1-1 Sporting Fingal

[oldrover]

Agree with most of this assessment.Hopefully team will gel together after afew matches. Reasonably good start to season. Support very good .

[rovers100%]

well i for one am heading for physio on my neck cos every time i seen rovers play a ball it was 40ft up in the air !!! i thought we were poor and thats being kind. doyle contrinuted absolutely nothing. davoren was caught out with the balls over him the whole game. the two in the centreof midfield must be laughing at getting a contract because ya forget they are on the pitch at times. mccabe made very little impact. amond was quiet but made 2 chances for himself and finished one perfectly. blinkhorn puts in a serious shift every time as does keane and peers. whelan was average at best.
poor donninger had his tracksuit on and off 40 times. cook seems very reluctant to take ryan or ventre off and it puzzles me why !!!
donninger seemed to be as confused, as he ran straight off the pitch and down the tunnel when the whistle was blown. fair enough teams will struggle against fingal but from the 2 games i have seen there is no improvement on last year and cook remains to be oblivious to the fact that ryan and ventre together are not good enough.
cook is a good manager but he is making the same mistakes this year as last year with the midfield and again he is too late making changes in games. we remain unbeaten but the standard of football is poor. its all hoofing up to blinkhorn, where is the beautiful football of 2 years ago gone ???

[avvenalaf]

cook is a good manager but he is making the same mistakes this year as last year with the midfield and again he is too late making changes in games. we remain unbeaten but the standard of football is poor. its all hoofing up to blinkhorn, where is the beautiful football of 2 years ago gone ???

So, if Cook is making the same mistakes as last year - one of which cost us the FAI Cup Final - where do you get the idea that he is a good manager?.

[rovers100%]

he had us playing some of the best football in years 2 seasons ago and has got us to europe and to the fai cup fina,l but the league is so poor that if he learned from some of his mistakes we would finish 3rd no problem as fingal showed me no signs that they are any better than us tonight. even shams didnt look great. with ryan and ventre in the middle we will not improve as a team. they were poor last year and between them lack composure, drive and ability

[sligorover]

with ryan and ventre in the middle we will not improve as a team. they were poor last year and between them lack composure, drive and ability

Actually between them they have that in abundance, its individually that they are lacking. I think Ryan has looked very good so far this season(wasn't at tonights game so don't know about that one), meanwhile Danny does most of the dirty work, and does it quite well. I can see why Cook would play them together for tough games like tonights and last weeks.

I'd like to see Doninger from the start next week, just to get a good idea of what hes like.

[rovers100%]

against both shams and fingal both opponent teams have an age on the ball. ryan has improved i will agree but he is still not top class. he can pick a pass this year but he is too slow and lacks drive and wont tackle. ventre's positioning is awful and when he does tackle its diving in with 2 feet. he is commited beyong belief and i like the lad but come on is he really top drawer material ??? he cant pass beyond 5 yards.we need someone who when recieves the ball will hold it up and slow down the play and settle the team down. if ya seen tonight it was awful. every time we got the ball it was hoofing it away as fast as it the player could. we have no true leader on the pitch imo. opponent teams seem to walk the ball to our penalty area totally unapposed as our midfield chase shadows.

[red bellied]

You couldnt really blame any of the players tonight because the tactics or the lack of them were the major factor. Forty yard scud missiles bombed up to Blinkys head, no wonder he looks p issed. The major factor was they didnt get on the ball enough due to aimless booting. Improved second half concentrated on playing the wings after getting back in after the goal.

[und2015]

I think it is a bit early to be making any assumptions on how Cook has or has not improved. We are only 5.5% into the season; there is still 95.5% left to play. I have no problem with expressing your opinion, but I think we should all be patient.

[Lamper.sffc]

Happy enough with a point. Fingal are a decent team and will beat a lot of teams out in Santry this year. We were poor in the 1st half and were lucky enough to go in level at the break. Ventre and Ryan struggled to get to grips with the 3 man Fingal midfield. The 2 new full backs started off shakey enough, but improved in the 2nd half.

O'Neill turned Keane inside for their goal and took it really well. Was glad that Amond got on the scoresheet. It will improve his confidence, after missing a similar chance in the 1st half. Our goal must have been the only mistake, by the big lad Paisley for Fingal, as he dominated Blinkhorn throughout. We played much better after scoring without creating a lot.

For all Blinkhorn's work up front, he doesn't provide a goal threat. We could do with another option up front, preferably someone with a bit of pace. McCabe gave the ball away a lot on the right wing. Dillon looked promising when he came on, even if he too gave away the ball in bad positions a couple of times.

A win against Galway next week, following these 2 draws, would represent a decent start to me.

I have to say thats a fair opinion on the game.

