May 22 results
Scotland 0-1 Wales :D
Ireland 0-5 England
Oh dear fellas! :p
Just out of interest does anyone know what team was put out by the FAI team?
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May 22 results
Scotland 0-1 Wales :D
Ireland 0-5 England
Oh dear fellas! :p
Just out of interest does anyone know what team was put out by the FAI team?
Not a single player has Premier Division experience. The players representing Pats are 17 and 19. A couple of over 21 players were called up but withdrew due to club commitments
Eh, what's this:confused:
Ray Lally, Declan Cahill and Cathal Lordan were called up from City.
Lally has played a few mins in first team, to be honest ive never heard of Cahill and Cathal Lordan has played in one or two games
And this is supposed to be proof of what exactly? Only thing it proves is we take this "competition" so seriously that we send kids over to play in it and none of us even knew it was on?Quote:
Originally Posted by Cymro
Is this not an amatuer or semi-pro tournement?
Don't even think of entering - Linfield have enough trophies already.:)Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Bruce
Didnt even realise this was on!
They should at least enter a team from the first division or something. Putting Youth team players out against full time pros from the conference in England is pointless
It's meant to be an amateur tournament - hence we send over our yung un's, to stop us whipping the asses of the English Conference and Welsh and Highland leagues.
And given that we are the only league that has this tournament in the middle of its season, we're never going to send any player of any value to it. Hence, we then have a team of inexperienced, and frankly rather poor, teenagers performing badly. I'm not really sure why we bother, to be fair.
Any1 know the line-up?
The conference are supposed to be a decent side and beaten most teams they played. But Northern Ireland played them recently and hammered them quite easily and our team was an under 23 team with 1 player over(nixon).Quote:
Originally Posted by dcfcsteve
Apparently there will be some European championships or something and Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, ROI as well as Dutch, Spanish etc etc. It would be good to see the best of both leagues youngsters do well in these tournements.
Irish League football is much maligned(rightfully so in most cases) but we do seem to have a lot good up and coming players through out the league. So it will be interesting to see how they would fair with other leagues in Europe.
Mark O'Brien has plenty, all be it with the scum.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
Anyone got the line up for that game?
Proof of nothing. Just a discussion on said topic. You chose to interpret it as some sort of attack on your league.......Quote:
Originally Posted by BohsPartisan
Anyway, to refer to Steve Bruce, I think the Irish league should enter a team to represent Ireland, since their players don't have a league campaign on at the time.
And judging from the 3-1 win over the Conference a couple of months back they would do quite well.
Thought O'Brien had pulled out with the others, apologies...
How could they?Quote:
Originally Posted by Cymro
It only covers the 6 counties, how would that "represent Ireland"?:rolleyes:
You know what I meant. Besides, the current team is called 'Ireland', though it has no players from the Irish league.Quote:
Originally Posted by BohsFans
That's a moot point anyway. The Irish League could enter as anything. The point is the competition needs a competitive fourth team, and ideally could do with a better Scottish side.
But what is the point of the competition? The LOI view is that it is for U21 players, the Scottish view is that it is for the Highland league, and the Welsh view is that it is for the best players in the league. Who's to say who's right or wrong? We could just as easily say, the competition needs Wales to stop sending out a full side and only play U21sQuote:
Originally Posted by Cymro
As it is, the whole thing is farcical. I'd have no problem at all with the IL replacing the LOI, particularly as it overlaps with our season. The Pats u17 manager wasn't happy with Noel Haverty going off to play in this so soon after plating for the ROI u19s last week
The competition should be as high a level as possible with semi-pro players (although for some reason pros from the Conference and Welsh Premier are allowed). Therefore Ireland should ideally enter a true representative side from at least the First Division, even you hold the view that Premier Divsion players are 'too good' to play against Conference/Welsh premier players.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
Scotland should really enter a side at a higher level than the Highland league. There are semi-pros in Scotland up to the Scottish Divsion 2 so they should also be considered, especially since Scotland do poorly in this competition and generally finish third or fourth.
With the LOI obviously not able to enter a full side because of summer football, the IL should take their place, in my opinion.
It's like asking the French league to represent Spain. Silly suggestion.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cymro
We could replace the LOI but not represent them.
You can say that again :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Steve Bruce
I don't hold the view we're too good to play these sides and personally I love the idea of inter league games but the dates don't suit us (and its not really inter league anyway). If it was an end of season thing for us I'm sure we'd put out a decent team. The whole amatuer/professional thing is a red herring too and most players in the first division here receive some sort of pay.
You say it should be for the highest level, I'm asking why you think that, and do you not think it would advance the players more if they were all u21?
Represent Northern Ireland then. As I said that wasn't the point, the point was an Irish League select would bring a lot more to the tournament than the side that the Republic put out.Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Bruce
I think you could have a rule where you have maybe a minimum of say three under 21s in the squad. But I think we should try and have as high a standard for this tournament as possible.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
The profile of the thing needs to be raised, especially in Scotland. Attendance of 484 for the Wales game v Scotland yesterday. If it was in England or Wales it would have likely got over double that. Having better sides play would certainly improve interest.
I agree something should be done, and its either make it full sides (with the IL replacing us) or u21s only.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cymro
BTW ithe team representing Ireland is not from the LOI. A few years ago some "Southerners" playing in the Il competed for "Ireland"
Yep, more details hereQuote:
Originally Posted by Steve Bruce
We also had an inter-league game between Northern Irealand and the LOI In the republic somewhere. NI winning the game 1 nil.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
Ah there were loads of them about 8-10 years ago. Much harder now with the different seasons
It was played in England last year, and the croweds were hardly much higher than the 484 figure you mentioned above (I acn't be arsed to Google for the attendances, but I went to 2 of the games and the attendnaces were hardly inspiring).Quote:
Originally Posted by Cymro
The bottom line is Dodge's question - why should we give a feck about this tournament ? It doesn't suit us timings wise, so why should we even take part if we can't do it any justice ??
To be fair, I think that is a question you need to ask the FAI as they must see a benefit for it.Quote:
Originally Posted by dcfcsteve
Although this could be a good scouting opportunity for clubs over here and also an opportunity for our young players to be scouted in england/scotland.
But apart from that I do not see any benefit.
The FAI probably just saw it as an excuse for a few more trips, and a chance to hang out with their buddies in the other associations.....Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Bruce
Sounds like the IFA:DQuote:
Originally Posted by dcfcsteve
Played in Terryland about 6 or 7 years ago in front of about 200 people, NI won 2-0 as well if i remember correctly. The eircom league put out fairly decent sides in these little things in the past and never really lorded it over anyone so it would be interesting to see if we put out a decent premier division side now would we hammer the others.Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Bruce
Didn't you enter a senior team in the inaugural Four Nations, while you were still playing a winter season?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ceirtlis
Can't really argue with your second point given that you play through the summer but I disagree about crowds, there was a near 3000 crowd in last year's England v Wales at Telford's ground.Quote:
Originally Posted by dcfcsteve
Difference now is now the EL team would be Pro.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ceirtlis
Both Dundalk players in the squad have played senior this season, Shane Grimes and Kevin McArdle, Mcardle is also an u-19 international and was the only homebased player in McCafferys squad that played in the Pre-Elite Phase warm ups
England played Wales last year at Eastbourne Borough's ground !?!? :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by Cymro
Mick Neville in today's Star seemed pretty happy with the event.