Weekend Latest (4th/5th March)

**Spudulika** · 05/03/2011, 7:14 AM

Rovers were in all sorts of trouble until the sending off and I was surprised with how anonymous Ronan Finn was when it was 11 v 11. Give him room and he'll one-foot you out of the game, sit on him (as Quigley was doing) and he doesn't do it. Good reffing overall, 1st and 3rd goals from Rovers were very good and Twigg might have had more. I hope it's just the fact of Rovers not yet hitting their stride but I have an awful feeling that with O'Neill as manager they'll always be limited, he doesn't have the bottle to use the talent at his disposal. I thought Kearns was good in fits and starts, Hawkins made some good moves while Jason Byrne is not a lone striker as he proved last night. Good atmosphere in the ground though outside of Israel it's hard to meet a bunch of supporters with such a persecution complex, except Sligo of course :-)

According to him Karl Sheppard fainted yesterday afternoon and started puking rockets. Probably a case of food poisoning (I hope).

**Nah Nah Nah Nah** · 05/03/2011, 7:31 AM

Originally Posted by Ezeikial

Rovers were deserved winners in the end, as you would expect with an extra man advantage for nearly 70 minutes. Poor mistake from Cherrie and red card was correct call. Based on the first 20 minutes (maybe even the first 45 minutes) Dundalk were defo the better team and must rue the failure to convert the chances. Apart from Cherries red card, poor keeping from replacement Murphy for the 1st Rovers goal, and a moment of madness from Hawkins for the 2nd one.

Impressed with O'Neill, Twigg and Finn, although Gary McCabe carried on his diving from last season (he really deserves to be in the same side as Killian Brennan). For Dundalk good stuff from Jayo and Dean Bennett, while Kearns again showed glimses of why he is going to be a premier and international star.

Disappointed with the result, but encouraged by the performance especially when it was 11 v 11

The one he got booked for was a penalty

**roversforever** · 05/03/2011, 7:36 AM

Originally Posted by City till I Die

Disappointed we lost but happy with our second half performance. Lucky to go in level even though we missed a pen. Played well in the second half and hit by a sucker punch. Ah well, long way to go but we should have enough for this division

Easily good enough for premier division,should be mid table i reckon. From what i saw last night you may struggle for goals but not a bad derry side at all. Certainly expect them to be better than drogheda,bray,ucd and galway.

**Fivesilver** · 05/03/2011, 7:56 AM

"Sligo's title challenge off to good start"
Examiner's coverage less so. "Sure tis red, boy - twill do."

**Rasputin** · 05/03/2011, 8:29 AM

Yup Derry are easily good enough for the league.
Mid table I reckon, maybe a brief push for Europe.
Brilliant first 3 points, even sweeter in the alst few minutes.

**punkrocket** · 05/03/2011, 9:07 AM

The Alphabet - Biased against PINEAPPLE STU's club

**pineapple stu** · 05/03/2011, 9:09 AM

Originally Posted by CSFShels

Drogs-UCD was probably the worst game I've seen. Drogs have to be down there with the kind of quality of Mervue and Salthill and UCD are only marginally better. I predict a long season for both sides.

Bit harsh, I think, though not by much. Firstly, our 5-0 win over Mervue shows that we're not just marginally better than them (and given the type of season we appear to be in for, I'm going to get a lot of mileage out of that!!) General consensus (not just UCD fans) was that the first half was surprisingly ok, but the second was turgid.

After we scored, Drogheda's heads seemed to drop immediately, and we could easily have had a second - can't be a good sign for them. A lot of our season will rest on how well we can cope defensively when we're under the cosh - will we hold out for a 0-0 or sneak a 1-0, or will we lose 2-0?

For now, given we've already beaten Drogheda and Galway this season, and Bohs will implode soon enough, it's already all about building for next season.

**Copa Mundial** · 05/03/2011, 11:11 AM

Originally Posted by Nah Nah Nah Nah

The one he got booked for was a penalty

He seemed to initiate the contact ie. he played the defenders leg

**Ezeikial** · 05/03/2011, 11:26 AM

Originally Posted by dfx-

I thought Jayo was appalling after scoring the penalty where he basically switched off and didn't bother. Pity he missed the penalty that really mattered

Is that simply a piece of Anti-Jayo bias?

