Who can win the league ?

**blutil** · 24/04/2004, 2:32 PM

With the first round of games nearly completed whats everyones opinions of who CAN win the league or have the champions already be named (the blues)

this is how the table stands at the mo,

shock horror only one dublin team in the top 3

Shels - champions
Waterford - might not fade away ?
Drogheda - dito
Rovers - looking better
Bohs - looking worse
Cork city - looking at themselves
Derry - personally havent seen enuf of em
St. Pats - dito
Longford - hard to tell
Dublin C - cant see past relegation

**pineapple stu** · 24/04/2004, 11:17 PM

Agree with you on Shels - they seem the only team with consistency at the moment.

Waterford may fade away, but they'll last longer than last season. Drogheda will fade away once they get an injury/suspension or two in defence. Doolin's teams seem to be build around a strong defence, negative play and hope to snatch a goal. If they start conceding, they'll be in trouble.

Rovers and Bohs are the two surprises of the league, for the exact opposite reasons. I can see Bohs recovering like last year, but some of Rovers' victories have been fairly impressive. Both could well be in the running for Europe at the end of the season.

Longford should pick up as the season goes on, and should be mid-table at best. Cork, Derry and Pat's appear to have very poor teams this year and I really can't see them challenging. But it would appear that they'll all survive another year as I reckon Dublin City's win over Bohs was a blip, and that they haven't done enough in what's nearly the first quarter of the season to show that they can match the lower teams, especially with a four-point gap already built up.

Final table -
Shels
Bohs
Waterford
Rovers
Longford
Cork
Drogheda
Pat's
Derry
Dublin City

**Coltron** · 25/04/2004, 2:26 PM

You're way off with the Drogs. Seventh place will be better by us I'll tell you here and now. We have good sized squad and there is a nice balance to it-how many teams can say that. Our defence is one of the best in the league and if we get an injury or suspension it will be tough but we have decent cover. Further up the field we have quality with the likes of Myler, Reilly and Quinnless. Our team is still in the gelling process and we have not played our best football yet this season, with the first round of games almost over we sit in third and have gone away to Shels, Bohs and Cork and have put in more than respectable performances. I also think we will finish ahead of Waterford this year and your third place prediction could look embarassing come the end of the season.
Fifth anyway for us.

**WindmillWarrior** · 25/04/2004, 5:35 PM

Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Doolin's teams seem to be build around a strong defence, negative play and hope to snatch a goal. ty

Not true young student. We have taken the game to every team we have played so far, perhaps with the exception of the Corkies friday night (I wasn't at the game so can't really comment).

**patsh** · 25/04/2004, 6:18 PM

Originally Posted by WindmillWarrior

Not true young student. We have taken the game to every team we have played so far, perhaps with the exception of the Corkies friday night (I wasn't at the game so can't really comment).

Well I can't say how you played in any other game, but Drogs didn't even try to attack the other night, never mind try to score.....

**pineapple stu** · 25/04/2004, 7:33 PM

Drogs fans, please bear in mind that I am extremely biased against your manager, having seen his "style" of play first hand for three years! His nose for a signing isn't great either, given that he's signed Mark Rooney twice!

Drogheda still don't impress me (going on what I've heard, obviously), and I'd be surprised to see them challenging by the end of the season.