Premier Division
Saturday 24th
Finn Harps v Bohemians 16:00
Monday 26th
Shamrock Rovers v UCD 20:00
First Division
Saturday 24th
Longford v Treaty 16:00
Sunday 25th
Bray v Waterford 15:00
Printable View
Premier Division
Saturday 24th
Finn Harps v Bohemians 16:00
Monday 26th
Shamrock Rovers v UCD 20:00
First Division
Saturday 24th
Longford v Treaty 16:00
Sunday 25th
Bray v Waterford 15:00
Very little to play for in the First Division with the 4 playoff places as good as settled unless a Cork implosion allows Galway to sneak in.
Rovers match against UCD is a must win game to give us a 5 point gap over Derry.
Rovers look ragged and with plenty of injuried and a half fit Byrne and Burke forced to start against Shels anything is possible.
If we dont beat UCD i would make Derry favourites at this stage. Does Bradley have the balls to play the 19s in Europe and concentrate on the league?? Anything less than 3 points against UCD and that is what is needed.
Bohs season is over and Harps have something to play for, a point agaisnt Bohs would take them off the bottom on goal difference on Saturday evening.
Bigger question is do derry have the balls to take advantage of Rovers sluggish form? Their away game against pats next Friday is massive, as pats are looking to secure Europe for themselves.
If Rovers drop more points against UCD and derry win in Inchicore then the pressure really is on Rovers to win up in Sligo.
2nd last game of the season is Rovers vs Derry in Tallaght, which could turn out to be a belter.
Winning the league is all that counts to me.
There is no place in the trophy cabinet or roll of honour for "group stage participant" and with the Champions path in place Irish sides will be regular participants going forward.
I woud llitterally send the entire inder 19s team to play the european matches if we dont beat UCD.
So what of we lose those matches we need to retain the league , all that winning a match or two in Europe is is money and if it costs you the league its a massive false economy.
The squad is down , Pico, Hoare, Gannon, Power, Watts ..... half fit and showed it last night Jack and Burkey , Lyons is away wiht the 21's for the UCD match and matches every 3 or 4 days has even 100% lads like Gaffne and O Neill etc looking flahed..
How would you feel if Rovers put out the 19s and got beat 10 or 15 nil?
It would probably incur a big uefa fine or some other disciplinary measure - fairly sure there's a rule that you must play your strongest team or something near it.
And what would it do to the psychology of those U19 players to be thrown to the wolves and hockeyed off the park a few times?
It would do massive reputational damage to the club.
Shamrock Rovers have a first team squad of 29 players listed on their website.
They have more than enough players to be able to comfortably rotate their first team squad to compete in Europe and in the league. If they don't, it's their own fault for not signing a few more players when they knew they'd get group stage football.
The idea of Rovers of all teams not having the squad to compete on more than one front is hilarious. There's been numerous games this season where they've brought 5 players off the bench of sufficient quality to be starting for the opposition week in week out.
If Rovers can’t beat UCD at home with a squad most other clubs could only dream of, even with injuries, then serious questions would need to be asked of Bradley. The cup is out of the way now, Europe is on a 3 week break and your two games in hand were/are in Dublin. No excuses left for not being 5 points clear (and a superior GD) with 18 points left to play for.
Hard to know what Bohs will show up,if it’s the wounded animal one we’ll lose ,hopefully it’s the one we’ve seen more often than not this season……
Rovers have to use a minimum number of A List players in their UCL matches.
A different scenario would be having Mannus & Pohls injured, in which case they might use B List keeper Leitis in the starting line-up against Molde.
Do they? I'm looking at the rules (because I'd never head of an "A List" player but it's effectively just the 25-man declared squad, while "B list" is effectively anyone coming through the club's underage setup, with a couple of restrictions) but I can't see anything that says how many List A players they have to use. Article 45 is the main item here.
Agree with the general sentiment that a squad as strong as Rovers' shouldn't be remotely worried about a home game against UCD about now.
Against Shels Rovers had 11 100% first team players on the pitch two of them were half fit at best. (Burke and Byrne)
On the bench the only players that would be considered first team players were Greene ,Towell (carrying a knock apparantly) and Chris McCann out for 4 or 5 weeks and has come back and played 60 mins a couple of times.
The squad has depth but not at the moment and you cant keep playing the same players over and over.
Re how would i feel about the 19's team losing 10 -0 i will feel a lot worse if we lose the league.
Im probably overdoing it a tad saying all the 19's but maybe 5 or 6 and then fill out the team with bench from last night.
I do expect us to beat UCD but with Derry coming to Tallaght in the second last match and 4 more european matches to be played if we dont beat UCD then serious action needs to be taken.
Re the general sentiment about Rovers squad being strong enough to play in Europe and the league that would be true if they were available but they arent hence my concern.
If your looking for sympathy for Rovers plight sbgawa can I suggest your targeting the wrong audience..
Filling the ECL group games with U19's is a laughable suggestion. If Rovers beat UCD it will mean derry having to win all their games and Rovers losing twice to lose the title -im quietly confident that neither of those two things will happen. Relax man, it's grand.
Particularly when we are missing Lonergan to the Ireland U19s. Not much chance of a goal against Rovers. Maybe Duffy will pot one in from a free kick, not sure we will get that far up the field though... Anything better than a 3-0 defeat will be a good result for UCD. Rovers will be grand.
Derry brought as much firepower off their bench as we did in the cup game..Our bench isn't what it was and our best player isn't what he was.
Get Hoare and Pico back and it starts looking good again but as of now we aren't in great shape. Missing Mandroiu a lot now.
No excuses for not beating UCD mind you. No offense to them obviously but we have enough even still.