Dundalk (H) 16-05-14

We'll sit back, shut up shop and try to force something from a set piece, while frustrating the life out of them.

The problem is, we've no Oji who has been (mostly) an absolute monster at the back this season. Can a centre half partnership of Leahy/ Whitehead/ Williams/ Nzuzi and Folan do the same?

Can't see the crowd being anything spectacular either. Not a lot of buzz about the games coming up and the whole thing with Curran hasn't done much to raise spirits either.

I'd take a 0 0 draw, but I can see us shipping a few goals here.

Thoughts? Predictions? Prayers?

For this game I would say we need Leahy available. He was a sub last week and played 90 in the Munster senior cup. He lacks match fitness but with Oji out we don't have much of a choice. Oji is a good organiser of the back 4 as much as anything.

I'd take a draw now also but can see it being 2 or 3 goals to the away side.

Very pessimistic about everything to do with this game (and the few after it). Don't think the defence will be able to handle them, and the offence has only gotten weaker this week, whatever the reason behind the Curran carry-on really is. The crowd will be bad. Season low bad.

Actually dont really rate these at centre half, id like to see us have a go at them. Play Tam, Gaffney and Galbraith and give the latter two license to cut inside and cause problems. Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.

As it is, we ll probably try to keep it tight and we ll probably fail.

Taylors latest words make interesting reading......if as quoted in the local ..its the sign of a manager in dire need of guidence,.

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Originally Posted by da bishop

Taylors latest words make interesting reading......if as quoted in the local ..its the sign of a manager in dire need of guidence,.

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What did he say ?

Good side Dundalk will be surprised if we get anything from this game ,Horgan surely one of the best talents in the country

Another loss Que the weekly rubbish from Taylor.... Even the dundalk manager said we were unlucky we deserved something we were excellent dominated them 😡. Bottom line only for Barry Ryan AGAIN it would of been a lot more

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Originally Posted by thomas72

Another loss Que the weekly rubbish from Taylor.... Even the dundalk manager said we were unlucky we deserved something we were excellent dominated them 😡. Bottom line only for Barry Ryan AGAIN it would of been a lot more

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Impossible to fault the effort of the players, but, like Thomas, it's impossible to deny how invaluable Ryan is to us. Every game, he makes a save which I expect very few keepers in the league can.
I do feel sorry for Gaffney up front though, I would imagine he'd love to look up after beating his man and see his strike partner making a run in the box.

I'm not too disappointed overall as I was expecting a loss, but our defending was awful. Was Leahy not fit enough to start or is Whitehead just a better player?

Doesn't do much to improve crowds either. Below 800 is just poor and can only see it being higher on Tuesday because Cork are going to bring a few with them.

I'm not even tuning in tomorrow to hear how we deserved three points because we dominated them.

Thought we actually played pretty well tonight. We were very good in the first half but faded away in ye second as we ran out of steam and they stepped it up.

People canny forget that Dundalkhave a fine team, one to be considered in the top 2 or 3 in the country at the moment and we held our own for most of the game.

Barry Ryan - Outstanding again
Shaun Kelly - Solid enough, gave 100%
Whitehead - did very well for someone so young, seemed to be injured/tired for the final 20
Folan - did well in my eyes, has become more phyaical this season which is good to see
Williams - solid enough, a few blamed him for the second goal but it was a great through ball and very hard to defend
Duggan - tried to push the team forward did well but faded
Hughes - same as Duggan, can't fault for effort
Prince - looks very tidy on the ball, lovely range of passing, doesn't have it physically at the moment but big potential
Tracy - one of his better games, have it everything and played some decent ball
Gaffney - workhorse up front as usual, needs help up there
Galbraith - in and out of the game, was a threat with possession, could have been a bit stronger once or twice but great to see him back

If we play like that against the teams around us in confident we can pick up enough points to stay up. We are actually only a few players away from being comfortably mid table.

Most games so far this season I've gone away nearly depressed with no optimism. Tonight was a little different.

