Republic of Ireland V Wales - Monday, 8th February 2011 - Carling Nations Cup

I think Clark did enough to play himself into the team for Macedonia. He had absolutely nothing to do in the second half, but in the first half Church gave him a real test and he stood up very well. Better than O'Shea on the other side, for sure.

I actually think this was quite a useful exercise. We've shown we're well able to soak up pressure but we tend to panic when we get the ball. Today, we were forced to wait for our opportunities and for the most part the players were patient and probed for openings instead of going for the killer pass right away (an unfortunate symptom of the British style of play). As soon as we increased the tempo after half time we easily outclassed Wales, though you have to consider they were harder hit by injuries than us.

Gibson's performance was encouraging. Still not sure on him defensively but he does allow us to play football in midfield, and Whelan seemed to enjoy the freedom this gave him to get forward. Coleman is raw but very promising, Dunne and St. Ledger dealt well with a tricky customer in Earnshaw and Doyle/Long/Walters linked up well together. Can't disregard the quality of opposition but definitely a test passed.

For 60 mins we were relatively crap, other than Duff.

The goal did wonders to instill confidence in the players, although the movement after half time was a good bit better.

Definitley plenty of encouraging signs from this game, but there's a lot of work to be done for Macedonia in March.

I thought Clark done well, I'd have no problems with him starting against Macedonia.
Coleman did OK, could be a good impact sub if we need a spark in that game.
Walters worked hard, but he wouldn't fill me with confidence if he came on and we needed a goal in the last 10mins.

Decent result all in all, not a great game first half, positives are the three goals, nice to see Duff scoring and great strikes from Fahey and Gibson.

Defensively we looked solid, Given had less to do than he does at Man City :rofl:

The last 15 minutes was that part of the game that had my full attention, when we had to defend.
Trap gave a good Italian post match interview. He spoke fulsomely about Clark, was asked if Clark will play against Macedonia, Trap hummed a bit and said something like that we have to respect Kilbane and we have time to consider that question.
Strange when fans jumping on Trap's back about his treatment of Kilbane, they would not have given the slightest thought about KK chances of playing ahead of Clark.
It is bizarre that some of Trap's comments are twisted out so much out of context, on the RTE panel Sadlier was claiming that Trap was comparing McCarthy situation to the Stephen Ireland fiasco. A lost in translation experience for a culturally myopic Sadlier.

I think people may have seen a different game than me.

For the first half our defence and midfield (defensively) were excellent. No bad mistakes and nice simple passes. Our lack of attack in the first half was largely due to too many passes to Doyle who had one of his worst games in an irish shirt. In fairness, he played 2 days ago so you can't really blame him.

Whelan was at his absolute best. Supported the strikers as much as he could and laid off some beautifyl passes.

Duff was outstanding, back to his very best.

Walters was good at holding up the ball, and did some nice runs. To be honest, felt he deserved a goal

Long was disapointing, could have done a lot more.

Clarke proved how bad our LB position has been. Kilbane should in no way get his starting place back unless Clarke screws up majorly

Coleman was okay, seemed a bit overawed, but at the same time he tracked back very well.

Our defence was rock solid tonight, best it's been in a long time and as the commentators acknowledged - the first half was a great defensive display by both teams. Duff stepped it up for the second half and Whelan was more imposing and i think that made the difference.

Gibson's goal was sublime, but other than that he was generally useless and did nothing to sell himself.

I think Trap will have looked at tonight's game and realised that Green can only be used as back up to Whelan. It was our best performance in a long long time and the only bad thing was our offensive play in the first half which was sorted out. Clarke in my opinion claimed his place so the only problem area left is Whelan's midfield partner which we all hope i would think will be McCarthy.

just checked out the goals. 2 super strikes from Gibson and Fahey. Surely though that was a miskick from Long for Duff's goal?? Im pretty sure a few posters tried to characterise it as a dummy from him a few pages back...?

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Originally Posted by rebelmusic

Gibson's goal was sublime, but other than that he was generally useless and did nothing to sell himself.

