Macedonia V Republic of Ireland - Saturday, 4th June 2011 - Euro 2012 Qualifier

[French Toasht]

Cox also scored a very good goal which was wrongly disallowed, hard to say he was anonymous.

In fairness the keeper and defenders heard the whistle and stopped playing a good 3 or 4 seconds before the ball hit the back of the net. Far from certain to say he would have scored that, had the ref allowed play to progress.

[geysir]

More like a split second.

[lionelhutz]

There were several times where we knocked the ball long - no pun intended - and it came straight back because Cox and Keane weren't able to hold it up. If Long had started, I've no doubt if he would have held the ball better high up the field and the team would have been able to push up as a unit relieving the pressure. I'll put it this way, if September comes around, Doyle is injured and the choice was between Cox and Long, who would you chose?

With regards Fahey/Andrews, I agree Andrews is more destructive and would be of more use against stronger opposition who would have the majority of possession. However, against Macedonia, if Fahey had started we wouldn't have to be as destructive as we would have kept the ball better than them IMO.

[SwanVsDalton]

As for Fahey/Andrews, Fahey definitely distributes the ball better than Andrews, but Keith is a much more destructive player and helps keep the shape of the team very well by being very disciplined. When you've got a back four of O'Dea, O'Shea, Kilbane and Kelly it was absolutely the correct decision to make to give them as much protection as you could in front of them to prevent Pandev and his mates running at the dodgy centre of defence. Not least after Fahey had failed to really impose his passing game in the Nations Cup game just before Macedonia.

Agree. Also I think people forget that Andrews is by far our most dynamic and athletic centre mid. He really does put himself about while keeping his discipline. And, when it comes to these crucial games in September, I'll be expecting him to reach for the Paris fire that saw him totally merc Diarra.

[Stuttgart88]

I don't think anyone can say Cox had a goal disallowed. What is fair to say is that he was denied a clear chance when put one-on-one with their keeper, with time to take a good touch. The keeper knew he was off, and I think Cox did too, but he was making sure. You'd look like some tool if you just gave up, and there was no whistle.

[pineapple stu]

More like a split second.

Definitely more than that. The defenders and keeper had all clearly stopped playing even as Cox lined up the shot, let alone by the time it hit the net. A great chance alright, but far from a definite goal.

[geysir]

I don't argue that at least the goalkeeper was half hearted after hearing the whistle and the defender had checked his own run.
But that all takes place in the blink of an eye.
4 or 5 seconds is an eternity.

[pineapple stu]

It was way longer than the split of an eye. No-one said it was or 5 seconds. It was blatantly obvious before the shot was taken that none of the defenders (incl the keeper) were going to make any effort blocking it.

[Stuttgart88]

Maybe it was a rub of the eye then.

[SwanVsDalton]

Macedonians launch protests against police brutality. Hmmm fortunate fans are well out of this one.

[paul_oshea]

I hate seeing phrases like this, United play badly and win and it's the sign of Champions, Ireland play shoite and get a result and it's because of dumb luck and we'll be found out and Trapattoni is useless and his starting XI is a joke and will someone for the love of God replace Kevin Kilbane and every single goal Robbie Keane scores should be discounted because the opposition were terrible and there was another player in a better position and we should appoint an Irish manager because he would understand the mentality of the players and so on ad nauseum

i really don't see why so many people agreed with this, but then again I generally don't agree with most on here but those that I go to the matches with. If and when we win a Euros/WC come back to me then and say I am wrong. But until we are in a position of "griding out results" like champions, and not getting the rub of the green like we are now, then many of those points made by others(and even you in ranting against them) still stand clear, fair and apt.

last campaign we didn't get the rub of the green/the luck like we are now, and never qualified for the world cup. Thats what Trap HAS to do this campaign or else he will be seen as little more than a steady hand.

[Stuttgart88]

Funny, there were many last campaign saying that all we got was the rub of the green.

There's no way Trap will qualify for the World Cup this campaign.

I do actually think we've got lucky at times, but no more than Russia or Slovakia have. Macedonia missed a penno to equalise against Russia, Russia's third was an even worse deflection than Robbie's, and so on...

Also, when you get a lucky break early on, it's not the same as saying that without that lucky break we wouldn't have scored at all. We scored early against Macedonia twice, and got lucky second goals twice. There was still an hour to go in each case. At that point we just did our usual "you have it, we don't need to score".

If we got a lucky break on 87 minutes I'd agree with you more. We've scored when we needed to in so many games under Trap you can't put it down to luck. We do what we have to do in the scoring stakes, regardless of how they come, but rarely any more.

[geysir]

No-one said it was or 5 seconds.

Did you mean to write - No-one said it was 4 or 5 seconds.?

I said eternity was 4 or 5 seconds.
Another said as much that Cox had 3 or 4 seconds after the whistle blew before he struck the ball.

Watch the match and use your stopwatch

[geysir]

I generally don't agree with most on here but those that I go to the matches with

Dogs of a feather lying down together.

[paul_oshea]

we have alwys scored early and reverted to type. of course it doesn't matter when you get lucky but we got lucky in that the usual quick reply didn't happen because a penalty was never given and another was missed. Against a big team like russia you can be sure that 1 would have been scored and most likely the other given too and also scored.

We were in general, very poor, but so were macedonia i put that down to severe pressure on them, like misplaced passes, individual errors, bad first touch because it was the first game in the new stadium and the crowd were really expectant. It was a different team than at home I felt, and a different one from what I saw of the Russia game.

[paul_oshea]

Dogs of a feather lying down together.

Maybe, but you find that when you are at a match you see a lot more of what goes on than when watching on T.V.

Equally the same can be said of all on here - but that was probably lost on you when you said, sitting on your pedestal .

[geysir]

Serious?
You're a soft target for an obvious wind up

[paul_oshea]

Me? Rarely serious. Unless someones tries to rob my manbag.

Or when sky rip me off just to watch one match....

[the bear]

We were in general, very poor, but so were macedonia i put that down to severe pressure on them, like misplaced passes, individual errors, bad first touch because it was the first game in the new stadium and the crowd were really expectant. It was a different team than at home I felt, and a different one from what I saw of the Russia game.

we went out to a tough away game in a hostile stadium with a threadbare defence and got the result. i think we did a good job, you can say the performance was poor but it was as good as was required, i think if more was required we would of been capable of upping it. the only thing that matters was the result and we went there and delivered

[paul_oshea]

They were hostile to their own fans. Listening to the game after being there and we were way louder throughout the game.

We got the result we required, with poor players, against poor players with a big dose of luck.