Fair play lads. Yous never stopped singing and your away support was a credit to your club. Till the next time

[bennocelt]

A decent game, I thought the two teams canceled each other out really - good Fingal Mid and attack thwarted by the rock of Sligos central defence, a draw was a fair result. Good crowd up from Sligo and was nice to see another packed stand. I think Sligo play good football, and considering they have played two tough teams and havent lost, the season should look good for ye

[red arrow]

in my opinion we have made a decent start to the season.remember we have a lot of young players & it will take time to gell togeather & build confidence. if we can beat galway it will really get us moving in the right direction. we need a big crowd next sat night (lke shams game) to get behind the team.

[rovers100%]

i for one sincerly hope against galway the team realises we can easily beat them if we play the ball on the ground. the tactics of hoofing the ball up to blinkhorn tells me they have no confidence playing it through the midfield. we have a team easily capable of 3rd spot if they play football the right way.

[Shedzer]

Was the attendance 1267 as it says on rte.ie find that hard to believe wasn't at the game but thought fingal had not alot of fans.

[rovers100%]

they must be counting the stewards !!!!

[showgies]

Post match reaction

http://sportspeak.eu/2010/03/13/spor...atch-reaction/

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

Way too much long balls up to Blinkhorn for the first 50 minutes. I wouldn't mind if he was winning them the whole time but 90% of the time the fingal defenders were just clearing them. The first time we got the ball on the ground and had a couple of passes was when we got the goal. After that we were just one pass away from getting an undeserved winner. A few times a quick pass just missed someone running through. Ventre offered nothing at all. Ryan at least played a few decent passes but their midfield had way too much room in the first half. At least it got sorted in the second half.

From comparing the 2 teams from the cup final one team has improved a lot and it's not us. Still thought Amond worked very hard and deserved his goal. Thought Doyle did very little and I would have taken him off rather then McCabe. Defended well even if Davoren looked in trouble with the diagonal ball for most of the game.

Bring on Seanie

[sligoman]

Draw definitely the fairest result.

O'Grady has to start next week, should never have been dropped in the first place, but it wouldn't surprise me to see him on the bench again as it seems Ventre has to play every week. 3 points should be guaranteed next week, anything less is not good enough.

[rovers100%]

we all know it wont happen but what does that say about cook as a manager. last season it was the same problem !!!! no midfield....... this year again he continues with ryan who albeit has improved and picks 4-6 great passes a game but offers very little else, and ventre who will add a bit of bite but gives away far too many fouls and his positioning is atrocious. the game passes him by most days.he looked better at centre back last year to me. its hard to be critical of him when he gives his all but his all is not that much technically.
cook is reluctant to make substitutions as was seen by getting a bemused donninger to put his tracksuit on and off 40 times.
i know im being very critical as only 2 games gone but so far im seeing the same mistakes as last year and we all remember how depressing that was at times. the hardest part is when we get the ball down we all know we can play better football than the current champions.
its frustrating seeing us make the same mistakes this year and it confuses me how cook is blind to the fact. he done very little shouting last nite to the players and i feel he may well be too buddy buddy with a lot of them. thats the only conclusion i can come to with him continued picking of ryan and ventre. remember ryan was not even getting a contract this year in pre season and now he is first choice

[bingoballs]

we all know it wont happen but what does that say about cook as a manager. last season it was the same problem !!!! no midfield....... this year again he continues with ryan who albeit has improved and picks 4-6 great passes a game but offers very little else, and ventre who will add a bit of bite but gives away far too many fouls and his positioning is atrocious. the game passes him by most days.he looked better at centre back last year to me. its hard to be critical of him when he gives his all but his all is not that much technically.
cook is reluctant to make substitutions as was seen by getting a bemused donninger to put his tracksuit on and off 40 times.
i know im being very critical as only 2 games gone but so far im seeing the same mistakes as last year and we all remember how depressing that was at times. the hardest part is when we get the ball down we all know we can play better football than the current champions.
its frustrating seeing us make the same mistakes this year and it confuses me how cook is blind to the fact. he done very little shouting last nite to the players and i feel he may well be too buddy buddy with a lot of them. thats the only conclusion i can come to with him continued picking of ryan and ventre. remember ryan was not even getting a contract this year in pre season and now he is first choice

Totally agree. It seems that Cook starts Ventre to stop the other team playing, which obviously isn't working, as opposed to focusing on how we can hurt them. Midfield is where we are having problems and there is an inability to link play from our back 4 to the wingers and strikers. Blinkhorn has a good touch and there is no need to bombard him with long balls. We need to get the ball down and do what we are best at, playing good football. Maybe Cook should show some more faith in the ability he has in the squad. At least Ventre will have to be dropped after 3 games time. (and I have nothing against Ventre for what its worth, he is a sound lad with a great attitude but he is no match winner)

[avvenalaf]

(and I have nothing against Ventre for what its worth, he is a sound lad with a great attitude but he is no match winner)

Without breaking sweat, i could name 24 lads in Sligo who are sound, with great attitudes but are not match winners. Now why are we paying Danny Ventre?.