New crossborder tournament: Unite the Union Champions Cup

Enjoyable game, disappointing crowd but that was expected. Much better 2nd half by Dundalk and the sort of passing tempo that was missing last Sunday. Whather that was down to opposition, form, or having Shields back in the side its hard to know. The FT/PT training stuff didnt seem to make a difference. Its still hard to firgure out how Linfield were so effective v Qarbag compared to our own performances against the same opposition looking at the teams tonight. If Hery was a little less sloppy with his pasing he would be playing elsewhere, he does some great stuff and then just switches off or something. All in all there is potential for this champions fixture to grow.

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Originally Posted by redarmyfaction

The history of the trade union movent is like the Popular Front of Judea in reverse. Instead of fragmenting, tiny specialist unions like the Allied Copper Boiler Pluugers Accociation morph into large corporate entities.

The thing is that partition survives to this day in the movement, some unions though less now than before still pledge to the UK rather than Liberty Hall. Janey, even the solid Sinn Fein building workers used to be in UCATT and would die for independence except......

I thought this place was about the working man's sport in a middle class world, but maybe not.

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It was Government policy to minimise the number of trade unions as it was felt the myriad of different unions led to the ridiculously high level of industrial action in the 1970s. I seem to recall the State made funding available for the legal costs of unions merging. Merges often led to name changes ITGWU merged to form SIPTU the biggest union in Ireland - same applies to FORSA and MANDATE.
UNITE was similarly a new entity formed on a merger.

Anyhow, back to football, disappointing to see the small crowd at the game. Decent game and Dubdalk looked stronger so would expect them to finish the job at Oriel Park.
While the security overkill may have deterred people attending it's still a very disappointing crowd.

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Originally Posted by marinobohs

Anyhow, back to football, disappointing to see the small crowd at the game. Decent game and Dubdalk looked stronger so would expect them to finish the job at Oriel Park.
While the security overkill may have deterred people attending it's still a very disappointing crowd.

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Some 300 over the average Linfield attendance, according to media reports.

Apart from most people having to travel to the game by bus, the security was no more intrusive than a trip to Tallaght and to be honest it was well organised. Some of the chants from our crowd were ridiculous but to be expected unfortunately. There were plenty of Dundalk fans roaring at the group singing certain chants. We couldn’t hear the Linfield fans that much but I gather there were some poorly advised chants from there though I did see them continually hold up a Paratroop regiment flag. It’s a pity but this game was always going to attract that type and I think Monday will be worse.
On the game itself, I think we left it behind. We had a lot of possess without really threatening but when we increased the pace and tempo we were much better. I thought the ref was good and let plenty go for both sides, that our own refs would be falling over themselves to punish.

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Originally Posted by Ezeikial

Some 300 over the average Linfield attendance, according to media reports.

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The guts of 3 k was a good crowd for this game and more than i thought. And its the muppets on both sides not too bothered about watching whats on the pitch preferring to sing nice love ditties to each other that perpetuate the neanderthal attitudes that hold this island back.

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Originally Posted by Ezeikial

Some 300 over the average Linfield attendance, according to media reports.

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A poor, and somewhat irrelevant measure of the interest in the competition.

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Originally Posted by Mr_Parker

A poor, and somewhat irrelevant measure of the interest in the competition.

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For someone who professes to be interested primarilt in 'facts', I thought this might appeal to you.

Obviously not, instead you offer ambiguous negative opinion - why do you think that the average Linfield attendance is a poor or irrelevant measure?

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Originally Posted by Yossarian

Apart from most people having to travel to the game by bus, the security was no more intrusive than a trip to Tallaght and to be honest it was well organised. Some of the chants from our crowd were ridiculous but to be expected unfortunately. There were plenty of Dundalk fans roaring at the group singing certain chants. We couldn’t hear the Linfield fans that much but I gather there were some poorly advised chants from there though I did see them continually hold up a Paratroop regiment flag. It’s a pity but this game was always going to attract that type and I think Monday will be worse.
On the game itself, I think we left it behind. We had a lot of possess without really threatening but when we increased the pace and tempo we were much better. I thought the ref was good and let plenty go for both sides, that our own refs would be falling over themselves to punish.