Jason Byrne had a fine game and almost every attack went through him when Dundalk had Rovers on the rack - which was for nearly all of the first half.

He won the penalty and converted it, as he continues up the alltime goalscorers charts

He may well have tired as the game progressed and he was on front on his own for 70 minutes....but no effort from him?....you must really be kidding yourself

**bluewhitearmy** · 05/03/2011, 11:26 AM

Originally Posted by Sam_Heggy

What an event and action packed game in Finn Park.
2 Red Cards, the worst referee EVER, Pat Scully being his usual ars€hole self, 4 goals, great atmosphere and my throat is wrecked.

Limerick were far better side in 1st half but we were more clinical, 1st Division beware, Kevin McHugh is in absolutely superb shape. He will terrorize defences this season.
Second half Harps were the better side playing some lovely ball.
Mark Forker was sent off after he clearly won the ball, now, unfortunately his momentum carried him into Sheehan and injured the lad but it was never even a foul never mind a red.
Harps also had a fantastic chance where McHugh was cleaned out of it, the ball broke to Tommy Bonner one on one with Ryan surely 3-1. nope, the ref called it back and only booked the defender. He didn't blow the whistle until Tommy was on the edge of the Limerick box.
Stephen "spits at the scumbag" O'Flynn then gets a red card for head-butting Packie Mailey.
Limericks 2nd goal was also bizarre, Tommy Bonner and O'Leary went in for a 50-50 header, a header which Tommy won before they clashed heads. The ball was with our right back Doherty when the ref blew up to allow for treatment.
The re-start was a contested drop ball which Limerick got the break and scored.
Harps created chances but in the end the general opinion was that we were robbed. We should have been 3-1 up with 11 players, yet ended up 2-2 with 10.

New season, and probably the worst referee performance of the season already.

Complete bull it was an awful tackle i hope he gets whats comng to him during the season.

**Dodge** · 05/03/2011, 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by Ezeikial

He won the penalty and converted it, as he continues up the alltime goalscorers charts

As a matter of interest would anyone have that?

**osarusan** · 05/03/2011, 11:39 AM

Originally Posted by Dodge

As a matter of interest would anyone have that?

It was in the Star magazine yesterday.

Bradley on top with 232 (I think)
Byrne has....164 now? Maybe 2 or 3 players between them.

**Sam_Heggy** · 05/03/2011, 11:45 AM

Originally Posted by bluewhitearmy

Complete bull it was an awful tackle i hope he gets whats comng to him during the season.

Wind your neck in, it was a 50-50 tackle, Forker won the ball, most Limerick fans at the game said exactly the same thing.

**bluewhitearmy** · 05/03/2011, 11:54 AM

Originally Posted by Sam_Heggy

Wind your neck in, it was a 50-50 tackle, Forker won the ball, most Limerick fans at the game said exactly the same thing.

I was on a bus with Limerick fans and in pub with em after it and anyone i talked to and when i seen it myself agreed it was a terrible challenge so thats more bull.

Awful challenge and if you are going to defend a tackle like that i hope ye have to see it happen to one of yours.

**Mr A** · 05/03/2011, 12:08 PM

Wut? Several people on that bus said it looked 50-50! That's certainly how it looked from where I was.

**bluewhitearmy** · 05/03/2011, 12:13 PM

Originally Posted by Mr A

Wut? Several people on that bus said it looked 50-50! That's certainly how it looked from where I was.

Must been a different bus then me then cos i know what i heard. And was talking to the lads that were on teh bus again this morning and they are still disgusted by it..

No way am i going to agree it was 50-50 and no way ye will agree it want so no point in getting into it really.

Edit: Just on Steve getting sent off found it very strange that the linesman didnt put up his flag first and was walking away until the Harps management and subs started shouting at him he then walked back up to the half way and raised his flag . Seemed to be by his advice Steve was sent off why not raise the flag straight away if he seen it.

