want to be anywhere near the ball.
He actually played well against the Czechs a few years ago, on the left I think.
I think your dismissal of O'Dea is harsh. I think regular game time will do him the world of good. I think he'll be a good player for us in future.
How many of the goals we have conceded this campaign been due to blatant errors?
Georgia away was a last minute goal. Can't remember the source - any blame?
Georgia at home - shambolic defence
Bulgaria at home - o.g.
Italy away - Keogh loses possession cheaply / Keogh (or McShane) loses runner
Bulgaria away - KK ballwatching
Very frustrating. If we cut out the errors we might actually be quite good at catenaccio!
To be fair to Kelly he was just after a long time out and it's really not the type of ball you want to be dealing with in more or less the first minute of your return. I felt sorry for him to be honest and have no problem with him being in the side if necessary, let alone the squad.
More good news:
Their first choice goalkeeper Antonis Giorgallidi is out injured and to be replaced by Aris Limassol Goalkeeper Sofronis Avgoustis.
Cypriot daily Politis states that Anorthosis Famagusta defender Andreas Constantinou is likely to miss the game against Ireland after failing to overcome a knock he sustained in a recent league game against Ermis
from eleven-a-side
"However, during Tuesday’s squad training session at Malahide’s Gannon Park, Celtic winger Aiden McGeady and Fulham’s Damien Duff lined up in a “probables” side.
Giovanni Trapattoni rarely keeps his cards close to his chest regarding team selection, so at this stage it looks as though Hunt will have to content himself with a place on the bench in Nicosia"
i really hope this is the case. shows that trap is going for the win and i love seeing mcgeady in the team. can cause them big problems and hopefully one of these days can hit the net for us. fingers crossed sat night.
2-1 to ireland, thats if we play andrews instead of gibson
I have to admit that soccerrepublic.ie rather than me reading a copy of Politis was my source :D
SR is a good site for providing the opinions of the other side, no harm to know about the other team in advance. Other quotes included Okkas going on about how they are going for a win against Ireland and how playing for Cyprus means alot to them.....in response to the backlash after the albania hammering.
I’m going to go out on a bit of a limb here and predict this as Wee Aiden’s best performance for Ireland to include a goal and will back Aiden to score and Ireland win 2-1…if we do score 2, I hope the second is in the 90th minute instead of two after 10 minutes.
Suffering is acceptable but only when there is reward!
Dunne is 13/1 to score at any time with Paddy Power, he's already scored twice in the qualifiers, so it's damn tempting
Twice in the last 2 games I had unplaced 'dunne for 1st goal' (E.w) betslips in my pocket at 40/1.
Raging... dont know why I didnt back him at the last minute.
Can Lighting strike 3 times...? Possibly I should write the slip and not put it on....
a positive kind of a jinx
Whose a tw@t?!
Does anyone think trap might play with just one up front??
A defeat will be a disaster... A draw not so bad!!
I've got a feeling we might see Robbie up front on his own on saturday and also witness a 0-0.
Hopefully I'm wrong and we win, any score will do!!!
Think he'll stick with two up front. Very doubtful he'd change the system with so few matches left. Don't like the way he's talking about not losing himself, there are 3 handy pts for the taking if you ask me.