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Premier Division
Friday 26th (19:45 unless stated)
Shelbourne v St Pats
Drogheda v Sligo
Dundalk v Bohemians
Waterford v Derry
Shamrock Rovers v Galway 20:00
Monday 29th
Shamrock Rovers v Drogheda 20:00
First Division
Friday 26th
Finn HArps v Cork 18:00
Athlone v Cobh 19:45
Bray v Kerry 19:45
Treaty v UCD 19:45
Saturday 27th
Longford v Wexford 19:30
Chance for Rovers to go top with two wins or will 4 games in 10 days catch up on a depleted squad.
Add Poom to the injured list afetr the weekend of Poom, Burke,O Neill, Jack B, Mc Eneff, Hoare, Kavanagh, Grace and Farrugia and its not encouraging, Clarke looks half fit as well at best.
The fact that we are only 3 off the top today is testement to how bad the league is this year.
That being said id take winning a bad league over being second in a great one so bring it on:)
Noel King starts his tenure with a game agaisnt Bohs that already feels like a must win with the natives restless and Derry go to Waterford which wont be easy.
Time for PAts to step up with a performance agaisnt Shels
Treaty could do with a win but hard to see it coming against the Students.
Overachieved in the first 5 or so games and now it's become abundantly clear that some players are not up to it.
Oisin O'Reilly is awful.
This year? Its been rubbish for the last 4 and every other season unless its my side thats wins it! There wont be an asterick in the history books as you infer. If ever Rovers needed a new nickname it could be Injury List FC - what is the S+C department doing to the players, keeping the physios in a job? Its not like they have to play on and train on an abomination week in and week out. On a serious note, youd have to wonder whether too much is put in player loading, maybe a lot of rotation can result in less resiliance and fitness as it can wrap up key players?!Quote:
Originally Posted by sbgawa
To have any hope of still being in a relegation battle Dundalk need Sligo, Derry and Rovers to win and Bohs to catch a does of the runs throughout their squad!
That’s being kind to him - he’s worse than awful!Quote:
Originally Posted by Shearer
First Division Finn Harps v Cork City is an early top of the table clash. Should be interesting to see the attendance at the Ballybofey venue as it has a 6pm kick-off! :confused:
A chance to go top by beating Galway and Drogs at home has to be welcomed but even with our squad, that’s a lot of injuries to carry with a lot of games. At some point Galway have to pick up something against us and I suspect Caulfield fancies their chances tonight.
elsewhere…. Top of the form table travel to bottom of the form table Dundalk so home win there! Big one for Shels after a longish winless run.
will Derry finally win away?
Between injuries and Cleary suspended 10 players missing; Galway will never have a better chance to beat us…. But hopefully we’ll scrape a winQuote:
Originally Posted by Knocklyonhoop
The bookies would think so, and I'm more slightly optimistic about our chances. It was a month and a half ago, but we easily put three past Waterford in the Brandywell. Themselves and Dundalk are the worst teams I've seen this year.Quote:
Originally Posted by Knocklyonhoop
A bit like the old covid days with staggered kick-offs, it's a nice bonus getting to watch the Harps-Cork match at 6. A win for Cork will leave the FD title race over, IMO.
Even allowing for the 10 absentees for Rovers tonight I'd still expect a team capable of getting a comfortable win over Galway.
No excuses . Drogs on Monday will be another matter.
Why do you think it will be comfortable against Galway Utd but not Drogheda?
Because galway aren't great and Drogs are Rovers bogey team
Drogs are a real bogey team for us.
With Cleary suspended and Grace and Hoare injured im curious who will be playing centre back for us.
Pico, Kavo and Honahan.Quote:
Originally Posted by sbgawa
Gu v Shamrock the pick for me. United will frustrate, even cause an upset
1 actual pro on the bench , Kenny I suppose you could include 1 of our two sub goalies as well.
This team amazes me constantly. Another big performance tonight.
Cork fans better enjoy Umeh while they can, suspect he'll be joining his brother at Palace when he turns 18!
Benfica this summer was the rumour
Miss sitters and make awful defensive mistakes and you’ll lose,Cork didn’t get out of second gear and didn’t need to in the second half,we need a goal badly….
