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Friday 19th (19:45 unless stated)
Premier Division
Cork City v Sligo
Derry v UCD
Dundalk v Bohemians
Shelbourne v St Pats
Shamrock Rovers v Drogheda (20:00)
First Division
Cobh v Athlone
Kerry v Bray
Treaty v Galway
Wexford v Longford
Finn Harps v Waterford (20:00)
Couple of big games from a "are we chalenging for Europe or mid table" kind of perspective.
Shels v St PAts 5th and 6th in the table (in that order) so a win and Shels are looking up.
Ditto for Dundalk and Bohs, a win for Dundalk and they are level with Bohs in 3rd place a loss and they are 6 points off 3rd and probably 5th place after other results.
Rovers have had a tough run against Derry , Bohs , the all conquering Apil 28th 2023 Sligo with UCD in there as well and have a theoretically easie r couple of games coming up agianst Drogs and Cork but its exactly these types of games that trip you up when you are on a roll.
Chance for Harps to show they have improvement in them against Waterford but hard to bet against Waterford or Galway.
11/1 we are on Friday and I wouldn’t put a penny on us!
We probably won't get anything on Friday but Wexford are a poor side so who knows. Turning into a depressing season
I dont understand the logic of shortenin the pitch. Whose idea was this last weekend?Quote:
Originally Posted by outspoken
Yep... It could be a massacre if Waterford are in the moodQuote:
Originally Posted by joey B
It’s mad. Rovers and Shels have the same home record but goals for and against 19-13 vs 7-4 ! Only Dundalk (level on 13) and UCD 14 can match Rovers’ home leaky defence
Cheeky tenner..sure why not.Quote:
Originally Posted by joey B
Interesting challenge for Kerry on Friday - certainly, Bray will have play-off aspirations in mind, and Omorehiomwan tore our defence to shreds at the Carlisle Grounds, but we've almost scored as many goals in the last two games as the entire rest of the season, and Ryan Kelliher is in red-hot form.
One of the 2 reasonably handy away trips for Galway fans on Friday, so hopefully get a decent support down to the Markets Field. Last time I was there, for the play-off was such a disappointing night, so hoping for better fortune this time. Looks like the Waterford owner will be providing money to bring new players in during the upcoming transfer window, so Galway need to keep the wins coming to maintain the gap.
VM have four terrestrial channels. If they came on board with the idea of a standalone game on a Saturday evening, allowing for the exception of Sligo, Longford and Derry, they could be the more suitable broadcast partner.
Shels v Pat's on VM this evening. Those of us supporting one of the other 18 clubs will miss out. A Saturday show could feature highlights from the evening before with a review. 7pm highlights with review and reaction. 7:30pm build up to the live game.
The roof on that main stand at Tolka really doesn’t look great on tv…
Can’t understand why they can’t paint it. Surely it wouldn’t cost much…
In fairness tho the atmosphere looks great! Looks like a vibrant crowd near capacity. And with the flares it’s nearly tough to see the pitch… it’s like watching an Italian match on channel 4 in the 90s
Athlone Town line up tonight vs Cobh Ramblers is a true international team with Aaron Connoly the only Irish born player in the starting 11.
Vladi Velekin
Fuentes Rodriguez
Noah Van Geenen
Patrick Hickey
Aaron Connolly
Franz Pierrot
Valerii Dolia
Haji Abdikadir
Jamar Campion-Hinds
Nazar Zubkov
Matthew Leal
E. Williams is a new name on the bench under the USA flag
Looks like Emelio Williams who owns Valeo FC is on the bench as a coach / manager for Athlone Town FCQuote:
Originally Posted by Battery Rover
30 minutes with nothing to report at Mounthawk Park, which makes an improvement from the regular early concessions previously in the season.
3 minutes gone James Talbot flapping for a corner missed it be a mile 1-0 Dundalk. Dundalk pressing him when he's given a ball in play and making him play terrible passes. Let him go training with Ireland and give Dennison a chance.
The quality of play at Tolka is poor tonight. Some awful passing.
Here's hoping that injury time this week is as profitable as it was last week...
All Bohs in the second half. They have come back to level 2-2 in the 87th minute and the Co commentator say Bohs are "probably" the better team in this half.
Jay Ben and Afolabi made the difference in the second half. Definitely deserved the draw.
Finishes 2-0 to Bray - they were clinical with their chances in the second half, while Kerry failed to take advantage of their good spell in the first.
Would agree, worried that we only play for 45 mins though. Talbot was gash, but don’t be letting coote away either, that’s two in a row stinkers from him . Keepers are easy cause mistake equals goal but midfield is where it’s at, and we’ve not had all 5 play as one all season .Mind you, come away from Oriel with a point after a ****ebag first 45? Take that all day.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shinkicker
Routine for Waterford,little resistance from a very poor Harps team….
