Bray v Drogheda

Might as well start the thread off nice and early seeing as how important this game is.

Although we lost narrowly last night our form of late has been nothing short of exceptional, over the past 6 weeks we are the best club in the Premier, Drogheda are the worst so we should have nothing to fear going into this game. We have already beaten them twice this season and drawn against them twice.

A win or a draw means Drogheda are relegated and we are sure of a play off place.

We all need to make an effort and try get people along to this game and create a good atmosphere, it's a Sunday afternoon so hopefully the locals get out and support us.

Webby will be suspended and Houston is out injured. Hopefully Jake and Mulroy are back fit.

Really looking forward to this one...

I would strongly fancy us to win this one and comfortably as well (hope i haven't put the mockers on it now). At this rate Rovers won't fancy playing us if they need a result!

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Originally Posted by Rafa B

I would strongly fancy us to win this one and comfortably as well (hope i haven't put the mockers on it now). At this rate Rovers won't fancy playing us if they need a result!

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I think your spot on Rafa (hope i haven't put the mockers on it now x 2)

Will Shaw be back from under 19 duty ? We are a bit short of strikers at the moment with Jake and Mulroy out. Shane is struggling with his arm.

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Originally Posted by Bray Head

Will Shaw be back from under 19 duty ?

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No he's away till sometime next week.

Shaw played the first 65 minutes of Ireland's 5-0 win over Luxemborg yesterday. Didn't score though.

:smile:Les not look at the negatives ,be positive,we have been playing well lately and if we continue lke that we should be o.k, without being too cocky.Come on lets go for it,its a game we need not to lose, we don't necessarily have to win,but a win would be great,so go go go.

To be honest this was not one of our better performances, but we did not have to win so i can't complain too much.. drogheda had some very good spells and did not look like a bottom table team. we seemed to want to play the ball all the way to the goal if they could only release the ball a bit quicker..

Shields covered some distance today, he was my man of the match hands down, touhy was much improved also,, all in all nobody had a bad game but it was not as good as other matches, on another note i hope derek's injury is not as bad as it looked he would be missed in our remaining matches..

I knew Drogheda would come out fighting today. We were pretty comfortable through out even though we were missing 4/5 players who would have been starting for us. It would have been a much different game if say the likes of Kelly, Mulroy and Housten started for us.

How Harris stayed on the pitch is beyond me, clear hand ball in the first half for a peno which wasn't given. A LoI linesman was standing behind me and he couldn't believe it wasn't given ! Then his tackle on Shields after the ref had blown for a free to Bray, the gash of Shields shin after the game looked very nasty.

The only bad thing about today was the amount of injuries we picked up, it's very worrying to have so many lads go off injured. I have to say i thought it was VERY poor by Drogheda not to give the ball back to us, when we put the ball out to let Pendergast get treatment, leaves the field of play on a strecher and Drogheda don't give the ball back, 1st division is all they deserve !

Anyone else think yer penalty was just outside the box, or on the line?

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Originally Posted by poster

Anyone else think yer penalty was just outside the box, or on the line?

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Yeah. I was in line with it and it should have been a free. I don't like the 'these things even themselves out arguement', but in this case it seems to be true given that we were denied a peno a few minutes before hand. I thought for a sec that Drogheda were about to get a peno in the first half at 1-1 when there seemed to be a slight bit of contact on John Flood in the box, but he stayed on his feet when a less honest approach would probably have won a penalty.

I thought that the game was a scrappy affair with a draw being a fair result. Thought Gregg had a huge role to play in stoppage time. He was fantastic at claiming balls into the area and pulled off a good save from a Harris header. Jamie Harris always seems to be dishing out punishment in the Carlisle, though at least he wasn't trying to elbow anybody's head off of their shoulders today.

Not a great game but the lads worked their socks off. A weekend off next week and hopefully injured bodies can heal and we can regroup for the final push to secure our place in the premier.

