Fixtures weekend 6th September

Premier Division:
Bohemians vs Shelbourne (19:45)

First Division (all 19:45)
Athlone Town vs Finn Harps
Cobh Ramblers vs Wexford
Longford Town vs Bray Wanderers
Treaty United vs Kerry
UCD vs Cork City

Obviously a pivotal game in the Premier which needs no introduction, even if Bohs appear to be edging away from the play-off trapdoor, but Shels have little margin for error in their title tussle with the Candystripes. Cork can clinch the First Division title with a win at Belfield, but any less will see promotion delayed until their trip to Mounthawk Park, where Galway won the second tier last season. Treaty will be keen to rebound after their off night against Bray, with the battle between Kerry and Longford to avoid the wooden spoon the other theme of the night.

If Cork win tonight they'll have won the league a game earlier than we did last season but that's more to do with the other teams having been so far off compared to Waterford.

On that for the whole season most people have thought that winning the playoff will be a formality for the Premier side but with UCD, Bray and Wexford all starting to find form possibly by the time it comes around they'll be a different prospect. UCD, in particular, with Ronan Finn back fit again and their cup win up in Sligo look like they could give Drogs or Dundalk a game.

I know Dundalk have more immediate concerns, and the pitch is tangentially related to what is to come, but having watched the game last night, it is worse the pitch is getting, it ruins every match I've watched. Really adds a level of chaos and a difficulty to control the ball or read the bounce on it, that in some ways can be a great leveler, and I can see why Dundalk are very tough to beat there. I think they actually played very well, especially for the first half an hour, putting extreme pressure on, and causing problems until Pat's got to grips with things. Also should have gotten a penalty in the end, but otherwise Pat's probably should have already been 3-1 up at that point.

Corner flag broke at one stage and some poor young lad had to spend 2 exruciatingly long minutes trying to fix it on his own in front of a couple thousand laughing spectators before Robbie Benson bailed him out :D

Derry 44 (played 26)
Shels 42 (25)
Sligo 39 (26)
Sham R 35 (24)
Galway 33 (25)
Waterford 33 (26)
Pats 31 (25)
Bohs 31 (25)
Drogs 21 (26


With thanks to Patsdad an updated league table with the * after Bohs beat Shels tonight
All to play for

That Kennys team were able to play good football on that abomination of a pitch says it all about how good they were

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Originally Posted by Nah Nah Nah Nah

That Kennys team were able to play good football on that abomination of a pitch says it all about how good they were

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I'm still not ruling them out of top 4 at this point. Playing everyone above them one more time before the season ends. Very different team pre and post Vaduz I would say.

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Originally Posted by Acornvilla

I'm still not ruling them out of top 4 at this point. Playing everyone above them one more time before the season ends. Very different team pre and post Vaduz I would say.

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I think they get 4th. Just getting more and more consistent and the team most likely to go on a run.

They're only five points off third as it stands. Granted, Rovers have two games in hand, but they can't find form at all. Pat's have 10 points in their last four games. If that's Kenny's influence (rather than blind luck - and I think it is Kenny's influence) then a five point gap with a full round of games to go is very surmountable.

Also echo JC's comments about the play-off looking more interesting as the weeks go on. The form table for the top five is interesting - of the last five games for each of them, there's 15 wins, six draws and four defeats. Athlone account for three of those defeats and two of those draws.

Obviously hoping Cork don't win the title tonight, though it is a formality. We're on four clean sheets in a row - think it's 2010 since we last bettered that. Maguire and Keating will be a test for us obviously - but a good one at that ahead of Bohs next week in the Cup.

Well was on about his Dundalk team but yeah Pats are flying it

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Originally Posted by Nah Nah Nah Nah

Well was on about his Dundalk team but yeah Pats are flying it

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Ha, I completely read that backwards so. Yeah you're right, I do think the pitch was a bit better back then, it's absolutely cat now.

