Who will win the 1st division

**Martinho II** · 18/07/2009, 4:44 PM

Originally Posted by D15-Red

That was an important win but we are still only 4 ahead of second place. We need to keep it up......nerves were jangling in the last 15mins but i thought it was a great game to watch. Ref was poor as is the norm.

On a side note I thought the chant:

"Shelbourne do football teams...Fingal do wheelie-bins"

was very witty. the simple ones are always the best!

I read in one of the papers during the week the bohs fans had a very witty chant towards red bull salzburg during the week..

it went on the lines " you're just a **** vodka mixer!"

**boris** · 18/07/2009, 8:45 PM

as previously said, after last night its shel's league to throw away this year. good game with plenty of niggle. could have been so different had the penalty gone in and maybe a red card for deleney. not saying it should have been as it would have ruined a good game, but i wonder if thats what shels fans are giving out about the ref for

seriously shels players wanted it way more, often going in and winning possesion they never should have won. too many of our players not committed. if that doesnt change soon another year in the first division will be out lot. thought the crowd would be bigger from both sides with so much riding on the game. as for the chanting remember....

"tolka park is falling down" still rings true!!!

**OneForTheFuture** · 18/07/2009, 10:38 PM

[/QUOTE]thought the crowd would be bigger from both sides with so much riding on the game. as for the chanting remember....

"tolka park is falling down" still rings true!!![/QUOTE]

Couldn't hear that surprisingly enough.........the both of you should speak up in future so we can admire your originality when it comes to terrace chants..... it's almost as original as that old peanut from Station road last seaon:

"Dermot Keeley is a h......ual, he has aids and can't get rid of it"

WTF!

**stann** · 18/07/2009, 11:08 PM

Originally Posted by D15-Red

and can't get rid of it"

This bit shouldn't be funny but it's tea>>nose>>keyboard here.

So far wrong it's almost endearing.

**Poor Student** · 19/07/2009, 9:32 AM

I'd be tempted to say it's Shels' title to throw away but there is still a lot of football to be played in this season's title race. They clearly are favourites and you'd feel with their experience at this level and last season's drama they'll be spurred on to keep on top, however they're still only similar in ability to their other title contenders and could potentially drop a lot of points. Unfortunately UCD would need the consitency of our first third of the season to catch the and I can't see that coming back. It's hard to know what to make of Fingal, the talent exists there to go on a long winning/undefeated streak at any time but they just don't seem up to it. If Waterford win today they're best posed to challenge Shels.

**higgins** · 19/07/2009, 1:42 PM

Can't believe that people think Shels are going to walk the league now with half the season still to go

All it will take is a defeat to UCD, Watrford or Fingal and it's all to play for again.
Too much football left to play to get excited yet.

Remember Dundalk last year!!

I've missed a lot of games this year but from the few I did see we're not exactly playing well. Lots of wins in the first half of the season came by good luck alone from what I can tell.

Give it another 10 games and see where we are.

**CSFShels** · 19/07/2009, 3:24 PM

Originally we weren't playing well, but were still winning games, but came unstuck against the 2 good footballing sides in the division. Now we are playing well, like alot of people predicted we would start to do, and we've beaten everyone so far in this series, and it'd be surprising if we didn't end up coming out of the 2nd series with a 100% record now, Athlone, Harps, Longford and Kildare, just don't hold the same level of fear as our recent fixtures against Limerick, UCD and Fingal did.

As was said before, anything can still happen, but with new signings coming in to make the team even stronger, I'd have to rule out Fingal catching us, because we'd have to drop more points in the last 16 games of the season, than we did in the first, with Waterford, UCD, and Fingal only left to play once more. Essentially we could lose all 3 games against those, win the rest, Fingal could win every single game left this season, and we'd be champions.