Very poor from Pats at Toklas. Good amount of possession again, but we look so pedestrian and haven’t really created anything. Shels with 3/4 efforts on target and good for their lead. Pitch is horrible too, ball bobbling all over the place. We need a lot more in the second half. For all his promise I’m not sure Mason Melia is ready to be starting games.
In other games, what a sweet finish from Daragh Markey for Drogheda. And what about Dundalk ? Noel King coaching genius ! We’ll all have to eat our words :eek:
Well now, Kinger’s Dundalk 2-0 up on Bohs at half time…
Brighton there watching him tonightQuote:
Originally Posted by culloty82
Still seems to be Gartland prowling the sideline. We're not safe at 2 nil, Bohs missed penalty. Weve just gone sloppy after a dominant Dundalk performance in the 1st half. Matthews tactical changes making a difference and imo thats where the managerial wheat is seperated from the chaffe, adapting during games and the response and so far we are being pinned back by Bohs change in system.
Not gettig the rub in other scores. Pitch looking a lot better in Oriel but maybe the floodlights turned down a notch or 2 its an optical illusion. Its is evidence of some of the very basics getting done under BA.
For a teams that has struggled attacking, 1st half stats for Dundalk 15 attempts to 5, 5 corners to 0, 58% possession and 2 goals. Second half more even though Dundalk have worked back in to it and had one pointblank chance stopped by the keeper almost on the line. Gullan is also looking like he can run the line and hold the ball up and has been better the last 2 games. Still not 3 points in the bag.
One Swallow a summer does not make but maybe there is life in the relegation battle. Not suggesting St Pats are in it but Dundalk win the game in hand and were 4 points behind. Drogheda have always been called as a team that can beat anyone on their day and are more than capable of pushing up the table. A swing of a couple of results and Dundalk could be 3 off sligo, maybe its Waterford that the real battle is with going on other fans observations on who the weakest sides were in the 1st round. Back to back wins fo any side changes the complexion of things significantly. Time for Rovers to give up ther Drogheda hoodoo after Galway almost eded theirs tonight.
Its not that hard to see that less playing it around at the back have had almost immediate results for Dundalk. As soon as the keeper delivers the ball to a defender the midfiled, particularly High (what a strike tonight) is on his bike getting forward rather than dropping deep and trying to build at a pedestrian pace. Bit more playing to a squads strengths rather than imposing a managers ethos on the game at all times. Its also feels a little like a team that had no preseason starting to put a few phases together more regularly with players looking a bit sharper, but maybe it was Bohs on an off night and a bit of luck, scoring the penalty, and its all very different.
Have to say Dundalk deserved the win and the 2 goals were exceptional, Bohs were much better in the second half but never enough to go on and win it. The penalty was disastrous. The league is now on it head
Poor from Treaty once again who had brief glimpses but that was about it. Second goal UCD scored was comical.
Unfortunately the squad, even at full strength, is poor and we're missing heaps of players - we started without a recognised striker tonight.
Despite some of the ridiculous comments you see from some people online, Tommy Barrett is a brilliant manager but is dealing with his weakest squad yet. Needs backing in the summer rather than the usual taking from the scraps of others.
We were dreadful really really dreadful tonight. If it wasn't for Rogers Shels would have won by 3 or 4. Forrester was at his self-indulgent worse and Lennon did more for Shels than he did for us and was rightly taken off. Melia shouldn't be starting upfront atm, he's not strong enough to hold the ball up.Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyD
Bohs had to have been one of the worst ever teams to be in second place after 10 games.
They were very lucky to win against Dundalk two weeks ago, and looked to have nothing about them today.
Shockingly ordinary.
Dundalk also denied a clear pen mid way through second half, the challenge was clearly on or inside the line, terrible decision.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shinkicker
Great win, and full value for it too.
#LongLiveTheKing
Pats have now lost the same amount of games as Dundalk (6), mental really.Quote:
Originally Posted by kksaints
I have a sneaky feeling Sligo and Waterford might struggle this season, it will of course mean nothing to us if we can't continue to pick up points, but seen enough tonight to suggest, even our home form should be enough to stay up, hopefully, one swallow and a summer and all that, but its not just the win, some of the stuff played in first half was really encouraging.
Anyway, still long way to go and a lot of hard work ahead.