**osarusan** · 05/03/2011, 12:27 PM

Originally Posted by Mr A

Wut? Several people on that bus said it looked 50-50! That's certainly how it looked from where I was.

We agreed at the time it was 50-50. As I said to you at the time, I couldn't actually see the tackle as the dugout was in the way. I could actually hear him get the ball though. Forker clearly threw himself in hard, so the big question for me is whether he went in with studs showing or not. And I couldn't see.

**Lim till i die** · 05/03/2011, 12:31 PM

On the Forker tackle I was in a part of the terrace with five or six other lads where you couldn't actually see the players legs in that part of the pitch as they were obscured by the wall/dugout and my immediate reaction was "Meh" because it wasn't like Forker had steamed in from fifteen yards away to do him and Gary's first touch prior to the tackle was loose. But I was talking to gspain after the game and he had a clear view and reckoned twas a disgusting tackle studs showing foot up over the ball definite red card and tbh I'm going to go with him, he's not exactly prone to hyperbole like some of us on here!!

The decision by the ref to call Harps back when they were clear through so he could book Paddy was hilarious but by that stage Harps could have been down 8-2. Having said that apart from the period between Harps going one up and Harps going 2-1 up when we played them off the park, we were a shambles.

Stevo was a clown getting sent off the way he did, if he had any brain he would have hit the deck aswell and have Mailey walking off with him.

Harps will be a tough nut to crack this year, looked very tough in the middle, Dave O'Leary got walked on.

With Gary Sheehan in the hospital and Stevo in football prison you can rule us out of contention. For the first time since the heady days of Noel O'Connor we're conceding defeat in a promotion race at the end of week one!

**nigel-harps1954** · 05/03/2011, 1:54 PM

Originally Posted by Lim till i die

On the Forker tackle I was in a part of the terrace with five or six other lads where you couldn't actually see the players legs in that part of the pitch as they were obscured by the wall/dugout and my immediate reaction was "Meh" because it wasn't like Forker had steamed in from fifteen yards away to do him and Gary's first touch prior to the tackle was loose. But I was talking to gspain after the game and he had a clear view and reckoned twas a disgusting tackle studs showing foot up over the ball definite red card and tbh I'm going to go with him, he's not exactly prone to hyperbole like some of us on here!!

The decision by the ref to call Harps back when they were clear through so he could book Paddy was hilarious but by that stage Harps could have been down 8-2. Having said that apart from the period between Harps going one up and Harps going 2-1 up when we played them off the park, we were a shambles.

Stevo was a clown getting sent off the way he did, if he had any brain he would have hit the deck aswell and have Mailey walking off with him.

Harps will be a tough nut to crack this year, looked very tough in the middle, Dave O'Leary got walked on.

With Gary Sheehan in the hospital and Stevo in football prison you can rule us out of contention. For the first time since the heady days of Noel O'Connor we're conceding defeat in a promotion race at the end of week one!

Apart from Forkers tackle this is a pretty honest assesment of the game. We most defintely could have been 8-2 down if it wasn't for Ciaran Gallagher in goal having a superb game.

Absolutely shocking decision by the ref to pull back play to book a player when Tommy Bonner was through one on one with Ryan. Only to send off Forker then, I had 100% clear view of the whole thing, do not care who disagrees with me but there was NO studs showing, hit the ball first easily, had the player not gone down injured (unfortunate as he did and I wish the lad the best of luck) the whole crowd I am sure would have called that as a wonderful tackle. Its only with the nature of the injury that of course people are going to call it a tough tackle. It was sheer momentum and nothing else that caused the injury, there was by no means any malicious intent.

O'Flynn can have no excuses for headbutting Mailey. Disgusting way to act from a fella who is nothing but a scumbag himself.

By no doubts with these 2 players out Limerick will be very weak for a few weeks at least.

On the plus side, an absolutely cracking game to watch and I'm sure the Limerick supporters will agree with this at least.

**sheao** · 05/03/2011, 3:18 PM

Delighted that we got off to a winning start . First half we played very well , some good attacking stuff from us. Danny was fantastic down the wing getting forward from his defensive position. 2nd half was only average but the main thing was we got all three points.