Was that the Great Escape music that came wafting to the DART station at full time? :p

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Was that the Great Escape music that came wafting to the DART station at full time? :p

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It certainly was :)

I think it was the great escape music.Appropriate I think, as Bray have pulled off the great escape.Not a great performance but a draw is a draw and really that is all we needed.Thankfully we have a break next week and all the injured guys can recove, or else we will have to bring our boots and let Devo pick some of us.The job is not complete yet but hopefully we can do that at Terryland.

Any body heard how derek's angle is,, going off on a strecher is never a good sign..

Yesterday could be summed up as a nervous performance from the lads.
They did what they had to do though and Mitch & Prendergast put in some great tackles at the back.

Chris Shields was immense! He was everywhere and took some amount of punishment for his troubles.
He was absolutely knackered at the end.

Hopefully Prendergast & Danny O'Connor aren't out for the Galway game.

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Originally Posted by naoise kennedy

Any body heard how derek's angle is,, going off on a strecher is never a good sign..

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Worse was Drogheda not giving the ball back after we had put it out to get the physio on to see Pendergast. Also, there fans booing a player leaving the field of a stretcher was shocking.

We have nearly 2 weeks before our next game so I'd be hopeful that most of the lads are back fit by then...

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Originally Posted by Roo69

Worse was Drogheda not giving the ball back after we had put it out to get the physio on to see Pendergast.

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Perfectly understandable, given their circumstances.

If roles were reversed, I'd have no problem with Bray overlooking "gentlemanly conduct" for the sake of trying to stay in the division.

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Originally Posted by superfrank

Perfectly understandable, given their circumstances.

If roles were reversed, I'd have no problem with Bray overlooking "gentlemanly conduct" for the sake of trying to stay in the division.

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There's very little respect left in football, this is one of the only things we have and IMO Drogheda let themselves down. We had the ball, it was passed to Zambra, there was no drogs player within 15 yards of him and he turned and put it out near the half way line. They should have given it back.

There's no rule that says you have to give the ball back, just like there's no rule that says you have to put the ball out if a player goes down injured.

Yes, there are understandings, etc., but surely you understand they needed to win the game and they were only foregoing the niceties in an attempt to avoid relegation? I won't judge their fair play credentials on that one incident, given the circumstances surrounding it.

Like I said, if things had been the other way around, I'd have no problem whatsoever if Bray had done the same thing.

How would you feel if Drogs put the ball out because one of their players went down and Bray didn't give the ball back because they needed to attack in an attempt to stay in the division?

And like i said... It's my opinion.

Yes obviously staying in the Premier is extremely important, but clubs and players must have standards, the guy was down with a serious ankle injury and had to be carried off, it's not as if he was acting up or wasting time.

I know There's no rule that says you have to give the ball back but it is the done thing by teams all over the world, the time Pendergast spent on the ground waiting on a Stretcher was given back to Drogheda in the form of injury time.

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Originally Posted by poster

Anyone else think yer penalty was just outside the box, or on the line?

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The line marking the penalty area is part of the area so if it was on the line its still a penalty.

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Originally Posted by football fan

The line marking the penalty area is part of the area so if it was on the line its still a penalty.

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You are very clever. Looked on replay like it wasn't even on the line.

Richard Winter, eh?:pig:

i was right in line with it and i thought it was a free kick but it makes up for the stone wall penalty we should have had at bohs

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Originally Posted by lowflyingseagul

i was right in line with it and i thought it was a free kick but it makes up for the stone wall penalty we should have had at bohs

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Not really fair on Drogheda to be punished for something that Bohs got away with though. I can sit a little easier knowing we had a peno waved away 9 minutes earlier in the same match. I know it wasn't the player involved but at least it was the same team in the same game ;)

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Originally Posted by poster

You are very clever. Looked on replay like it wasn't even on the line.

Richard Winter, eh?:pig:

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Richie Winter was the fourth official :confused: