Games Weekend 9th August

Prime Tony Pulis Stoke City stuff from Caulfield’s Galway today. Ed McCarthy in the Delap role and his long throw ins are as dangerous as his driving is. There were 11 corners and probably 20 odd of the long throws to defend and nearly all of them resulted in a wrestling match in the box or a high foot etc, mad to watch for 90 mins!

Pretty turgid stuff but I suppose it’s worked for them a decent bit this season with a good few goals at home in particular coming from pumping the ball into a packed box. I do feel though that if they tried to play a bit of ball they probably would’ve beaten the B team of the 7th placed team in the league at home today. Happy with the point in any case, cracker of a strike from McClelland and probably should’ve been ahead already at that point through Alex Nolan’s 1 on 1 which was the best chance of the first half I’d say

Bit of craic from John Caulfield in his post match interview!

“ Everybody knows they’ve a charter flight” :D

Rovers only draw at home to Drogheda. That's another awful result. Shels have gotten out of jail this weekend all told

Fascinating season in fairness

Quite impressed with Drogs there, was only properly watching from 1-1 but they were happy to press Rovers high at times and not settle for the draw, of the two they looked the more likely to go on to win it. Granted Rovers looked extremely leggy, but some good stuff from Drogheda all the same. They're one side that has come out of the transfer window looking better than they did previously which should give a bit of home going into the tail end of the season.

Id be a bit worried if I was Dundalk fan watching Drogheda,well capable of staying up and have more goals in their team than Dundalk.

Just looking at fixtures,Drogheda playing Dundalk and Derry playing Shels on the last day of the season,could be an all timer!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Rovers only draw at home to Drogheda. That's another awful result. Shels have gotten out of jail this weekend all told

Fascinating season in fairness

---

No team wants to win it….

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by joey B

Id be a bit worried if I was Dundalk fan watching Drogheda,well capable of staying up and have more goals in their team than Dundalk.

Just looking at fixtures,Drogheda playing Dundalk and Derry playing Shels on the last day of the season,could be an all timer!

---

Agree…. We weren’t great obviously but should have put the game to bed…. Drogs hung in and it almost felt inevitable that they’d score..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Rovers only draw at home to Drogheda. That's another awful result. Shels have gotten out of jail this weekend all told

Fascinating season in fairness

---

Fascinating in some ways, but also strangely disappointing that the top teams have been quite mediocre. Whoever wins it this year will be the poorest winner in about 10 years.

Great interview by John Caulfield. As he said with the US private equity money Pats will be going for the league next year, even now with that being their B team today, it shows there are well on their way. Good that he pointed out the attempt to undermine the work Mark Scanlan is doing, by appealing to the FAI board and their director of football to postpone the game. So no home game for Galway for six weeks because a charter flight has to land for a few hours, such nonsense.
As for the disallowed goal, I was close to it and was surprised as well it wasn't given. It has been a very good season for Galway so far, playing some really good stuff and with a bit of luck could have had a few more wins, but not complaining.

I managed to get to Dalymount on Friday night for another entertaining game. Great atmosphere in with the Waterford fans in the Mono Stand and they saw a superb strike to cap a great come-back against a disorganised looking Bohs. There was also an interesting penalty decision given at the end to the home (Dublin) team, with the Waterford bench complaining that the foul was outside the box.
There is a real depth of quality in the league this year(e,g, the Waterford midfielder looked good), very competitive games and it looks like we can maintain the good crowds for the final 10 games.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TonyD

Yeah, Anang was poor for the goal. Point is a fair result I suppose. Surprised looking at the possession stats after the game that we had so much of the ball, didn’t feel like that watching it.

---

Anang is a woeful keeper. We'll regret that one.
He can pull off the odd acrobatic save every so often, but generally a seriously error prone keeper that does not have the head for it IMO.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wonder88

Great interview by John Caulfield. As he said with the US private equity money Pats will be going for the league next year, even now with that being their B team today, it shows there are well on their way. Good that he pointed out the attempt to undermine the work Mark Scanlan is doing, by appealing to the FAI board and their director of football to postpone the game. So no home game for Galway for six weeks because a charter flight has to land for a few hours, such nonsense.
As for the disallowed goal, I was close to it and was surprised as well it wasn't given. It has been a very good season for Galway so far, playing some really good stuff and with a bit of luck could have had a few more wins, but not complaining.

I managed to get to Dalymount on Friday night for another entertaining game. Great atmosphere in with the Waterford fans in the Mono Stand and they saw a superb strike to cap a great come-back against a disorganised looking Bohs. There was also an interesting penalty decision given at the end to the home (Dublin) team, with the Waterford bench complaining that the foul was outside the box.
There is a real depth of quality in the league this year(e,g, the Waterford midfielder looked good), very competitive games and it looks like we can maintain the good crowds for the final 10 games.

---

B+ for effort W88!

Those 2 points dropped by Rovers last night will be the difference between winning the league and not, and thus the lucrative champions path disappears next year
Bradley is a f##kin idiot, and he has no-one but himself to blame

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by desaintsno.12

Anang is a woeful keeper. We'll regret that one.
He can pull off the odd acrobatic save every so often, but generally a seriously error prone keeper that does not have the head for it IMO.

---

I just don’t understand why Roger’s has been cast aside. He stepped in when Pitulaga was a disaster and steadied the ship. He then gets the ignominy of being stepped over again in the same season.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by joey B

Id be a bit worried if I was Dundalk fan watching Drogheda,well capable of staying up and have more goals in their team than Dundalk.

Just looking at fixtures,Drogheda playing Dundalk and Derry playing Shels on the last day of the season,could be an all timer!

---

Dundalk just need to worry about themselves and keep picking up as many points as possible, we have 2 home games in a row in August, Pats and Shels, realistically need 4 points from those, may not happen but these are the games to try and build up some momentum going into the last 2 months.

The goal is to be +4 ahead of Drogs going into the final game!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by placid casual

Those 2 points dropped by Rovers last night will be the difference between winning the league and not, and thus the lucrative champions path disappears next year
Bradley is a f##kin idiot, and he has no-one but himself to blame

---

Get off the fence PC

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gufct

100% a goal the Pats defenders reaction tells it all.

---

100% not a goal, you’ll not see a competent referee in world football award that given the protection goalkeepers get in the modern game. Slowed down version below, two hands on the ball, Galway player backing into him, that’s a free out every single time in modern football

https://x.com/areyou_foreaal/status/...222300668?s=46

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 2 Year Contract

100% not a goal, you’ll not see a competent referee in world football award that given the protection goalkeepers get in the modern game. Slowed down version below, two hands on the ball, Galway player backing into him, that’s a free out every single time in modern football

https://x.com/areyou_foreaal/status/...222300668?s=46

---

I would say it's a mixture of weak as p!ss goalkeeping, and attacker backing in.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954

I would say it's a mixture of weak as p!ss goalkeeping, and attacker backing in.

---

Either way like it or lump it, it gets given as a free out every time in modern football. You pretty much aren’t allowed any contact on a keeper these days and if a goal results from contact on a keeper they will always be ruled out

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by placid casual

Those 2 points dropped by Rovers last night will be the difference between winning the league and not, and thus the lucrative champions path disappears next year
Bradley is a f##kin idiot, and he has no-one but himself to blame

---

Could not agree more, after been handed a lifeline and going 1 nil up but not completely assured taking off our 2 creative players really gave the Momentum back to Drogs. Ferrugia was very poor giving up 5 out of his 1st 6 possessions and looking all all sea playing with space either side of him. Ferrugia needs a line on one side to get his bearings. 1st time they were booed by sections of the South Stand last night. Why did he think he needed to save Burke and Byrne they have played sparingly this season and the game is on Thursday was 4 days away. One bright note mmmm, Jack Byrne much improved. Any howlers oh dear we got out of Jail with a Leon Spill. We are so bad at the back its embarrassing. Drogeheda are the best worst team in the league and Rovers are the worst best team in the league.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by desaintsno.12

Anang is a woeful keeper. We'll regret that one.
He can pull off the odd acrobatic save every so often, but generally a seriously error prone keeper that does not have the head for it IMO.

---

That one against Galway is forgivable to be fair. I’ve seen top premier league goalkeepers and whole defences reduced to panicky bumbling messes by similar tactics by Tony Pilots and Stoke back in the day. Can happen to anyone.
Anang definitely has a few howlers in him as he showed at the start of his last spell, but once he settled his showed his class.