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Originally Posted by Acornvilla

I know Dundalk have more immediate concerns, and the pitch is tangentially related to what is to come, but having watched the game last night, it is worse the pitch is getting, it ruins every match I've watched. Really adds a level of chaos and a difficulty to control the ball or read the bounce on it, that in some ways can be a great leveler, and I can see why Dundalk are very tough to beat there. I think they actually played very well, especially for the first half an hour, putting extreme pressure on, and causing problems until Pat's got to grips with things. Also should have gotten a penalty in the end, but otherwise Pat's probably should have already been 3-1 up at that point.

Corner flag broke at one stage and some poor young lad had to spend 2 exruciatingly long minutes trying to fix it on his own in front of a couple thousand laughing spectators before Robbie Benson bailed him out :D

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I’m glad someone else said it. Dundalks pitch is an abomination, and shouldn’t be allowed. Same for Derry’s too btw. Just relieved we got the points last night, but it’s impossible to play well on those pitches. Dundalk did cause us some problems in the first half, and we couldn’t pass the ball for the first half hour or so. Better in the second half, but it was just a matter of grinding out a result. Like you, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a good game on either Dundalk or Derry’s pitches. Not to wish Dundalk ill, but if they do go down at least there will be one less of those excuses for a football pitch in the Premier division. If I had my way I’d ban them outright.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

They're only five points off third as it stands. Granted, Rovers have two games in hand, but they can't find form at all. Pat's have 10 points in their last four games. If that's Kenny's influence (rather than blind luck - and I think it is Kenny's influence) then a five point gap with a full round of games to go is very surmountable.
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We do seem to have turned a corner. The side is more settled now, and I think that’s a factor. Axel Sjoberg has had a run of games for the first time and has been terrific, Tom Grivosti is back and doing very well and Jake Mulraney is reborn under SK. Looks a different player. Add to that the impact of Elbouzedi and I think that explains the improvement. The run of games in Europe has helped too. The signs are good that SK is turning things around. As regards Europe, it’s not so much the five point gap, it’s that there are a number of teams between us and third/fourth. It could go down to the wire, and we cant afford to drop too many more points.

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Originally Posted by Acornvilla

I'm still not ruling them out of top 4 at this point. Playing everyone above them one more time before the season ends. Very different team pre and post Vaduz I would say.

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Originally Posted by ger121

I think they get 4th. Just getting more and more consistent and the team most likely to go on a run.

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As soon as SK took over I was convinced they'd get 4th and would win the league next year.

Best half from Bohs this year, but no goal. We've also the ability to concede a goal out of nothing, so in the balance.
Shels aren't convincing so far, but game of two halves and all that.

Shels win the league the same night as Cork

Athlone 1-4 Harps

What on earth is going on in Athlone lately?

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Originally Posted by sbgawa

Shels win the league the same night as Cork

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Whoops

It's another point closer in fairness.

Well done Cork. I know there's been a lot of comment that they're nothing special (and the rest of the division is worse) but you can't argue with winning the title six games out. Four very tight games with them over the season and really should have gotten more than we did out of them (1 point? Maybe 2?) - but then that's the sign of a good team I guess; keep plodding away and grinding out the results

Great performance from Bohs tonight, the better team by a mile. The turnaround since the cup game against Kerry has been something else. Getting Devoy and Tierney back makes us a different team altogether if we can add a decent striker I would be cautiously optimistic about next year.

Very important win for us this evening,first away win since the 29th of March and keeps us within touching distance,need to win next week again to keep us in the mix aswell though….

Treaty grab a draw at the death but concerning seeing Thomas Considine take a bad knock late on.

By the way, who are Kerry fooling with Conor McCarthy down as manager?

James Sugrue the only one standing up in the dug out tonight and most other nights while McCarthy twiddles his thumbs. Has to be a badges thing.

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Originally Posted by joey B

Very important win for us this evening,first away win since the 29th of March and keeps us within touching distance,need to win next week again to keep us in the mix aswell though….

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Combined with Bray losing to Longford, it is important. Wouldn't guarantee a win against Longford based on recent form, mind. Thought those five losses in a row would have ended any chances of the playoff, but now it's entirely possible.

