LoI in Europe 2024

[Calcio Jack]

Are you seriously suggesting that I went looking for the brick that hit my friend, lobbed over a police cordon in to a section of away supporters being walked by police to the tube station. That we were looking to spend hours in Hillingdon ED because C&WM A+E was closed due to being at capacity cause of the amount of other incidents in the vicinity of the ground. That the tube doesnt stop for about 3 or as many as needed stations where Chelsea thugs congregate to intercept travelling fans heading in toward the city to safely get to intercity services north. That I went looking for cups of p1ss thrown from home sections of the crowd, paper bags of faecal matter being lobbed in on fans another time. The subsequent high number of security and policing which was heavy handed to watch and experience, family groups geting seperated and zero help or concern for the distress in that as their hands were already full. The quickly getting out of the way of mounted police charging to back up colleagues as thugs used sidestreets to ambush indiscriminately with pre prestashed bottles etc. The random and admitidely wider English football fan no surrender bull**** and vitriolic IRA taunts upon hearing an accent, generalised anti Irish sentiment. Multiple incidents experienced across a number of games. Maybe you sat up among the posh home seats and not in with commoners in the away end - Dundalk treat away fans like royalty by comparison. Maybe you travel in to games? Not dealing with the organised disturbances and disruption for residents in the hinterland. I too have been to high profile/high risk games abroad and across the UK (Im pretty of dismissive of what is seen as high risk in LoI), in little fear, with positive experiences, well policed, as I have alluded too above.

I dont tend to be an overreactive type flipping out over minor stuff from England to foot.ie, by all mean correct me if im deluding myself on this. I happy for you that you have such happy experiences traveling to Stamford Bridge, but you can pish off with the going looking for it, did you go looking for trouble outside Irish nightclubs, of which I have had few and far between scary encounters just to give the other perspective. If in doubt surely its better to err on the side of caution - Dundalk fans in Warsaw were told not to wear colours around the city in the days and hours leadiug up to that CL Playoff game in 2016 due to the culture of groups of Legea fans. White t-shirt to ye know not 'go looking for trouble'. I dont know your affinity to Chelsea FC but you sound damn like the 'we'll give you trouble, nothing to see see here guv' attitude thats not untypical. I'm far from a fan of the Donal McEntyre redtop style Channel 5 exoposé 'dramas' by the wat tha may have spooked some back in the day. You call it scaremongering, Ill call it experience....looking for trouble and finding it - dya know what, that attitude of yours really is classic Chelsea thuggery apologist!

Dear God , what an over the top combination of mansplaining and gas lighting ….

[ger121]

Well “mansplaining” is certainly not a word I’d ever have on a virtual foot.ie bingo card.

[mypost]

Rovers Fixtures, starting in October

v Nicosia (h)
v Larne (a)
v TNS (h)
v Vienna (a)
v Borac (h)
v Chelsea (a)

[sbgawa]

If we could nick something in the first match we should be targeting 7 points after 3 games. All going well which is a big ask

[legendz]

If we could nick something in the first match we should be targeting 7 points after 3 games. All going well which is a big ask

Big ask but yeah, that'll be a great start. The last home game then for 10 points! Hard to gauge with the new format but 10 points might be see a club finish around 12th to 18th. 9th to 16th are seeded for knockout playoff, should Shamrock Rovers dare to dream of getting to the Round of 16!

[BonnieShels]

These things are happening a lot, it must just be spur of the moment, Gavin Cummiskey in Irish Times last week mentioning the chance of Pats making the group stage, made reference to it was only done only '3 times' previously by Irish Clubs, Rovers x 2 and Dundalk under SK in 2016, maybe his thinking was SK could do it a second time to make it 4 Irish clubs in total when it would have been 5, as it was also done in 2020 which he failed to mention.

Amazing how these things get past Editors, plus there were some really good games in that 2020 group stage, Dundalk losing 4-3 away to Rapid Vienna was probably the highlight, should really have got a draw there, and possibly a momentous win if McCarey wasn't in goals, also scored twice v Arsenal, but end of the day it was still 6 defeats in the group.

