Home to St. Pats

I think this is a game that will tell us a bit about how solid a team we actually have.

We've had an inconsistent season. Defeats to teams like Cork and Dundalk don't bother me too much as we already knew they are simply better than us. Other defeats have been woeful, like Bohs at home.

On the other hand, we've had some good wins, but in some cases, we've been inconsistent during the game (Bray at home), and ridden our luck in others (Bohs away).

This weekend we are up against a team that are bottom of the table, that haven't won in 5, and have beaten only Drogheda since March. Their own fans think they will crumble when pressed.

This is the kind of team that we should be just dispatching with a minimum of fuss, as we did Drogheda earlier in the season.

Will we do that?

The team that started in Cork should be able to beat Pats.

You are correct in what you say osarusan, nothing less than a balls out good ol' dicking of them will suffice. From the get go, the first whistle.

should win, pats are still a good side though and move from a 4 5 1 into a 2 4 4 formation very effectively when in need of a result. this should be the last we see of the 3 at the back if we lose this. two games Pats and Drogs for a lot of the players to be in limerick jerseys

Noel O'Connor and I will be providing the usual live audio analysis service for those who can't make it, at www.mixlr.com/limerick-soccer-live.

Could be another high-scoring affair, when both managers' preferred approaches are taken into account :eek:

Just like the cup final conan Byrne ran the show he is some player we hardly deserved the draw we never look comfortable throughout the game same predictable we were like the away team and pats the home team they played football we played hoof ball and we were negative and defensive I could understand it in cork but not at home as I said after cork game we need fresh blood lee j again awful

Hoofball rubbish for 90 minutes awful from most of the players and the manager for 90 mins got lucky to get the 2nd created nothing most of the game.

This manager has a different style of playing[fans got what they wanted with Russell and his style getting the boot] and going on what i saw tonight Russells players are struggling with it.Pats were imo their brilliant best even though Buckley has,n the quality he once had,thought Byrne and Bermingham brilliant for Pats though its obvious we need a leftfull in a hurry as Byrne was allowed cross into box all game.no standout Limerick player,decent point for both teams and congrats to Alan obrien and co ,had their audio on the headphones at the match ..excellent.

typical limerick performance.....badly needed the 3 points tonight and then turn up to see this rubbish....think the players should have a right good look at themselves before the manager gets any blame....the likes of kelly oconnor tracey are not good enough for premier....hopefully pat opens his chequebook soon or we could seriously be looking over our shoulders....

Atrocious stuff for most of the game. Tracy was destroyed all night and never got any help really. We kicked the ball away all game and Tosi barely won a header.

They were sharper and faster all night.

Maybe the coaches at our club have never seen shane tracy up against conan byrne before? Every supporter has but everyone bar our coaches seemed to know the outcome when they saw the team lineouts.
The jimmy makell show in his efforts to keep gavin peers on the pitch was hilarious. Three times he failed to send him off for last man tackles and didn't book him for hauling down tosi for the pen. Terrible reffing. Pats were as i expected the best footballing side. We were lucky but 1st of July cant come soon enough. Oh and giving Any Limerick player let alone poor dave o'connor man of the match was pathetic

Without a doubt the worst performance on the season. Duggan can be added to the above list of rubbish players. The number of players required to sort out this mess is getting longer by the week.
Tosi is excellent when he's working off crosses not hoof ball down the middle. I haven't seen a Limerick player go we wide and put a cross into the box in ages. Not playing to our strengths at all.
Roll on July 1st and hopefully this nightmare will end.

Wholly agree with all that has been said. St Pats were much the better team and should've won the game easily. Under this manager we look to hit Tosi early and feed direct ball to Ogbene. Its not the worst tactic but we are now relinquishing control of the game to inferior teams in favour of this. I don't think that suits us as we have good midfielders who can get on the ball and dominate most teams. We seem to be going the opposite to how Russel manged us.

In the transfer window we are going to need to prioritise a left back and a left winger.

