Republic of Ireland V Northern Ireland - Tuesday, 24th May 2011 - Carling Nations Cup

**tricky_colour** · 24/05/2011, 8:59 PM

they had a offside goal.

**Philly** · 24/05/2011, 9:00 PM

Very good performance from Ireland, but it's tough to really draw many conclusions considering how poor Northern Ireland were tonight.

Encouraging to see Cox get off to a good start seeing as Stokes has managed to mess things up for the foreseeable future. I also think Ward can cement his place at LB, and Delaney looked very composed and passed well. Keane was as hungry as ever too.

Felt bad for the NI fans that made the trip, hopefully they will get some sort of encouragement from their final game v. Wales.

**DannyInvincible** · 24/05/2011, 9:06 PM

Horribly one-sided mismatch this evening. Very comprehensively-controlled second-half. What were the final possession statistics? Did Forde even touch the ball with his hands? McShane looked like the ginger Pel� at one point towards the end. Felt bad for Robbie to be substituted as I reckon, had he stayed on, he might have bagged another few and maybe even broken the 60 mark.

**geysir** · 24/05/2011, 9:07 PM

Our possession stats were Barcaesque.

**DannyInvincible** · 24/05/2011, 9:08 PM

Has Foley had much experience playing in the middle? He looked pretty comfortable there.

**backstothewall** · 24/05/2011, 9:15 PM

Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

Has Foley had much experience playing in the middle? He looked pretty comfortable there.

I would have looked decent in there tonight. Can't judge him on that. Maybe 30 minutes v Scotland to see if he can play there at any sort of standard

**TrapAPony** · 24/05/2011, 9:25 PM

Could easily have been 8-0 with Andrews and Hunt hitting the post and Blayney making a great save from Robbie Keane. I guess we can't be too greedy though. Encouraging performances from Ward & Cox and now Keane is just one goal off Bobby Charlton's English record of 49. Even McShane looked like Maradona towards the end. Good night all round but the important one is obviously Macedonia.

**Charlie Darwin** · 24/05/2011, 9:29 PM

Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

Has Foley had much experience playing in the middle? He looked pretty comfortable there.

He played perhaps a dozen games there for Wolves in the middle of the season. He was particularly dominant in the win over Liverpool at Anfield, if I remember correctly. Not sure if he's played there at Championship.

Today's game suited him because we controlled the ball and he had little to do defensively. It's hard to tell how he'd do in Macedonia where he'll be expected to do a defensive shift, though his quick passing and accuracy would be a nice asset.

**Sullivinho** · 24/05/2011, 9:30 PM

Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

Felt bad for Robbie to be substituted as I reckon, had he stayed on, he might have bagged another few and maybe even broken the 60 mark.

Saw him on SSN there making reference to 'the English record'. Bobby Charlton scored 49 so he's gunning for that. I reckon he'll spontaneously combust whilst celebrating his 50th and all we'll have to remember Robbie is a patch of burnt grass and the acrid smell of barbequed Dub.

**Paddy Garcia** · 24/05/2011, 9:33 PM

Terrible sportsmanship from us - we should have lent them some players at half time to make a game of it.

Anyway I guess we tried to even things up with McShane & Keogh.

**EastTerracer** · 24/05/2011, 9:35 PM

Originally Posted by ArdeeBhoy

Banner confiscated, after a wee bit of 'bother' with stewards, from the 'away' end saying 'FAI;Stop Poaching our players'

More like their goose is cooked....

It was actually quite a humorous banner and in full it read....

"FAI leave our players alone. Keep Gibson"

No need for the stewards to try to remove the banner but this the same FAI who removed any critical banners (e.g. Delaney Out) in Croke Park not too long ago.

**EastTerracer** · 24/05/2011, 9:41 PM

Originally Posted by Sullivinho

Saw him on SSN there making reference to 'the English record'. Bobby Charlton scored 49 so he's gunning for that. I reckon he'll spontaneously combust whilst celebrating his 50th and all we'll have to remember Robbie is a patch of burnt grass and the acrid smell of barbequed Dub.

He did equal Gary Lineker's international total of 48 goals tonight. It really is a fantastic record and I think Robbie will be justifiably proud when he has more international goals than any British player has been able to achieve. Thierry Henry's 51 international goals would be a nice number to beat as well.

53 goals would put Robbie in the top 10 international goalscorers of all time along with Puskas, Pele and Gerd Muller. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_int...ers_by_country

**SwanVsDalton** · 24/05/2011, 9:48 PM

Originally Posted by Paddy Garcia

Terrible sportsmanship from us - we should have lent them some players at half time to make a game of it.

We're takers not givers.

**DannyInvincible** · 24/05/2011, 9:49 PM

Originally Posted by EastTerracer

He did equal Gary Lineker's international total of 48 goals tonight. It really is a fantastic record and I think Robbie will be justifiably proud when he has more international goals than any British player has been able to achieve. Thierry Henry's 51 international goals would be a nice number to beat as well.

53 goals would put Robbie in the top 10 international goalscorers of all time along with Puskas, Pele and Gerd Muller. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_int...ers_by_country

He's already more prolific than Henry. It's a fantastic record. Great player for us over the years.

**tricky_colour** · 24/05/2011, 9:50 PM

Originally Posted by awec

Any chance you lot could poach Nigel Worthington from us too?

Were not that desperate.

**boovidge** · 24/05/2011, 9:52 PM

Apparently the yellow provincial Ulster flag was flying from Aviva instead of the NI flag. Bit cheeky.

**Sullivinho** · 24/05/2011, 9:56 PM

Originally Posted by EastTerracer

53 goals would put Robbie in the top 10 international goalscorers of all time along with Puskas, Pele and Gerd Muller. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_int...ers_by_country

He'll make 53 without a doubt. We've a game against Andorra and a home fixture vs Armenia left in this campaign alone. That will be an astounding achievement. I s'pose we better enjoy what's left of him because we ain't gonna see another of his ilk in our lifetimes anyway.

**Serb** · 24/05/2011, 9:57 PM

Originally Posted by EastTerracer

53 goals would put Robbie in the top 10 international goalscorers of all time along with Puskas, Pele and Gerd Muller. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_int...ers_by_country

That's not quite correct. That list is the top scorers for each country, so a max of one person for each country is on that list. For example: S�ndor Kocsis has 75 international goals for Hungary, but he doesn't make the list because Puskas has more than him for Hungary. The list you want is the list of association football players with 50 or more international goals. Robbie Keane would require 17 more international goals to be in the top 10 international goal scorers of all time.

**CraftyToePoke** · 24/05/2011, 9:58 PM

Originally Posted by EastTerracer

He did equal Gary Lineker's international total of 48 goals tonight. It really is a fantastic record and I think Robbie will be justifiably proud when he has more international goals than any British player has been able to achieve. Thierry Henry's 51 international goals would be a nice number to beat as well.

53 goals would put Robbie in the top 10 international goalscorers of all time along with Puskas, Pele and Gerd Muller. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_int...ers_by_country

Batistuta on 56 a possibile target, with Gerd Muller a little further up the road on 68.