Georgia V Ireland - Saturday, 6th September 2008 - World Cup 2010 Q - Mainz, Germany

[Blue Man]

Boy I am not looking forward to reading anything on this board if we get beaten that's for sure .
Bottom line an away win againist Georgia is a very good start , 3 points in the bag and at the top of the table .

NEXT PLEASE .

Agree 100%. What does be with the negativity sometimes? What was the aim at the start of the match? 3 points. What is the objective of the campaign? To qualify for a World Cup. How do you get to a World Cup? By winning games.

Nowhere did it say Trap had to play beautiful football. He's there to do a job, so far he has done it. We're still unbeaten under him and have maximum points. To say that you dont trust him is ridiculous. I dont know about others, but I'd prefer to qualify for South Africa by winning games at any cost, no matter how muck we play.

[George2605]

Sorry I'm a bit late guys, but let me congratulate you on the deserved win. I don't want to quote my own posts, but whoever can be bothered, can check the "Georgia profile" thread here to see my assessment of our goalkeepers...well, this is perhaps the key position in a football team, so if you've got someone like Loria playing there, then you can't really expect much, I suppose...and in fairness, it's not as if anyone else in our team played up to their standards, apart from the goalscorer Kenia, of course.

The Irish team played a lot better than when I last saw them, but they were far from outstanding, even compared to the Scotland team that we totally outplayed a year ago, for example, so naturally it's a very disappointing start for us. This really was a game we had to get something out from, and in this regard, special thanks must go (apart from the 'keeper) to our federation, for virtually handing all venue advantage to Ireland, to save themselves some travel money and inconvenience. They really have the talent to do things against the best interests of the team and the fans.

Well, I don't even know if I should bother watching the Italy game on Wednesday, but in any case good luck to you guys, you'll probably need it against Montenegro, who like I predicted are a tough team. See you in February, and I hope the game will be at Croke Park (I'm not sure when your new Lansdowne Rd will be finished), as it's a stadium I always wanted to visit.

[cheifo]

Given was hardly tested the whole game.He will proably have a lot more to do
on Wednesday(if fit?) and will be worth points to us in these qualifiers.

I was happy with the leadership our more experienced players gave us, something totally lacking on the pitch for some reason under Staunton.
The team had that sense of purpose about it.

IMO Robbie also played well making intelligent runs, turning their defenders, and making and forcing two experienced defenders(Kaladze and the lad from Blackburn) into errors.

[irishultra]

Sorry I'm a bit late guys, but let me congratulate you on the deserved win. I don't want to quote my own posts, but whoever can be bothered, can check the "Georgia profile" thread here to see my assessment of our goalkeepers...well, this is perhaps the key position in a football team, so if you've got someone like Loria playing there, then you can't really expect much, I suppose...and in fairness, it's not as if anyone else in our team played up to their standards, apart from the goalscorer Kenia, of course.

The Irish team played a lot better than when I last saw them, but they were far from outstanding, even compared to the Scotland team that we totally outplayed a year ago, for example, so naturally it's a very disappointing start for us. This really was a game we had to get something out from, and in this regard, special thanks must go (apart from the 'keeper) to our federation, for virtually handing all venue advantage to Ireland, to save themselves some travel money and inconvenience. They really have the talent to do things against the best interests of the team and the fans.

Well, I don't even know if I should bother watching the Italy game on Wednesday, but in any case good luck to you guys, you'll probably need it against Montenegro, who like I predicted are a tough team. See you in February, and I hope the game will be at Croke Park (I'm not sure when your new Lansdowne Rd will be finished), as it's a stadium I always wanted to visit.

In fairness we were far from our best. I'm not saying we're Argentina or anything but we were playing in second gear for a lot of the match.

[mypost]

That game completely slipped my mind, Thought we started in France, but that was a month later.

Was the game that forgettable?

First time to win an away game as first match since the 5-0 revenge win in Liechtenstein in 1996.

Agree with the OTT negative comments. We won the game, that's all we needed to do. Wasn't perfect, but we're not a world class team. How many people will criticise Italy for needing an injury time goal to beat the mighty Cyprus?? No, it will be put down to their "never say die" attitude.

[Reality Bites]

Ireland much improved but still a lot of questions to answer

I have no faith in them or the manager now. They have three points but a better team would have drawn or beaten us. Why is Liam Lawencre or Rory Delap not in the squad.

S Hunt is a headless chicken not up tp this level.
McGeady was good

Centre mod still a prob. A Reid should be in the team

Robbie Keane is totally over rated.

Trapatoni has many questions to answer

Still conceding late goals

They have improved though from Stan's chaotic era.