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The stewarding and policing was excellent - friendly, professional, efficient. There were more 'welcome' and 'safe home' good wishes offered by police and security staff last night than what I would expect in an full season of loi away trips

The spontaneous negative reaction from a large proportion of Dundalk fans to the more inflammatory IRA chants was encouraging

I expect Dundalk to finish to tie off in Oriel Park on Monday

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Originally Posted by Mr_Parker

A poor, and somewhat irrelevant measure of the interest in the competition.

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Their was more there than last time they played Cliftonville so its relevant.

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Originally Posted by Ezeikial

For someone who professes to be interested primarilt in 'facts', I thought this might appeal to you.

Obviously not, instead you offer ambiguous negative opinion - why do you think that the average Linfield attendance is a poor or irrelevant measure?

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A one of cup game, a final at that, cannot be compared to league attendances, especially a fixture that involves the top 2 clubs on the island.

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Originally Posted by Mr_Parker

A one of cup game, a final at that, cannot be compared to league attendances, especially a fixture that involves the top 2 clubs on the island.

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Cannot be compared to a league game alright. This may have been called a final, but it's a glorified friendly IMO. Most fans would be more interested in the bread and butter of winning 3 points in the league IMO.

I was actually very disappointed in the quality of both sides. Linfield where very negative and dundalk offered little in offense.

As far as how we where so effective in Europe? well the simple answer to that is we played much much better than Friday.

Let's not kid ourselves here this is a glorified friendly, as our manager said before Friday night, our biggest game in the next 3 matches is Institute. It was highly unlikely Linfield where going to risk adding to our injury list by going all out for 2 meaningless games vs dundalk.

[QUOTE=sullanefc;2022980]Cannot be compared to a league game alright. This may have been called a final, but it's a glorified friendly IMO. Most fans would be more interested in the bread and butter of winning 3 points in the league IMO.[/QUOTE

Rubbish, trophy at stake, very decent prize money, two best teams on the island. It was or should be far more attractive than an average League game.]

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Originally Posted by Steve Bruce

I was actually very disappointed in the quality of both sides. Linfield where very negative and dundalk offered little in offense.

As far as how we where so effective in Europe? well the simple answer to that is we played much much better than Friday.

Let's not kid ourselves here this is a glorified friendly, as our manager said before Friday night, our biggest game in the next 3 matches is Institute. It was highly unlikely Linfield where going to risk adding to our injury list by going all out for 2 meaningless games vs dundalk.

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Meaningless game = we were outplayed. 😁

I don't think we where outplayed although I thought we didn't get out of 2nd gear but each to their own.

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Originally Posted by Steve Bruce

I don't think we where outplayed although I thought we didn't get out of 2nd gear but each to their own.

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I suspect your enthusiasm (or lack of it) is related to Linfields chances of winning.
Not outplayed TBF but Dundalk were better side.

Nice to see a linfield fan posting keep them coming always good to get different views, Would there be any Linfield fans in favor of combining the 2 leagues.

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Originally Posted by marinobohs

I suspect your enthusiasm (or lack of it) is related to Linfields chances of winning.
Not outplayed TBF but Dundalk were better side.

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Linfield were decent i thought, especially first half. Dundalk loads ball but we never done anything with it.

I think Vinny will go full strength tomorrow night and we will win easily

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Originally Posted by Nesta99

Enjoyable game, disappointing crowd but that was expected. Much better 2nd half by Dundalk and the sort of passing tempo that was missing last Sunday. Whather that was down to opposition, form, or having Shields back in the side its hard to know. The FT/PT training stuff didnt seem to make a difference. Its still hard to firgure out how Linfield were so effective v Qarbag compared to our own performances against the same opposition looking at the teams tonight. If Hery was a little less sloppy with his pasing he would be playing elsewhere, he does some great stuff and then just switches off or something. All in all there is potential for this champions fixture to grow.

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