I was happy enough with tonight. Thought we played very well first half but when they stepped it up second half we just couldn't keep up and that is no shame they have a far better squad than we have. Big improvement from what we have been seeing at home first half at least. I honestly think had Oji played we would have gotten something.

Like Jof says play like that against the teams around us and we will pick up wins. If we could add another winger and a striker I think we will be comfortably safe. Galbraith a big help going forward imo.

Barry Ryan is the best keeper in the league.

Great 1st half only for the poor goal conceded such a mess , 2nd half we dropped our intensity which had us on top 1st half. Could not fault any of the players great effort the standouts for me Barry Ryan very good as always , prince looks very tidy indeed and worked hard , gaffney looks back to his best even if it is a battle up there on his own deserved a goal. So much more positive than I though it would be did not see that display coming if I'm honest , attendance shocking under 800 and they call it sporting limerick , isn't it sad to say cork could have more fans there Tuesday night.

Wasn't at the game tonight, otherwise engaged, good to hear they put in a bit of a performance.
Lims4ever correct, sporting Limerick my arse, Pathetic event junkies is all this town should be known for. 800 average lims attendance, 1500 average limk hurling national league attendance, 8000 rabo avg,attendance
Pretty pathetic for the so called city of sport,
Any word on the Markets Field? Somethin to raise spirits at least, instead of the on-field distractions :)

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Originally Posted by ever37

Wasn't at the game tonight, otherwise engaged, good to hear they put in a bit of a performance.
Lims4ever correct, sporting Limerick my arse, Pathetic event junkies is all this town should be known for. 800 average lims attendance, 1500 average limk hurling national league attendance, 8000 rabo avg,attendance
Pretty pathetic for the so called city of sport,
Any word on the Markets Field? Somethin to raise spirits at least, instead of the on-field distractions :)

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Someone had pics of Markets Field recently on twitter ill try find them and throw em up here.

Dundalk did up the pace the second half but Limerick also stepped off the pace. Lack of confidence or negative tactics?

Dundalk set themselves up dangerously. 4-4-1-1, with two very wingers pushed out very far. Towell was wandering all over the place. So we only had one player in the centre of the park for large spells of the game. Taylor should have exploited this.

I liked the look of the Prince lad, very athletic and tidy. Rory Gaffney is quality. Apart from the mess of the first goal, Barry Ryan was superb (as he usually is against Dundalk).

Limerick are a good side, very fit and strong, and should be much further up the table.

Great match day programme as well, best I've seen on my away travels this season.

One last thing, you badly need your own ground. It's impossible to create a good atmosphere in Thomond for LOI football.

Missed the game last night but good to hear that we put in some kind of performance. Attendance was ****-poor and I can only see that trend continuing for as long as results go they way they are and lets be honest TP is not the place to be so the sooner we're out of there the better. Just a couple of questions - how many goals have we scored from open play this season and is it not time to maybe try playing two up front?

Just on a side note and I hate to put a damper on the positives but a lot of people last night were very ****ed off they couldn't buy the 3 for 2 offer at the game last night. The only notification that you couldn't was social media. It bad form if you ask me. Not everyone is on social media all the time to see it. They should have had some kind of voucher system in place last night if they weren't able to print the other tickets on the day. It will definitely put off a lot that would have gone next Tuesday and Friday because of the offer.

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Originally Posted by donnrua

how many goals have we scored from open play this season

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Of 8 goals (in 12 matches!), four have come from set pieces (free's, PK, corners).

goals win games and limerick dont have them at the minute.thats why they are near the bottom of the table no matter what taylor says.before the dundalk he was saying the pressure was on dundalk to win something.what a load of crap.i thinks its time for him to go.the team isnt good enough at the minute.pat o sullivan has gonr very quiet.i see they have an ambassador to germany now what planet are they living on.dont think limerick fc would have a huge fan base in germany.

I don't think the manager deserves to get sacked because we lack goals. The budget was cut as everyone knows so we couldn't compete for good strikers in this league. Everyone in this league are looking for a striker that can bag them 15-20 goals a season and most are with the top few teams who have bigger budgets than us.