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I agree with most of your post, this aside. Very harsh, I really can't see how anyone can say one central midfielder playing better than the other. I can recall Gibson constantly dropping deep to pick up possession and move it forward, pinging some lovely through balls and linking well with Whelan. I can also recall him giving away a few and generally not imposing himself physically enough. A decent performance for me, in tandem with Whelan, capped with a lovely goal.

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Originally Posted by SkStu

just checked out the goals. 2 super strikes from Gibson and Fahey. Surely though that was a miskick from Long for Duff's goal?? Im pretty sure a few posters tried to characterise it as a dummy from him a few pages back...?

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Think at least a few were joking. Clearly kicks the ground when attempting to strike the ball.

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Originally Posted by SwanVsDalton

Think at least a few were joking. Clearly kicks the ground when attempting to strike the ball.

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This is from the RTE live text commentary: "Some shocking defending from Welsh substitute Chris Gunter allows Walters to nick the ball from inside their penalty area. He cuts it back and Shane Long cleverly lets the ball roll across him and into the path of Damien Duff who makes no mistake from six yards out"!!

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2011/...and_wales.html

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Originally Posted by drummerboy

Going on your reckoning, Adam Rooney, Richie Foran and Conor Salmon should also be in the panel. Anyway in my opinion Stokes isn't much better than any of them; though his ego is a lot bigger.

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My "reckoning" as posted on this thread was "He's still only 22, and has been in great form for the past year and a half". Hard to see how that applies to Sammon or Foran. I suppose it does apply to Rooney, but he wasn't even playing at SPL level for a year of the period in question.

Anyway, I have expanded in other threads about why I believe Stokes should be there, just in case you genuinely believed that the sentence above fully described the entire basis of my opinion. Clearly you have a different opinion of him - fine.

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

Yep - two full houses in Thomond a couple of years back.

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I assume this is sarcasm?

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Originally Posted by SkStu

just checked out the goals. 2 super strikes from Gibson and Fahey. Surely though that was a miskick from Long for Duff's goal?? Im pretty sure a few posters tried to characterise it as a dummy from him a few pages back...?

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Either a very bad mis-kick or a very well disguised dummy.
I'm really not sure, there is a defender closing him down at the time so he may have decide to leave it, however Duff was
invisible to him at the time. Maybe Duff shouted leave it?
I think Long needs to spill the beans, his body shape looks very off if he intended to shoot.

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Originally Posted by rebelmusic

Clarke proved how bad our LB position has been. Kilbane should in no way get his starting place back unless Clarke screws up majorly

Coleman was okay, seemed a bit overawed, but at the same time he tracked back very well.

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Very harsh on Killer, especially considering how useless Wales were. We can only judge Clark against him when he plays in a competitive game against a decent side.

I didn't think Coleman was overawed at all - witness his numerous give and gos and that one foray all the way across the pitch.

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Originally Posted by SkStu

just checked out the goals. 2 super strikes from Gibson and Fahey. Surely though that was a miskick from Long for Duff's goal?? Im pretty sure a few posters tried to characterise it as a dummy from him a few pages back...?

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I suspect he probably got a shout from Duff and pulled out. There's no way of knowing for sure, but who on earth would dare deny Duffer his first international goal in five years? I thought he was going to break John O'Shea afterwards.

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Originally Posted by Nedser

I assume this is sarcasm?

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Could it be anything else?

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Originally Posted by Nedser

This is from the RTE live text commentary: "Some shocking defending from Welsh substitute Chris Gunter allows Walters to nick the ball from inside their penalty area. He cuts it back and Shane Long cleverly lets the ball roll across him and into the path of Damien Duff who makes no mistake from six yards out"!!

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2011/...and_wales.html

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Not my reading of it at all. Looks like he's going for the shot, digs his foot into the ground and the ball rolls on to Duff. Apart from anything else, his celebration appeared more baffled than jubilant - certainly not jubilant enough for a man who just played a colleague in with a samba-esque dummy.

