Dundalk know how to score. If only they could defend they may have picked up some points in this group. Still,better to be in it than not.
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Dundalk know how to score. If only they could defend they may have picked up some points in this group. Still,better to be in it than not.
Decent performance all told, albeit against an Arsenal reserve side who really underwhelmed for 70 minutes of that match. Probably their best performance of the group tbh.
First time since 1957 an Irish team has scored twice against an English team in Europe. 3-2 defeat for Shamrock Rovers in Old Trafford, having lost 6-0 at home.
That was a decent performance. Holding Arsenal to a 4-2 win where they had to work hard to make sure they did enough, is something to be proud of. What a lovely goal by Flores, off his right foot. Dundalk played quite confidently at times, good passing etc, but the same old mistakes of gift wrapping goals for teams continued again tonight. A lazy, no-look clearance from Boyle for Arsenal's first, and he was raging with himself, and he wasn't the only one. Nothing to be done about Elneny's goal. Overall, I was happy that they still plugged away at 4-1, which I thought was a little harsh on them, trying to do the right things, and got their just rewards of an excellently headed 2nd goal from Hoare. Shields did well again, passing well. Rogers made a couple of decent saves also. Overall, even though it wasn't their strongest team, they were just too good for Dundalk. The massive what-if of the night was the glorious chance right before half-time to make it 2-2. Though I feel Arsenal would have pulled away anyhow. Would love to have seen Oduwa cause havoc and potential penalty kick mayhem as a sub for the last 10 minutes, but I presume he's injured? Still, no shame whatsoever. They can be pleased with many things about this campaign, but plenty to learn from too.
Also, with events unfolding elsewhere in the Europa League, three teams finished bottom, and with zero points; Dundalk, Ludogorets, and Gent. A 3-1 defeat for Ludogorets against LASK means they and not Dundalk finish up as the absolute worst team in this season's competition, with a -12 goal difference. Dundalk and Gent finished joint-second last with goal differences of -11. Silver linings!
So ends another season in Europe and I must say it has to go down as a rather successful one. No side went out easily in the qualifying rounds, with lots of good performances along the way. A 3rd Group Stage qualification in 9 years was a real bonus. Not bad for a Country with no League. Imagine what we could do if we actually had any money!
Not exactly correct:
https://www.citytilidie.com/latest/l...nd-leg-197071/
http://www.eurocupshistory.com/match...s_southampton/
(Never any harm in reminding the Bluenoses where they come from :D)
Oops! You're spot on.
Never knew Linfield beat Man City back in the day
Wiki has Waterford in the Youth League as well now. Draw on 27th Jan, with first round on 3rd March, covid permitting
It would only they are Welsh and Scottish sides !!! We can probably add Bohs in though as one of the most significant wins v UK side, the 2-1 win away to Aberdeen (lost on agg) was very impressive. The 3-2 win at home v Rangers in mid 80's was another notable result.
Dundalk were unbeaten at home from 1976-82 (missed one season not qualifying but on many played two rounds), had some notable results, mostly draws and at home including, PSV, Celtic, Porto and Spurs, one big win Hajduk Split (77) - but hammered away in second leg, so only one significant win really in that period, although played in 3 rounds* in 1979, and that was the old EC.
*On that I read earlier in the year, no Irish team had played in 4 consecutive rounds until 2020, (completely open to correction on this) when Dundalk again did it, fortunate draws maybe, and all one legs, Celje Slovenia / Inter Andora / Sheriff Moldova / KI of Faroes, won 2 mind, and the easier ones, but still think Sheriff being the much higher ranked team was a great feat winning that on pens.
Gretna is in Scotland isn’t it?
Oh you're right actually. They used to play in England, which is the confusion.
So that just leaves TNS as the last English team an Irish side scored twice against in Europe.
*Bohs knocked Aberdeen out of 2000/01 UEFA Cup. The two away goals were enough.
Doesn't really add anything to the discussion but couldn't see it written down without the urge to correct it. The return leg in Tolka, holding out with 10 men is one of the great Bohs nights.
Not exactly.
The club was originally formed as Llansantffraid F.C i.e. a Welsh club, located in the tiny village of Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain and playing in the Welsh system (obviously). It was then re-named TNS, after club sponsors Total Network Solutions, a company based in Oswestry, just a few miles away over the border in England.
TNS then merged with Oswestry Town FC, and the new club started playing at Oswestry Town's ground, making them "English". Except that Oswestry Town had always played in the League of Wales!
Meanwhile, when Total Network Solutions were taken over by BT, the club had to get a new name, eventually choosing The New Saints, partly to retain the initials, but also because Llansantffraid F.C were always known as "The Saints".
The club badge also seemed designed to keep both sets of fans on side:
https://duckduckgo.com/i/def56044.png
Probably best to consider them "Anglo-Welsh", thereby ****ing off fans on both sides of the border!
Meanwhile, Chester FC's Deva stadium lies on the border between England and Wales; the border runs along the rear of the east stand (the main stand) with the pitch itself located over the border in Flintshire. However, the ground's address is officially classed as being in England due to the location of the club's offices.
They had to postpone a game a couple of weeks back because despite it meeting English Covid regulations, the Welsh regulations were stricter, meaning the pitch wasn't compliant!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deva_Stadium#/map/0
Very interesting that EG, I stayed in Chester a good few times, knew it was very close to Wales, never knew (as per that map), that a small part (SW area) of the City was actually in Wales by geography at least!
