Who will win the 1st division

[Lamper.sffc]

11 games gone. First phase done. We have all played each other once. Whats your opinion on the teams so far. I guess its quite obvious that the biggest surprise is the run UCD are on. Im extremely impressed with their form. Fair play to them. Waterford have been impressive also.
I guess the teams who need to do better are ourselves and shels although an argument could be made that the start both teams have made are decent but its just the brilliant form of UCD and Waterford that is keeping the favourites off the top.
Our form is up and down. Brilliant one week crap the next. While it seems shels are grinding out results without playing to well (for the full 90 anyway).
So i guess the question is are the favourites still the favourites and will it be a four horse race like it was last year.

[passinginterest]

It's obvious isn't it, Kildare County

Ok so maybe not. Fingal should still be strong enough, but they'll have to beat the sides around them, none of the top 4 will drop many points against the lower teams, so really it's a mini league between themselves. The thing that put's me off Fingal is the fact that they looked decidedly unfit and disintersted when they played Youths earlier in the season, I've since heard that players are not happy with training and others are just not bothered, they're just happy to take the money and go throught the motions. UCD, Waterford and Shels don't have as much quality, but they all have plenty of desire and none of them are getting fat off their wages. I have a feeling UCD will gradually slip away as the season goes on, as they don't have the experience or strenght in depth, Waterford are doing well and they have a manager in Henderson who has already shown he can win the division on a shoe string, I think they'll be there or there abouts all the way, but possibly just miss out on the playoff spot, I can see Fingal just doing enough to make the playoff and Shels winning the league by 5 or 6 points.

Hopefully the Youths can maintain fifth and not allow too big a gap to develop to the top 4, then look to challenge for promotion next season.

[Lamper.sffc]

It's obvious isn't it, Kildare County

Ok so maybe not. Fingal should still be strong enough, but they'll have to beat the sides around them, none of the top 4 will drop many points against the lower teams, so really it's a mini league between themselves. The thing that put's me off Fingal is the fact that they looked decidedly unfit and disintersted when they played Youths earlier in the season, I've since heard that players are not happy with training and others are just not bothered, they're just happy to take the money and go throught the motions. UCD, Waterford and Shels don't have as much quality, but they all have plenty of desire and none of them are getting fat off their wages. I have a feeling UCD will gradually slip away as the season goes on, as they don't have the experience or strenght in depth, Waterford are doing well and they have a manager in Henderson who has already shown he can win the division on a shoe string, I think they'll be there or there abouts all the way, but possibly just miss out on the playoff spot, I can see Fingal just doing enough to make the playoff and Shels winning the league by 5 or 6 points.

Hopefully the Youths can maintain fifth and not allow too big a gap to develop to the top 4, then look to challenge for promotion next season.

Yeah that was true. Things have improved gradually since then. The problem lately is the injury list. 5 or 6 first team players missing against athlone. Good to see your lads doing well. I should have given them a mention to be fair.

[Raheny Red]

I can see Fingal just doing enough to make the playoff and Shels winning the league by 5 or 6 points.

It was a good post up until this point. No chance that we will win the league. I'm not even confident of 3rd place.

[Angus]

Must say I have been very impressed at the standard - first time for me supporting UCD in Div 1 (relative newbie) and while clearly the Prem is a step up, it has been pleasantly surprising.

I have seen all our games against the other 4 and thought Fingal were not good, wlthough that was very early in the season, shels look tasty but were more interested in a scrap when we played them and WY and WU both looked very solid.

I backed us at 8/1 to win and would not switch....Having said that, if we lost Finn for a while....

[Battery Rover]

Having seen all the teams play this season by far the strongest team we have faced is Waterford and under Stephen Henderson I believe they will win the division.

I thought Fingal looked disinterested and one dimensional against us last week and didn't like a team bringing the game to them. For a team who have players on more per week then our entire team budget they were shocking which shows money and success don't necesarily go hand in hand.

UCD play good football but I would be worried if Finn was injured as most of the play goes through him.

Shels look like they are at nothing this season and will do well stay in the Top 4 from what I have seen of them.

We are in a rebuilding stage for the season but we are bringing in a few more players over the coming month and would expect us to climb to possibly fifth place if the signings planned come through.

[Raheny Red]

Having said that, if we lost Finn for a while....

Is there any chance of him being snapped up in the summer?

[Magicme]

For me the best team has been UCD. If they can sustain their top notch performances they will win it easily.

Surprise package for me has been the youths. They have played well against everyone by the looks of things and were not shockingly bad against us!

[KevB76]

Having seen everyone once now I'd have to go with Fingal to win, UCD a close second, Waterford some way behind and Shels a close fourth.

[LK37oldskool]

The best team we've played so far is Waterford by far.We're slowly improving after another terrible start to the season.This round of games is crucial for our season and with 4 of the top 5 to come to Limerick we could shake things up. A few new faces in the transfer window will make a huge difference to us.

[Monkfish]

Fingal/UCD for me.

[Lamper.sffc]

Having seen everyone once now I'd have to go with Fingal to win, UCD a close second, Waterford some way behind and Shels a close fourth.

Just for the record. Id just like to say again. I hate your keeper

[pineapple stu]

Is there any chance of him being snapped up in the summer?

Don't think so, but he'll more than likely be gone at the end of the season. Finishing college this year.