TBF, nobody remembers 2020.

[ger121]

Conference League ELO Sims give Rovers a good chance of getting to PO Round. I did seen another graph that had 7 & 6 points giving a team a reasonable chance of making a play-off.

[pineapple stu]

Slightly surprised it's so low tbh.

That said, lose at home to APOEL (who are a good team, albeit in a bit of a slump lately) and at to Larne (possible...) and it's likely all over before it gets started. So it is a thin line alright.

Fifth seeds Panathanaikos expected to do quite well I see!

[nigel-harps1954]

I do think Rovers would need to get an experienced goalkeeper in before the league phase kicks off, but at this stage it doesn't look likely they'll be adding anyone.

[Nesta99]

Dear God , what an over the top combination of mansplaining and gas lighting ….

Mansplaining and gaslighting? I do apologise for not consdiering your to your sensitive inner lady parts CJ!

[Calcio Jack]

Mansplaining and gaslighting? I do apologise for not consdiering your to your sensitive inner lady parts CJ!

As per usual QED….

[2 Year Contract]

Interesting that 4 of the 6 fixtures are post LOI season. I had assumed they’d be similar timings to the last time rovers reached the competition in 2022 with most being during the season. With that in mind, the league really could’ve still been possible for them had they not dropped 5 points in the last 2 games

[Calcio Jack]

Interesting that 4 of the 6 fixtures are post LOI season. I had assumed they’d be similar timings to the last time rovers reached the competition in 2022 with most being during the season. With that in mind, the league really could’ve still been possible for them had they not dropped 5 points in the last 2 games

Totally agree especially when you consider it’s 7 points dropped from last 3 games…. Hopefully we’ll manage to secure a European spot ….. also has anyone heard when the result of our cup appeal will be made public ?

[pateen]

Rovers Fixtures, starting in October

v Nicosia (h)
v Larne (a)
v TNS (h)
v Vienna (a)
v Borac (h)
v Chelsea (a)

Any dates MP

[pineapple stu]

They're up on the wiki page - last game is 19 December

[ger121]

They're up on the wiki page - last game is 19 December

Pre-Christmas in London. Sounds like it could be a Xmas Movie. “No Love Actually!”

[pineapple stu]

UCD's pot in the Youth League draw tomorrow morning -

1) NK Maribor (SVN)
2) FC 2 Korriku (KOS)
3) UCD AFC (IRL)
4) FC Progrès Niederkorn (LUX)
5) Havnar Bóltfelag - HB (FRO)
6) Stjarnan (ISL)
7) FK Bylis (ALB)
8) Lincoln Red Imps FC (GIB)

They've actually marked Maribor as Slovakian, which is a strange mistake. And they have us in as UCD AFC, though the club seem to be going with UCD FC lately for some reason. Kudos to UEFA for that!

Maribor the only club seeded higher than us - and I suspect they've a proper academy in place. But really I know nothing at all about any of those.

[Acornvilla]

UCD's pot in the Youth League draw tomorrow morning -

1) NK Maribor (SVN)
2) FC 2 Korriku (KOS)
3) UCD AFC (IRL)
4) FC Progrès Niederkorn (LUX)
5) Havnar Bóltfelag - HB (FRO)
6) Stjarnan (ISL)
7) FK Bylis (ALB)
8) Lincoln Red Imps FC (GIB)

They've actually marked Maribor as Slovakian, which is a strange mistake. And they have us in as UCD AFC, though the club seem to be going with UCD FC lately for some reason. Kudos to UEFA for that!

Maribor the only club seeded higher than us - and I suspect they've a proper academy in place. But really I know nothing at all about any of those.

My vague assumptions would be that Maribor and Stjarnan would have decent academies, and you'd probably have a decent shot against anyone, especially any team from the microstates.

[pineapple stu]

Stjarnan it is. First leg at home.

The draws for rounds 2 and 3 being made shortly as well, just in case.

[pineapple stu]

Winners to play the winners of Bylis/Korriku (Albania/Kosovo). That's quite winnable for whichever teams get there - the only tie involving two first round winners.