I remember when I was briefly there a few years back being pointed to a bridge which marked the border. If you lived on the Welsh side, you could get free prescription meds, but if you're on the English side (which could be the next street over), you'd have to pay in the same pharmacy.
There's a football pitch called Zerao ("zero") in Brazil where one half is in the northern hemisphere and the other half is in the southern hemisphere. The half-way line is on the equator. (Although wiki, annoyingly, says they didn't measure it correctly and are about 50m out...)
I know all about the club's history. The 'New Saints' was a nod not just to Llansantffraid but to both towns, as Oswestry was named after St Oswald (''Oswald's Tree'). Oswestry itself was once in Wales, and some of the street names in the town are in the Welsh language (i.e. their names 'in English' that is - not just that they're bilingual signs).
Oswestry Town FC only played in the Welsh system for a few years prior to merging with TNS. They played in various English leagues for decades prior to that, covering the vast majority of their existence. A couple of Oswestry clubs playing in England have formed and folded since the merger (the latest - FC Oswestry Town- folding only very recently)
The bottom line is that they're based in and play out of a town in England. So they're an English club, regardless of their original heritage.
More here: http://www.chester.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Shoot_the_Welsh
I've heard tell of a similar "law" giving the Welsh similar rights over the English on their side of the border, but can't find a reference. (Could be wrong, mind)
There are clubs based in America/Australia that consider themselves firmly Serbian/Croatian/Macedonian/Italian/Polish etc I think if you try and view a clubs nationality or
identity firmly through a black and white lens almost like a footballing bureaucrat the you are depriving yourself of one of the most joyous, interesting and significant facets of football as a world game. I hope I should never in my life feel so entitled as to tell a football club and those involved with what nationality they are.
Thankfully the GFA helps with this argument in the Derry City circumstance by redefining the state as the people rather than a patch of land, semantics maybe but we know how important presentation is in N.I. In other examples I would see (historical) cultural identity as different from (current) nationality. Notre Dame may call themselves the fighting Irish but they're are firmly American collegiate teams in every way, Glasgow Celtic - Scottish, Cork City - nowhere thats not Cork...
In response to EYG's (imo simplistic) assertion that The New Saints are just an English club which happens to play in Wales, I might equally have claimed eg that John Aldridge was just an Englishman who happened to play for ROI (or Ray Houghton a Scot etc).
Fact is, UEFA really do not like clubs playing outside of their (geographical) Association's territory, since it opens up a whole can of worms. However, they are sometimes prepared to make exceptions. With TNS, it was out of respect for their obvious Welsh heritage; with Cardiff/Swansea/Newport/Merthyr it was because they had always played in the English system long before there even was a League of Wales; and with Derry City/LOI it was what you might call force majeure (civil unrest).
Its a correct argument but heritage allowed them to take Irish citizenship as required so its more than heritage that saw them able to play for Ireland as English or Scottish. To base things entirely on heritage then Glasgow Celtic are entitled to play in the Ireland Leagues. I understand the point being made but its a lot more convoluted in general.
I'm not basing things "entirely on heritage", rather I was contradicting EYG when he completely ignored/dismissed TNS's Welsh heritage.
But now you mention them, Celtic have rather less "Irish" in them than TNS have "Welsh".
Perhaps you meant Hibernian? :wink:
https://foot.ie/threads/11886-Hibern...-Irish-History
Meh, Ive never followed Scottish football in any great detail bar some minor curiosity with the antics of the native and non native following of the Old Firm. I was college with a chap from Arbroath so kept an eye out there but generally and entirely unfairly to the rest of Scottish football I saw it as toxic especially when most often on this Island the team picked to support was based on your religion. I dont think you can ever really dismiss the heritage of a club even as it evolves. Dundalk recognise the railway heritage of the club even though its not far off a century since there was any connection. It can be a minefield when looking at the foundation of some clubs and how they and support evolved be they English-Welsh border clubs, Scottish or Irish or British.
I wonder do many Irish 'republican/nationalist' Arsenal supporters revile the whole poppy thing but yet don the club jersey regularly. How many clubs supported widely have a British military heritage that is conveniently airbrushed out, but similar would not happen if there was some Irish connection to their founding for example? Football origins had a triadic intertwined relationship of military, monarchy, and church - mainly Anglican (social, political, and cultural identities in other terms) so to cherry pick aspects of clubs' various heritage is a folly imo. especially when used to express some aspect of contemporary identity. Much easier to stick with the Irishman that saved Barcelona!. For much of the 1970s GSTQ and Abide with me, were drowned out by the crowd at FA Cup Finals such was the disconnect between fans and national identity. Started to shift again post Falklands War, and now almost all the ceremonial bits to the game are military rather than civilian in nature. A bit random above but some football fans almost rabid support and hatred for rival clubs can be filled with irony or just be baffling! (not suggesting it has happened here, just a general thing when considering some of the Irish support of British clubs mainly).
There's also a President in America who thinks he won an election he didn't ;) Americans are the worst for this type of 'fluid' identity tbh. You meet one who tells you "Hey - I'm Irish !", before revealing that they think their great granny was from Cork or somewhere a couple of hundred years ago.
America and Australia are 90+% immigrant nations. Almost everyone there came from somewhere else, so all have alternative heritages (and most multiple-alternative heritages). But there is a difference between where you're actually, legally and factually from and where you may choose to identify with.