Comfortable enough for ucd in the end bar a twenty minute spell after halftime.No win in eight for the home team now and difficult to see where it will come from.General play toothless and relying on setpieces to produce anything.As usual in these poor runs a player is picked on as a blame game and in Treatys case left full O Reilly taking the brunt of it unfairly imo.A few fans with me now saying many of the players not good enough but who signed them only the manager who seems to remain blameless,when really he is part of the problem...he said at the start of the season this was a strong squad.This squad has no direction,plan A whatever it is is not working ,no plan B,very obvious team is not fit and if your not winning or at least playing entertaining football crowds wii dwindle.....once again will wait for Tommys interview and the usual line of excuses and a possible repeat of ...we are happy where we,r at....whole thing an absolute farce.
Abysmal stuff going forward from Pats tonight. Once shels took the lead it was game over, could’ve played until midnight and pats would’ve have created anything playing the way they were playing.
Agree with the comments on the Tolka pitch, it really slowed the game down for both sides with players needing to take an extra touch or two due to the ball bouncing at least twice with every 10 yard pass along the ground.
You boys would kill to be on 19 points at this stage. One swallow does not a summer make.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiki Balboa
Talk about stating the obvious! The point being made was that Bohs were pretty ordinary for a team 2nd in the league playing the basement club. Bit harsh using 'the worst' team as side will have off days but there isnt a huge amount between a lot of sides - Shels are top by just being unspectacular but well organised and efficient. If anyone is interested in seeing a cup tie type game, especially 1st half the one in Oriel is worth a look. Entertainment irrespective of goals and result. If and thats a big if Dundalk can play with the sort of intensity that they did tonight going forward then we will be making a good scrap of staying up. I dont think we'd get the space and time to score those sort of goals too often but the main thing is the chances were taken. Mountney on the right wing and drifting in was a menace. Worn out points but some old fashioned wing play and pushing on rather than slowing the tempo all the time, allowing teams to reset always, was a basic fix to just get in to the mix. It would probably be exposed by much better sides but right now we just need to be a bit better than the teams around us and build some form and hopefully a lot more momentum of adding points. Its certainly not a hopeless cause even if it is premature to start thinking we absolutely will work our way out of trouble.Quote:
Originally Posted by ger121;2185761[B
Galway didn't deserve to win but didn't deserve to lose so a point was fair,imo.
Rovers look devoid of quality in the final 3rd, which I guess can be put down to the current injury absentees. If the peno was converted I'd be fairly sure Rovers would have seen out the game comfortably. Conor McCormack is still an influential presence on the pitch and galway didn't lack for effort in their side
On a side note the absolute state of the ref,he looked like a paddy daly clone from the 70's
Shels wasted a few chances towards the end nonetheless it was a deserved win we are like night and day with Coyle in the middle of the park
Pats look like a mid-table team at best, those pre-season title challenge aspirations for them look to be hilarious now with so many bang average to poor signings over the past two seasons. Clancy had the axe dangling at this exact same stage of last season, the Drogheda and Sligo double header next weekend has to be make or break for Daly there as you can't imagine that Kelleher has suddenly become a more patient owner over the 12 months
Poor enough game at the RSC with Derry winning easily. Amond hit the bar with 10 minutes to go when he should have scored but other than that we did not threaten much. Our home form is poor with only 5 points from 6 home games and some fans questioning Keith Long's tactics and team selection for the first time this season.
Would agree there. Dundalk looked like a better side than bohs against us at least. That said, we've been so hot and cold it's hard to use any teams performance against us as a measure of their ability. Thought we'd turned a corner recently but we are back to huffing and puffing with no bite. Need 2-3 of the missing 7 back asap.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiki Balboa
One of the best defensive displays by a team in Tallaght in a long time and the energy that Galway in pressing never waned for the 90 minutes. Too many Rovers players had off nights, Darra Burns was doubled up every time he turned inside, he beat the first man and then lost it to the 2nd. Gaffney and Greener had bad days at the office which can happen, then the killer goal from one of the few forays into our last 3rd. Rovers clawed it back at the end with Kenny's header then Greener missed a really close chance with a header from 3 yards out at the back stick. While we had plenty of chances we never beat the goal down and as for our longer range shots, the square SC, the car park and the cycle way on the way up to the Dublin Mountains are each up a nice footy up.Quote:
Originally Posted by placid casual
I see duffer is working his way through the mourinho manual on how to " make it all about me".