Staying over tonight in Wexford what a performance compared to last week! this Brianan Whitmarsh is some signing he was immense for us. One of our backroom staff was telling me that hes signed with us till the next transfer window. One of the Premiership clubs are heavily linked with him. Same with his younger brother at Cork City!
Has Dave Rogers deleted his twitter yet?
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Originally Posted by Shearer
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Originally Posted by Shearer
Did he p!ss in your cornflakes or something?Quote:
Originally Posted by Shearer
Needed that tonight. 3 losses in a row with no goals scored would really start to get you worried.
For all the talk of getting a slice of the betting tax, you would want to be mad to bet on the LOI as you just have no idea a lot of the time who the hell will come away with the points. It really is a crazy league!
Just funnyQuote:
Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954
While we created a ton of chances tonight…. It did have a sense that Drogs were comfortable enough. Two class goals to be fair too.
Hopefully the kick up the hole needed for us at home…. 15 goals conceded (most of f them the same - on the break) at home vs 2 away in a game less
Just watched the highlight. Seems like Drogs were unlucky in some games recently but that certainly was turned on its head tonight. They could easily have lost about 6-2 tonight.Quote:
Originally Posted by Knocklyonhoop
Once Galway got the second goal (great work by Manley in build-up) it was fairly comfortable against a Limerick side who started well and will be rightly unhappy about the penalty given for handball against them. Went over to the grass terrace for the second half and noticed that the stand has a much smaller crowd in it than I thought when sitting there. Also Horgan would be better off cutting out some of his antics. Strange choice for second sub by Caulfield also.
Huge gap now between the top two and the rest in the Premier. I can't see them both not coming up - which will make for interesting promotion/relegation races next season. And probably fairly clear-cut ones the season after
Both of Drogheda's goals tonight were great, the second in particular was brilliant stuff from the move to the finish. Fair play.
Thought Pats did well tonight. Can see why Shels have been so tough to beat this season, they're a bit miserable style-wise (I'd imagine it'd be a lot better had they not had so many out injured) but set up well and make a slog out of it. I like they we actually managed to keep control of the game and were willing to rack up possession/passes and pick our moments because it's something you wouldn't have seen much preciously. Got the goal, Shels came out more and then chances came for both sides but ultimately we had the better of them and it should have been a more comfortable scoreline.
Forrester great again and in news to nobody Sam Curtis is just an unbelievable prospect. Worth a mention is Tom Grivosti, he flew under the radar last season with all the plaudits Redmond received but he's been solid for us and what was a messy defence with both of them out injured this season looks a lot better with him back in it.
hes no where near premier division level im afraid. decent player if he has space to attack as he is pacey. wasnt very good with city in 2021Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinho II
We're tough to beat until it comes to set-pieces. Another goal conceded from a corner. Needs improvement. Probably should have defended the situation that led to the corner better too. Pats good value for the win and could have been more as you mention.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack B
All fairly routine at the Brandywell. The second and third goals involved some lovely touches.
Maher was raging to concede, but Wells deserved his goal for his quick reactions in the box. Our first goal conceded in the last four games.
Not even that much of a surprise that Drogs picked up in the win in Tallaght, ourselves and Rovers don't have good records against them.
I know it's a new, mostly young team, but Harps are shipping some amount of goals this season. Being a recent Premier team, and with the First table quite compact, do the fans have any expectation of a playoff spot? Surely that must have been the pre-season target?
I think most fans were realistic that this season was a total rebuild and had low expectations. I think 5th was the target, and it still is the target. A lot will depend on the summer transfer window. Two good young players already signed, and a few will likely depart too, as we don't have the budget to be adding to the squad.Quote:
Originally Posted by brendy_éire
A couple of wins can change a lot, and a young side low in confidence is shipping a lot of goals lately after a reasonable start to the season.
The target is always going to be next season. There's always going to be noise when you go down to a few heavy defeats. But the job Rogers has on his hands is arguably bigger than anything Ollie Horgan faced. People need to realise that we blew enormous money on utter rubbish last season, and I think Ollie got an easy run of it from Harps supporters, given how successful he was for years at getting us into the Premier and keeping us there, but realistically, we should have booted him last July, had a bit of a clearout, and saved money for this season. But hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Play off was definitely the expectation,it was the manager’s expectation aswell but he hasn’t put together a squad capable of it unfortunately,we’re shipping goals and incapable of scoring,set pieces have been our main supply of goals.Quote:
Originally Posted by brendy_éire
Very disappointing all in all but he’s on a 4 year contract so he’s not going anywhere anytime soon….
Harps have a collection of players who aren't up to it but they're also really poorly set up and extremely disorganised. Going on about Ollie Horgan again is complete deflection and embarassing to read.