Celtic Tiger Muppet head!

[Reality Bites]

Reading alot of these post here suggest to me that alot of people have a misguided belief in how good the players are, the simple fact is they are average and the manager cannot makes silk purses out of sows ears and THERE ARE NO WHIPPING BOYS IN INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL ANYMORE, look around Europe ye of the expectant masses - Romania and France lost to what on paper are inferior teams, England struggled to get two passed Andorra, Italy poxed a win against Cyprus and Bulgaria drew at the death, Georgia have a pedigree manager and some good players to boot with this in mind everyone should be hailing this result as a huge stepping stone , to qualify for this tournament will probably be the greatest sporting achievement of an Irish Football team, I base this on the fact that the players available are infinitley inferior to bygone eras.

[Wolfie]

Content enough with that performance as we secured the all important 3 points.

There were periods of the game where we diced with inviting the Georgians back in. Put it this way - I wouldn't like to have see what was coming if Whelan hadn't have scored when he did.

I thought our first goal had a little touch of class to it. Vaguely reminiscent of Robbie Keane's goal against the Dutch in the qualifier in 2000.

Stephen Reid - take a bow. Thought he was composed and intelligent. On various occasions played the simple but effective ball. Involved in both goals and kept things moving.

Minor gripes overall - we're up and running (at least for a few days).

[Duggie]

job well done - end of story. look at some of the results around europe over the weekend. bit worried about the montenegro game, so hope we keep it tight and maybe nick the win which would be brilliant. but stephen hunt had a terrible game. gave the ball away every time and confirmed my suspicions that he is way over-rated. other than that im happy enough, stephen reid had a great game and whealan was solid. roll on wed !

[Billsthoughts]

Minor gripes overall - we're up and running (at least for a few days).

I dont think it will be the end of the world to lose out in Montenegro. I have a feeling that they will be one of these teams dont travel too well.

[Duggie]

I dont think it will be the end of the world to lose out in Montenegro. I have a feeling that they will be one of these teams dont travel too well.

eh yes it would - cant afford to lose. we have to at least get the draw.

[drummerboy]

I thought McGeady had a bad game. Gave the ball away on countless occasions. However he did work hard and he did provide a perfect cross for the first goal. And the much maligned O’Shea had a steady game. Other than that it was a good workmanlike performance, something we yearned for when Stan was in charge.

[Duggie]

only thing is we still seem to let games slip away from us when we score or go ahead. need to press on and close games a bit more.

[tetsujin1979]

The RTE panel's review of the game is online: http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2008/...lights_av.html

[OwlsFan]

Lads just woken up after a great night in Mainz, best Ireland trip in a long time and the singing last night was top notch.

Yep, the fans came across loud and clear on the TV. Great performance by them.

[gufct]

best crack at an Irish game in years .Were on the one road and molly malone is was like 88 all over again.

Two negatives the clown who went for the ref and those stupid tossers that were selling and buying the f**k england scarves they should be told where to go.

[bwagner]

3 points is everything , what was the story with that knacker that ran on the pitch ? and how much for the F England shirt as i want 2 lol

[Stuttgart88]

I'd like to think that on my part the tone was of objective criticism rather than negativity. If I was manager and trying to set the psychological tone I'd emphasise the positives but I think we're capable of playing better than we did and failure to do so may cost us on Wednesday. I don't think you can control a game from start to finish against anyone and even the smallest monnows can cause grief from corners etc. but I thought we faded out of the game on Saturday for longer than was healthy to be honest.

If we can get 3 ugly wins to start though I'll be thrilled as I've no doubt that as time passes we'll improve steadily under Trap, especially if we continue to be in contention. So far so good...

[Duggie]

I'd like to think that on my part the tone was of objective criticism rather than negativity. If I was manager and trying to set the psychological tone I'd emphasise the positives but I think we're capable of playing better than we did and failure to do so may cost us on Wednesday. I don't think you can control a game from start to finish against anyone and even the smallest monnows can cause grief from corners etc. but I thought we faded out of the game on Saturday for longer than was healthy to be honest.

If we can get 3 ugly wins to start though I'll be thrilled as I've no doubt that as time passes we'll improve steadily under Trap, especially if we continue to be in contention. So far so good...

agree - if we can stamp this out of our game i think we can qualify. this is the type of game under stan that we might have drawn. we did what we had to do, 3 points is all that matters.

[Voice of Reason]

McGeady's cross for the goal was great but he hit that first time.

After that he held it and got tackled every time.

That might have affected his confidence so he started misplacing passes etc.