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

Could it be anything else?

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I've seen people say worse with a straight face!

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Originally Posted by SwanVsDalton

Not my reading of it at all. Looks like he's going for the shot, digs his foot into the ground and the ball rolls on to Duff. Apart from anything else, his celebration appeared more baffled than jubilant - certainly not jubilant enough for a man who just played a colleague in with a samba-esque dummy.

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I fully agree with you. I just pasted the RTE commentary for amusement value.

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Originally Posted by SwanVsDalton

Not my reading of it at all. Looks like he's going for the shot, digs his foot into the ground and the ball rolls on to Duff. Apart from anything else, his celebration appeared more baffled than jubilant - certainly not jubilant enough for a man who just played a colleague in with a samba-esque dummy.

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I actually thought he was gonna shoot and heard Duff roaring behind him and at the last second didn't fully pull the trigger, caught between whether to dummy or kick the ball and kind of doing both.
He probably did miskick it though cos he had a bad game really in most other things he did

The biggest plus of the night (other than Duff's return and general play) was Clark's link up play and ability to get up and down the pitch. It allowed Duff a freer role to attack. And it will also help McGeady(certain starter IMO against Macedonia) when he and Duff switch wings. Clark has the ability to play quick 1-2's something Kilbane has a problem with. It is a real pity McCarthy for whatever reason did not get to start in this match. Whelan improved in the second half ( I thought he was very poor in the first half. Chris Coleman agreed. Emmet Malone has Whelan having a great game. Opinions ) and Gibson got a great goal but again did not do enough to suggest he is the answer. I'm posting the highlights of the Macedonia v Russia game to highlight why they are a threat (especially from corner kicks) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr-7_9rXIW8. We might well need to score two goals to win that game. NO injuries to the back four that played tonight or Duff, Keane, Doyle or Long will be crucial. And I would still like to see McCarthy at least on the bench if he continues his excellent form.

Given - 6. 1 shot to save.

O'Shea - 7
Dunne - 7.5
St Ledger - 7
Clark - 7. Solid and hopefully he starts against Macedonia.

Coleman - 6. Showed us glimpses of what he can do. Doesn't lose the ball that often (unlike McGeady & Hunt which is a big plus)
Whelan - 6
Gibson - 6. Great goal.
Duff - 8. MOM. Class act. Held the ball up well and if we have any chance of qualifying then we need Duffer wrapped in cotton wool.

Doyle - 6. Looked tired. Understandable to be honest after running himself into the ground against Man Utd.
Walters - 6.

First half was terrible but we played some decent stuff in the 2nd half. Cruise control performance and the result will hopefully give our players a confidence boost for next month.

Did anyone else notice - or just choose to ignore - Whelan's run early in the second half, when he nutmegged a Welsh midfielder? Thought it was a nice bit of skill. He and Gibson linked well for the goal, but they still evoke the phrase 'two Robins with no Batman'.

Just on Doyle, thought he was poor last night. He is very keen to get the ball into feet all the time, very very rarely will he start a run looking for the ball to be played through, makes life alot easier for the defenders imo.

Thought Coleman did ok, few excellent touches at the start but had a terrible tendency to drift inside many times. Not sure if he was instructed to do this. But with his enthusiasm, his energy and pace I would want the lad to be hugging the touchline at all times.

One other point, with potentially Clark solving our problems at left back, we have a damn good defence now. JOSH, Dunne and Sledge are very solid and reliable. Sledge I thought was very good last night. I do wonder if he is like Phil Babb in a sense, looks excellent beside a very good central defender but if not then he is average. I may be harsh here but solely judging on his performances for Ireland, he makes no sense that he is playing his football with Preston.

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Originally Posted by SkStu

result. Didnt see any of it but appears to have been a good second half. Encouraging to see us not hold back after taking the lead. Highlights would be most appreciated!

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Highlights, no if you are a proper fan then you have to watch the whole game.