has the dub city match been switched to sat?

**the 12 th man** · 07/07/2004, 7:35 AM

ive seen it listed for both thursday & saturday.anyone know for sure ?

**Longfordian** · 07/07/2004, 7:57 AM

Thursday. 100% sure of that.

**the 12 th man** · 07/07/2004, 8:08 AM

Originally Posted by Longfordian

Thursday. 100% sure of that.

thanks for that.
the missus thought she heard it on the radio for sat and the longford town
website has it for sat as well.just wanted to be sure

**Maz** · 08/07/2004, 2:38 PM

is there any one going that i could keep in contact with for a result! mayb pm me please!

**Pauro 76** · 08/07/2004, 8:34 PM

Originally Posted by Maz

is there any one going that i could keep in contact with for a result! mayb pm me please!

2-0 down with 10 mins left, what the hell...

**Pauro 76** · 08/07/2004, 8:44 PM

2-1 (Dean Fitzgerald 92nd minute) at the very least we broke the goal drought, but still.... obviously this is getting serious. All i can say, at least we've a break from the league for a week or so, but then again maybe thats a bad thing in our position. Lets not panic here, a good European result and confidence will soar.

**Maz** · 08/07/2004, 10:28 PM

agree about the goal deadlock.......but its ridiculous!payin strikers who dont score again another midfielder scores!!

**boots** · 09/07/2004, 5:27 AM

We re in trouble alright....
Suffering from a SEVERE lack of confidence at the moment. Dont want to be critical to any players in particular(cos that ll hardly do much for the confidence) but there was some howlers in general last night.

We were beaten by, what are at best a good first division team who rely soley on one player, Gary o Neill who is doing his best to keep them in the premier on his own this season.

Cant really blame matthews for this to be honest, havnt being the biggest fan of some of his decisions in the past but hes tried just about every combination of a starting 11(and more importantly strkers) at this stage and i would have no difficulty with the team last night. FFS how a defence containing 2 current Ireland u-21 internationals and 2 top class centre halves can concede 2 goals like last night is something beyond his control (and his belief aswell im sure).

One glaring problem last night was the glaring lack of class in the centre of our midfield. DC defended on the half way line(schoolboy style) untill they went ahead and we couldnt punish them. Alan murphy did get away once but eh missed.. We lacked the player to demand the ball from the back and play the telling pass foward which would have exposed the DC defence for the sham it was. Instead we turned it into a heroic defensive display by pumping long balls on top of them from the back and handing the no.4 the MOM award(which was deserved in fairness).

Sometimes i just come to a realisation that mabye we re just not good enough.. hopefully an extended(mabye 2nd round) run in the UEFA cup will change all that

**the 12 th man** · 09/07/2004, 7:39 AM

[QUOTE=boots]

Cant really blame matthews for this to be honest, havnt being the biggest fan of some of his decisions in the past but hes tried just about every combination of a starting 11(and more importantly strkers) at this stage/quote]

i hope this thread doesnt descend into a b*itch fest,

but i think boots has hit on a big part of the problem there.
there has been way too much chopping and changing of starting personell to allow any kind of rapport to build up between the various players.if a combination doesnt work the first week its tried then its just scrapped and another one takes its place.

there is obviously more to it than that.take last nights match for instance.
we should have had way too many "guns" for dub city.if you have a look at the individual team members on a man to man comparison.for a start dc had two players in the twilight of their careers (and fair play to them)in the midfield calling the shots.......thats madness and just should not happen -period.

matthews has only a few days to get it into the players heads that they can do it.they are a very talented team of players thast are missing that one vital ingredient.......confidence.

we have got to keep the tie alive in vaduz
come on da town !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**Macy** · 09/07/2004, 9:10 AM

Everyone's calling Central midfield, however thinking about it on the drive home, Alan Kirby has been shít all season and has created sod all chances. Coming to the conclusion if you're going to pin point an area where we've weakened it's that. Can't beat a man, and can't get a cross in. What options have we got there though?

Positive move pushing Prunty forward, but obviously a risk for the defensive unit, as last night showed.

Sean Francis is the only out and out goal scorer we've got, he just needs the right ball supplied. IMO Matthews must stick with the Francis Barrett combination of last year for 3 or 4 matches on the bounce.

For all Lavines nice touches, to me anyway, he still seems more interested in the easy free rather than the hard battle for the ball.

Hopefully a game of some kind will be arranged over the weekend - we need an easy game to build confidence, so even an underage side would do the job.

**max power** · 09/07/2004, 9:30 AM

do the fai have to approve a friendly ???? if so would they clear it at this late stage...