Let's say Taylor was sacked in the morning. We are left having to pay off his contract (which would be costly), then find a new manager (who's available?) and then hope that the new manager can suddenly get more goals out of the current players because any money that would go towards more firepower would be gone paying off Taylor contract.

From day one when we were looking for a manager I had hoped we'd get someone in that knew the league a bit better and how to spend the money wisely but we got Taylor so for now will have to stick by it.

We need some attacking threat in asap and we should move away from the bottom few in the table. We have a very good defence and are decent in the middle. We are just lacking one or two players to help out going forward. With Galbraith back that eases the burden on a bringing in a good winger. A centre forward is now needed to help out Gaffney up top.

i would agree that the defence is solid but from midfield to up front we dont have much to offer.shane duggan is the only decent midfielder we have.as i said before jason hughes isnt up to this standard even though he tries but he is out of his depth.prince is only a young lad but looks to be promising.taylor left too many go last season and didnt replace them.the club seems to have money for training camps in spain and other stupid things but not for investing in the first team.i think that the club is trying to do to much in limerick with all the various teams that they have from baby blues up and moving out to bruff isnt a good idea either.at the minute it doesnt look like a great operation from the outside.they wont get many going to the games at the minute with the way they are playing.most of the games at home have been awfull and they seem to play better away from home.pat o sullivan must be scratching his head?from a fans point of view it is very dissapointing the way the club is going at the minute.not even any more mentions of a big game like the man city game a few years ago.i have been following limerick since the rathbane days of tommy lynch and co and its frustrating following limerick.

I still think we will be ok as we are quite competitive all season so far. The heads have not dropped either despite perhaps not getting what we deserved sometimes. It was very disappointing to get nothing from the game Friday but the game itself was quite good. It was obvious as well that the midfielders were under instruction to support forward more and get some shots in to make up for only one upfront. Prince is getting better every week, won't be long before he is one of the best in the league.

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Originally Posted by fieldofmarkets

I still think we will be ok as we are quite competitive all season so far. The heads have not dropped either despite perhaps not getting what we deserved sometimes. It was very disappointing to get nothing from the game Friday but the game itself was quite good. It was obvious as well that the midfielders were under instruction to support forward more and get some shots in to make up for only one upfront. Prince is getting better every week, won't be long before he is one of the best in the league.

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It definitely was and we played some good stuff first half. I have seen a lot of people complain about our style of play as if we played the exact same Friday as we have all season and we didn't tbh there was less hoofball and more getting it to Gaffneys feet and getting people up around him.

The pitch was noticeably better on friday, which facilitated (both teams) in passing it around better than we've seen at Thomond Park so far this season. Hence the reduced use of the long hoof.
Even though we've been creating opportunities in the last few matches, we still don't look like scoring from open play. Most shots were wide or over and not testing the keeper. While the most likely outcome on friday was always a loss, this weakness did cost us dearly against Bray.

It's great to see the improved form of the last few weeks continue. With a bit of luck we might get something from Cork or Pats. With Oji back we should be a little safer at the back. While Whitehead did well on friday, at this stage in his career he's just not capable of imposing himself on a match like Oji can. He still has huge potential though.

tbf we put in in a huge effort in the first half and had we taken a couple of chances could have lead at ht,however i thought Dundalk were quite poor in that 1st half and 2nd half they tore us to bits,their winner was excellent and were it not for Barry ryan they would have stuffed us.Duggan being subbed bizarre no creative presence as a result....we barely made a chance in the 2nd half.disappointing att.

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Originally Posted by da bishop

tbf we put in in a huge effort in the first half and had we taken a couple of chances could have lead at ht,however i thought Dundalk were quite poor in that 1st half and 2nd half they tore us to bits,their winner was excellent and were it not for Barry ryan they would have stuffed us.Duggan being subbed bizarre no creative presence as a result....we barely made a chance in the 2nd half.disappointing att.

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He took a knock.