I'm going to post the same thing I posted here around April as a Shels fan I still do not know how we are top of the league but the difference is it's September now with 7 games to go so things are getting very positively real no matter how much Bohs were on the front foot against us tonight ending up in a fair draw

I'm trying to do some sense checking over Shels current goals per game per ratio of 1.10 and how sustainable it is to the end of the season to win a top flight national league, for perspective I can see that Galway United (1991/92) and Bray Wanderers (2002/03) finished bottom of the LOI Premier Division/relegated in those seasons with a higher goals per games average than Shels top of the league in 2024 with 7 games to go and a 4 point advantage. Dundalk (1994/95) have the lowest goalscoring average in two-division LOI history since 1985/86 scoring 1.24 goals per games to win the league that season

AC Milan (1993/94) might be the kings of winning a league with a low goalscoring statistics with 1.06 goals per game but that Serie A season was only 2 points per win making a significant difference in footballing approach prior to 3 points becoming accustom internationally

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Athlone 1-4 Harps

What on earth is going on in Athlone lately?

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They were awful. We were excellent though tbf. Best performance of the season by far. Need to keep it going next week. If we do we are back in with a chance

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

It's another point closer in fairness.

Well done Cork. I know there's been a lot of comment that they're nothing special (and the rest of the division is worse) but you can't argue with winning the title six games out. Four very tight games with them over the season and really should have gotten more than we did out of them (1 point? Maybe 2?) - but then that's the sign of a good team I guess; keep plodding away and grinding out the results

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How UCD lost that game tonight I don’t know. Could have been 2 up at HT. If UCD had a real finisher up top, they’d be a real threat in the playoffs to even the PD team that finishes 9th.

Cork a very ordinary side and will need to invest a bit in the off season to be competitive next year.

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Originally Posted by BonnieShels

As soon as SK took over I was convinced they'd get 4th and would win the league next year.

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Not so sure about the former (7 games left, 6 are against teams above them in the table and they have 3 Dublin derbies, all way from home) but 100 percent agree with you on the latter

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Originally Posted by ger121

How UCD lost that game tonight I don’t know. Could have been 2 up at HT. If UCD had a real finisher up top, they’d be a real threat in the playoffs to even the PD team that finishes 9th.

Cork a very ordinary side and will need to invest a bit in the off season to be competitive next year.

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Do you go to UCD instead of Bohs Ger ?

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Originally Posted by ger121

How UCD lost that game tonight I don’t know. Could have been 2 up at HT. If UCD had a real finisher up top, they’d be a real threat in the playoffs to even the PD team that finishes 9th.

Cork a very ordinary side and will need to invest a bit in the off season to be competitive next year.

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I went along as a neutral and it wasn’t quite that bad. The first half was pretty even but Mikey Raggett really should have scored.

UCD had the better of it in the second half but it really looked like a game that the first goal would be crucial. Had a great chance for an equaliser near the end from a header.

When we got promoted last season we actually added very few players to our team, I think on the opening day we only had 2 new signings, on tonight’s performance Cork would struggle without a few more. The amount of times they gave the ball away cheaply in midfield leading to a UCD attack was ridiculous.

Maguire’s best work came when he was dropping deep for the ball.

Another win for Wexford too who are flying, I’d expect them to deal with Treaty next week based on recent form.

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Originally Posted by joey B

Do you go to UCD instead of Bohs Ger ?

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Ah, I mix it up these days, now that I don’t live in Dublin anymore. Bring the kids to the Bowl for a little family football fix and keep Bohs for Daddy when he needs a night out and booze.

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Originally Posted by ger121

Ah, I mix it up these days, now that I don’t live in Dublin anymore. Bring the kids to the Bowl for a little family football fix and keep Bohs for Daddy when he needs a night out and booze.

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Right you are! Don’t let them near Dalymount till they’re about 35 :D

Another miserable effort from Tommys Treaty ,absolute awful stuff .Game saved by a Kerry outfit who played well , dominated the match but lacked a cutting edge and they went away wondering how they let the win behind them.