Very unfortunate not to have a 3rd CB available tonight so we couldn't play 3-5-2. While that system has coughed up goals in it's first couple of games, it was getting there. 4-4-2 with Kelly and Tracy at FB and Duggan in the middle is disastrous. Unbelievably, despite being the worse team for an hour we are 2-0 up. MacDonald did nothing and we were blessed to get a point in the end. Our most positive player on the bench most of the night. Manager not knowing the league was on show tonight. Even with our personnel, from 2-0 up we should have been winning if he was clued in.

Must say, seeing the starting team and Hery out, I was stunned. Which was only overcome with the bewilderment that followed the realisation that Shane was going to be facing Conan Byrne. Neil....talk to someone.

Here's my written analysis of the game: http://bit.ly/2t8Ts8I

And you can also listen back to the ongoing audio analysis, feat. Noel, and Newstalk's Oisin Langan (after FT), here: http://mixlr.com/limerick-soccer-liv...tic-jun-24-pd/

I think it's actually fairly obvious what fans want really some sort of balance to the play just because Russell did too much passing doesn't mean you abandon it altogether. As for it getting the best out of the strikers while it does at times how many chances did we create lastnight? I have no problem with going direct to Tosi even as a main plan of attack but not for almost every attack we barely mixed it up lastnight and continuing with the same style with John O'Flynn on the field was ludicrous.

As annoyed as I was about his performance as much as anyone elses lastnight I must say I find the rush to completely write the manager off as a bit odd, he has only just got here and not signed a single player. More than a few people I spoke to after the game seemed to want to completely rewrite history to pretend Martin Russell was some top manager that we should never have sacked him. Now he could turn out to be way worse than Russell but you have to give him time.

As always Allen your analysis is a good interesting read. However I'm not sure I agree with your final summary. It's not really that people are giving out about hoofball it's more the annoyance of Limericks inability to keep a clean sheet. If Limerick were winning games weekly playing hoofball I doubt you'd hear to many complaints. I do agree with you on the point that this squad is not McDonald's. He has inherited a squad that does not suit his style of play. When he played 3-4-1-2 there wasn't too much hoofing going on. Hopefully some new faces will help the change. I think we should wait until the end of July at least till we judge McDonald's tactics.
Keep up the good work Allen. Are you covering the Drogheda game?

Pathetic display. Duggan has been awful all season. Robbie Williams was erratic all night. Gave away a needless foul for the free for the equaliser. Tracy not good enough. Should have taken tosi off at 2-0 and controlled the game. This is embarrassing. Simple as

Has not been at his best at times this season but the level of stick Duggan is getting from some supporters is completely over the top.

Understand that people are frustrated but the blame does not lie at the door of Duggan, he's having to do the work of two midfielders in most games due to us not having a capable holding midfielder. I thought that he played well on Saturday night and was unlucky on 2 occasions after making brilliant support runs to Tosi (Only midfielder to do so)

Just getting annoyed at people constantly on the skippers back this year. He's been our best player for the past number of years and effectively played teams on his own below in Jackman in our last premier season and what's more every team in the country would have him in a heartbeat. Get him some help in July and we'll be fine.

Rant over

I have to disagree with you on Duggie. I have great time for him and he does have a lot to offer but he hasn't come close to his best this season. If Mcdonald brings in a half decent midfielder Duggan will be behind Hery and lynch for a place. I also think he's a poor choice for captain. He's far too quiet. Robbie is more vocal and aggressive. When things got tough sat I didn't see our captain try to rally the troops, he just dropped his head like the rest. Maybe some time on the bench would help him find his mojo.

Hopefully we do bring in some quality in the window otherwise its going to be a nervy second half of the season.

I won't deny he's been below his own best form but he is still our best midfielder by a mile imo, as for captaincy I personally think a good captain doesn't necessarily have to be the most vocal, as the best lead by example. I get what you're saying in terms of dropping the head but hard not to after witnessing that farcicaI defending to give away free for second goal. A complete horror show.

I know I'm in terms minority but I don't see the appeal of Williams. Would like a complete overhaul of the back 4 if I'm honest and Williams has been at the heart of a terrible defence for a solid 3 seasons now and too often people make excuses for him.

Lee J Lynch is our best midfielder and has been since he signed for the club and since he came back from Hamilton imo that's not a knock on Duggy btw just giving Lee J the credit I think he deserves.