O 'Grady's audio is up too.Originally Posted by sligoman
Cheers will do.
Bit unfair that? I've been to some of European matchs in Anfield, Greece and in Ireland. Every game I've been at people were standing on steps, and standing in their seats. Just look at the Cop on European nights in Anfield.
Anyway, I can't wait for this today! So excited! Up the Rowvers!
he sound so dull and uninterested in it
Coleman for Ireland
just called up to club- all tickets are now gone - no money to be taken at gate
some people on here will be disappointed to hear that as it will have ruined their predictions. no names mentioned.......
roll on 7.00- see ye in mooneys
Just re: the betting interest.
290k now matched on Betfair, compared to average of 25k on all the other Euro games tonight, so there is definitely a keen interest.
95% of that money has either gone on laying or backing Sligo.
As ever with Betfair, its important to point out that for every penny that is backing Sligo, there's the exact amount of money opposing them
54,321 sold - wws will never die - ***
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New blog if anyone's interested - http://loihistory.wordpress.com/
LOI section on balls.ie - http://balls.ie/league-of-ireland/
Best of luck Rovers!
Can anyone tell me is the match live anywhere?Commentary will do
nil all so far we've been the better team , dont know how we havent scored
absolute rubbish - we should have hammered them
Feck our luck. Lets just hope the reserve keeper is ****e.
I will never understand the decision to let Alan Keane take a peno minutes after he scored a OG on what is one of the biggest nights of his football career, mind boggling stuff.
Possibly because he scored our last peno (only one who has I think) this season?
Did he score an OG a few minutes before he took that penalty?
This tie is not over.
We are capable of winning by two out there.
"Overwhelmed"
On that performance, not a hope.
Just mailed a friend my report, might as well paste it here rather than write a new one:
There's no way we should have lost that game, or even gone a goal down! We were better than them, no question. First half, we were first to every ball. The problem was that everything we tried was down the left, through Morrison. The guy is the epitome of the schoolyard showoff. He just won't pass, or if he does it's some hollywood ball that doesn't reach its target. Saying that, he did have one great cross towards the end of the first half, Boco connected with it but it came back off the bar. If that had gone in it would have been a different story.
2nd half, the Albanians tried to play a bit more. It was nothing we couldn't handle. They fired a warning when one of them fizzed a low cross right across the goal, but they had nobody in the area to connect with it. Their goal came when their left back ventured forward and no tackles came in, he kept going, found himself on the edge of the box and hit a cracking shot that beat Brush. He really should have been challenged, but credit to him for knowing what to do when he got up there. We pushed on then, and got hit on the break for their 2nd. Noctor came on at RB with Keane moving to CB, and he was skinned by their winger. He whipped in a nightmare low ball that Holmes (I think) could only divert into his own net. This goal was a sickener to concede.
We kept trying, of course. Got a pen when one of their defenders handled accidentally in the box. Keane stepped up and blasted against the bar. At that stage, it was obvious that it wasn't going to be our night. I thought it would end 2-0, but it turns out we hadn't used our get-out-of-jail card. Their goalie, after collecting a cross, elbowed Richie Ryan in the face. He was running back after the chance had gone. It was a blatant red and the ref showed it straight away. The goalie then wasted as much time as he could getting off the pitch, and they brought on their sub keeper. Raff took the penalty and scored, but we couldn't get another. There was one chance that fell to Boco, I think, but it just didn't sit right for him and he couldn't get a shot away. 5 mins of injury time, but we would've needed 50.
Their players were thrilled with the win, and their fans too. Reasonably large travelling support, probably more than I initially thought.
So, so unlucky but we played really well up until the first goal. Vllaznia were very unconvincing going forward in the first half and we should've scored atleast 1 header. What we lacked was the final ball, Morrison did everything right when he had the ball butg he couldnt deliver a dangerous cross. I hope we can bring in a big striker in time for the 2nd leg as our forwards are to small to get on the end of a good cross when theres a good few defenders in the box. Hopefully we can pull off a miracle in Albania and get a much wanted and needed 2nd round tie with Vienna.
A special word of congrats too all who worked thier arses off on getting the ground up to scratch and it looked really well. Can anyone tell me what the 2 tents behind the goal was ?
Coleman for Ireland
rov. v vllaznia
back from the game. initially i found it very difficult to face up to the fact that we had lost. their first goal looked good but the player was allowed to run 40 yds, nobody attempted to tackle him. their 2nd goal was poor defending again. i am not to despondent because we deserved to get back into the game although missing a penalty we scored a second. i still believe that we can score over there and if we have gavin back we can keep a clean sheet. if we can score one we will score 2. i firmly believe this. on the positive side of things it was great to see the colour and the two stands packed& the pitch looking immaculate. i know people have gone home dissapointed but if we can beat drogheda on sunday it can lift the lads for next thurs. all those who are travelling enjoy the trip and things ain't over yet. lets not be two critical off ourselves the showgrounds looked immence tonight and there are much better days ahead
It was embarassing and gutting to watch.
After 5 mins i sent one of the lads a text 'these are ****e' and nothing that happened over the next 85 changed that in my mind
I have rarely seen a game played at such a painfully slow pace. It was our job and the onus was on us as the home team to set the pace, as all home teams do, especially in Europe. We looked at them and looked at them, yet never picked it up and played into their strenghts.
They were so poor on the ball, couldnt put 2 paces together, their sole striker is **** and have nothing backing him up.
Had we full backs that liked getting forward we would have had more joy, there was never any need to have 4 sitting at the back, which became more apparent as the game went on.
You make your own luck in most cases, we werent qucik enough nor did we inject any pace into attacks. Too many high balls, mean Raf and Boco never got going from the off with any supply, no cutting edge in the middle.
Ryan was completely shown up, not on that level or near it. If he is there to pass the ball side to side, over 5 yards then he played well, if he is meant to be creative or inventive then forget about it. O'Grady usually gives you workrate, which every team needs, but tonight he didnt shine. It wasnt his kind of game, we had so much of the ball and did so little with it.
Ryans duty, to my knowledge is to add the spark to the attacks, not just spray a ball 5 -10 yards and pass the responsibility to Morrison.
I felt sorry for Morrison, things didnt always come off, but he kept going, put in some nice balss, some bad ones too mind you, but wanted the ball and was unlucky to not have a few assists as they are called (Boco hitting the bar)
Cash wasnt in the game, the less said about him the better.
Ventre doesnt know what to do when on the ball, his passing was so poor, while his heart is big, you cannot just overlook his passing.
Unfortunally Raf and Boco for many reasons didnt get or make the breaks.
As far as the goals are concerned, Holmes definately doesnt need telling that he could have stopped that first one from happening in the centre circle...O'Grady could touch the lad, who got by him and Holmes was soft as he avoided the issue, defence too far back and a great strike...
Second goal was terrible to give away. Keanes night was horrible for him id say.
And then, after saying it for 88 minutes, that all we needed to beat what are a seriously poor team was urgency, we up it, score and should have got a draw when Boco somehow missed that one.
Id still have hope as they are muck, id give no credit to them as a footballing team. We cant perform as badly again in my opinion, it wasn't what the fans deserved, and luck is a small part of it, but you make your own luck.
It was a game we could have won 3-0 and somehow lost 2-1
Last edited by Shedzer; 02/07/2009 at 9:26 PM.
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