(He's in contract till the end of the season, so if he goes in the summer, we get a transfer fee and stick Greg Bolger in instead, which isn't too shabby an outcome).

My two cents, having seen all the teams (been to all our games bar Kildare at home, and caught the second half of Kildare v Shels on Saturday; that's obviously a limited enough exposure) -

Waterford - by far and away the best team technically that we've faced. Would be worried about their strength in depth though; they have 17 in their squad, and couldn't fill the bench against us as they were missing two players. A couple of injuries could really hurt them.
Wexford - did their homework against us and seem to be improving with time. probably not consistent enough to challenge for promotion, but fifth should be well attainable. Could decide the title though, as I think the obvious top four will drop more points against them than any other team.
Sporting Fungus - Awful against us; players didn't care, easy passes went astray, basic errors everywhere. Have the players though, and evidently got a root up the hole after our win. Should be unstoppable if they want it. It's not clear if they want it though.
Shels - Don't think they have the guile to go up. They play a very one-dimensional, physical, Dermot Keely-esque style of play. If Plan A fails, revert to Plan A sort of stuff. Should have scored twice as many against Kildare, but lax finishing let them down, and I think that'll cost them this season.
Limerick, Mervue and Athlone were reasonable enough teams; Limerick seem to be improving under Scully. Think they'll be next after Wexford. May take more points off the top four (Limerick and Mervue drew with Fingal already).
Monaghan, Harps and Longford were poor. Monaghan seem to have improved in recent weeks, but I'd be surprised if they troubled anyone in the top half too much.
Kildare, God bless them, looked like they knew the rules of the game, but had absolutely no idea about the tactics. Hard to see where they're going to more get points from. Hard to see how they drew against Harps.

I still don't know where we fit into all this. I've said all along that we're not good enough to go up, but we're visibly improving, and we were able to beat Athlone away with two different teams this month, which is good for strength in depth. And the longer we stay top, the more I have to consider a play off is a possibility. We're not converting as many of our chances as we could though, which could be a problem.

I'll go with -

Waterford
Fungus
UCD
Shels
Wexford
Limerick
Mervue
Athlone
Monaghan
Harps
Longford
Kildare

[adamd164]

I'd go with Waterford too having seen all of the top 4 apart from Shels this season.

Hendo is one cute old whore.

[Lamper.sffc]

I still don't know where we fit into all this. I've said all along that we're not good enough to go up, but we're visibly improving, and we were able to beat Athlone away with two different teams this month, which is good for strength in depth. And the longer we stay top, the more I have to consider a play off is a possibility. We're not converting as many of our chances as we could though, which could be a problem.

When yous lost to wexford i thought ah now this is when they will start to falter but yous didnt. Yous just carried on winning which is a great sign. The team didnt drop their heads which shows a good team spirit. The longer yous stay up there the more determined your team will become plus the confidence will rise also. Wasnt worried about yous before the season but Im certainly worried now.

[blue til i die]

UCD have impresses me the most so far, if they hold onto Finn, they could be in with a shot. With Kilduff up front, he'll score loads of goals. They seemed very organised.

Although Shels beat us, i didnt think too much of them. they scored in the last few minutes to beat us when we could have won. Madden does look very good up front.

Sporting Franchise still have superb quality even if people have doubted them. i still dont think they've clicked but i still expect them to challenge. scored in the last minute to equaliser against us.

Wexford seem to be getting better everyweek, limerick have a good manager in scully, and will get better.

I'll be pretty happy if we finish in the play-offs. My only concern with us is how small our squad is, we couldnt even fill the bench against UCD. If we get injuries we could be in trouble.

[DeNiro]

Think it's between Waterford and UCD. They both play the best football in the Division. Would expect Finn to stay until end of the season, but would expect him and others to move on then. Kilduff's goals have dried up a bit, so a return to form for him is key for UCD's overall challenge

[Theskinloyal]

I'd say Fingal will run away with it although UCD are playing great I'd say given their youth and inexpierence they'll have to settle for the play offs. Hopefully we'll be in the playoffs too but couldn't see us going up. I doubt Keely will have any/much money to spend during the summer and I assume we're going to lose Paddy Madden who's been our best player so far imho, he'd be impossible to replace. We've f all options up front.

[Ash]

If we can keep the concentration for the full 90 minutes we'll pick up a lot
more points in Round 2. For me, Waterford looked the best of the bunch so far.

[KildareFan]

Kildare, God bless them, looked like they knew the rules of the game, but had absolutely no idea about the tactics. Hard to see where they're going to more get points from. Hard to see how they drew against Harps.

The reason we drew against harps was becuase of the weather on the night.

Obviously we are the joke of the league and it's not hard to see why because we probably were on the road to becoming the worst side in League of Ireland history but I think there have been enough signs against Shels and Waterford to suggest that we are starting to turn the corner. I know that we have one very interesting signing who should make his debut at the weekend and we have a few more lined up for when the transfer window opens.

With our next 3 games coming against Harps and then two home games v athlone and longford, i think (hope) we'll be pick our first win soon.

As awful as we have been, we still aren't cut adrift at the bottom and I think that Somerville has shown that he is capable of getting us off the bottom of the league before the end of the season. Stupid mistakes are costing us dearly at the moment like 3 goalkeeping errors against shelbourne but somerville will cut that out