UCD are a tricky 1 to predict, they're closer to us than Fingal, but its hard to predict them putting a really long run of wins together, long enough to make the comeback, and win this league. They'll probably have to beat all 3 of the other big 4 in the division in the last series, and I can't see any of the 4 doing that in the business end, and not to mention, they still have Waterford to play in this series of games. I'd give UCD a better chance of catching us than Fingal, but still pretty unlikely.

Waterford have to be the biggest threat, but then alot will depend on how they do in this match they're playing at the moment, nil all at present, a draw would put them in an even worse position pointswise than UCD. They've only 1 win from games against the big 4 this year, against 4 for Shels, and 2 for UCD and Fingal. They still have UCD to play in this series and you could imagine both sides dropping points in this one. They've signed some good players in the window and are in with a real chance, but I can see them coming unstuck against Shels, Fingal and UCD.

**pineapple stu** · 19/07/2009, 5:29 PM

How many points clear were Shels last year?

On us, I think we've turned a mini-corner. We'd been struggling for a few games, but since Finn was sent off against Shels, we've been playing much better. We were missing our keeper, a centre half (the find of the season for us), a centre mid (our captain and best player) and a centre forward (our top scorer) against Wexford, but still ground out a nice win against a reasonably good side who'd already beaten us in Belfield. Wexford were also a physical (but fair) side, but we coped much better against it than other teams recently, which was a good sign too.

We do need to start scoring a few more goals though.

**Schumi** · 19/07/2009, 5:41 PM

Originally Posted by pineapple stu

How many points clear were Shels last year?

They couldn't blow it two years in a row though.

**pineapple stu** · 19/07/2009, 5:43 PM

I like your jinxing.

**Schumi** · 19/07/2009, 5:44 PM

Ssh. Don't tip them off.

**Sam_Heggy** · 19/07/2009, 5:46 PM

Originally Posted by CSFShels

and we've beaten everyone so far in this series, and it'd be surprising if we didn't end up coming out of the 2nd series with a 100% record now, Athlone, Harps, Longford and Kildare, just don't hold the same level of fear as our recent fixtures against Limerick, UCD and Fingal did. .

Harps are a much better side of late and will cause ye problems, I just hope for your sake that Keely doesn't take other sides as lighlty.
We are 6 league games unbeaten now having played UCD and Fingal during that run.

**GalwayRed** · 19/07/2009, 6:01 PM

Originally Posted by pineapple stu

How many points clear were Shels last year?

We were never really clear at any stage last year. I think after we beat Dundalk in Oriel we had a good run where we got ahead of them for a couple of games. At that time we might have got up to a 3 point lead (5 tops) Straight after the mid season break though we forgot how to play football and spent the rest of the season chasing them. We caught them late in the season but never got more then a point or two ahead of them at that stage.

**pineapple stu** · 19/07/2009, 6:05 PM

Thought youz were seven points clear at one stage?

**GalwayRed** · 19/07/2009, 6:08 PM

Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Thought youz were seven points clear at one stage?

No we were never that far clear. That dosent sound right.

**GlasnevinRed** · 19/07/2009, 6:17 PM

Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Thought youz were seven points clear at one stage?

We were definitely 7 (or more) behind at one stage but never that far ahead.

**pineapple stu** · 19/07/2009, 6:25 PM

Just done some rough calculations off soccerbot, and it seems yez went nine points behind after losing in Oriel in September; biggest gap I see for Shels is three at the end of June.

**OneForTheFuture** · 19/07/2009, 6:29 PM

I do think we were nearer 10 ahead with dundalk having 2 games in hand, and that was after us beating them in Oriel " the home of football".

**GalwayRed** · 19/07/2009, 6:33 PM

Originally Posted by D15-Red

I do think we were nearer 10 ahead with dundalk having 2 games in hand, and that was after us beating them in Oriel " the home of football".

I think we only narrowed the gap to 2 points behind them after beating them at oriel but pineapple stus estimate of a 3 point lead being our highest sounds a lot closer to the mark then being ten clear with 2 games extra played.