**De Town** · 09/07/2004, 10:21 AM

Originally Posted by Cop on

Macy reckons that Sean Francis is the only out & out goal scorer - how many league goals has he got all season ? Even Vinny's got a couple ?

How many matches has he started??? Sod all. if he doesnt get the chance to start how is he supposed score?

**max power** · 09/07/2004, 11:38 AM

that can be said for any of our strikers at the mo, i would have a better chance of winning the lotto than picking the correct team before its announced, every game there are changes....no settled first 11, maybe he doesn't want to upset anyone by leaving them on the bench, but thats the tough life of a soccer manager, our best 11 should be played when available.

baker for the right wing, played well when he came on last night

**Macy** · 09/07/2004, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by Cop on

Macy reckons that Sean Francis is the only out & out goal scorer - how many league goals has he got all season ? Even Vinny's got a couple ?

Yeah, he was only our top scorer last season

**Wiseguy** · 09/07/2004, 12:27 PM

IMO other than 2 or 3 players the Team has under performed big time.We have no leader to motivate players and grab the game by the scruff of the neck. The players being booed off is more a sign of frustration than anything else i think. Sometimes these things need to happen so the players know how the fans feel. It happens in every sport whether you like it or not. Matthews playing players out of position is wrong. Spud is a good full back but that's it. My team would be as follows
Digger
Spud, Barry, Maccer, Dillo
Kirbs, Deano, Vinny, Prunty
Lavine, Baker

Subs : Paiso, Francis, Barrett, Martin, Pip, Dempsey

IMO a team plays how it is instructed by it's manager and Matthews has to shoulder some of the blame at the moment.The fact that we don't have a league game for quite some time now is a god send. A good tough match in Ballybofey is needed with the right result and then thump the ****e out of Leeds with our confidence on the up for the return to the League. IMO thier isn't a team we can't beat when we play to our potential so C'MON THE TOWN.

**Macy** · 09/07/2004, 12:48 PM

I actually don't get the problem of Spud in midfield. Last night central midfield wasn't the problem, yet people were ranting about Spud being played out of position.

**Enda M** · 09/07/2004, 2:12 PM

the problem last night for our defence was that dc played 5 across midfield and the town didnt know how to deal with maybe that couuld be an example to us.if we are unable to dominate midfield pack it with 5.i mean seriously for all there huffing and puffing they were the only two shots they had on goal they had other chances but only two tshgots on goal.i agree matthews has to cop on if the supporters booing them off does not get him and the team to wake up i dont know what else will.btw as regrds kirby i have noticed that aswell where he runs and dribbles by about 3 or 4 players and is unable to bloody cross the ball when inside the box

**Macy** · 09/07/2004, 2:14 PM

Originally Posted by Cop on

Are we underperforming, or did we just "overperform" last season ?

Last season was a great achievement. Basic facts are that we have the second smallest playing budget in the division. Only Dublin City have a smaller one. So while on paper we have the best squad we've ever had, comparative to the other teams we're still going backwards. Don't know what the solution is, as I wonder how we afford what we're paying now given the gates we're getting... Only option I can see is the Drogs method of go full time, go bankrupt, new board, go full time, go bankrupt....

**the 12 th man** · 09/07/2004, 2:21 PM

thought brian mc govern had a nightmare
.he wasnt the same after that knock he took in the middle of the 1st half.
imho alan murphy is best at full back.
losing prunty so early as well wasnt a help either

**Martinho II** · 10/07/2004, 5:10 PM

thought alan murph had a reasonable game noticed that he was trying to encourage the players in the second half- where was the skipper?

kirbs should be dropped and Baker plays instead of him. Baker really had a stormer. Lavine doesnt like a battle and I think Shane Barrett is still not 100% esp when one on one with the goalie, he fell on his arse.

McGovern and Feruson were a disgrace enough said.

I heard from an unofficial source that Matthews got a promotion in his job and doesnt seem to have much time on his hands. He looks like a person with a lot of problems .

Also heard that the Town have not trained at Flancare this season. An absolute disgrace.

Think too much of the current squad have not a bulls notion on how to fight for the jersey -they are on way too much money for starters.

If I was Matthews, I would put a freeze on their wages until they start to prove their worth or the other option is to put some of them on the transfer list-put the fear of God into them.

The rant I had a few weeks ago seems to prove my point-the worst season for scoring goals in a league season since Mickey O connors term nearly six years ago.

They are a very hard team to watch- and maybe the best thing to happen to us is go down -because we cant sustain these wages anymore on such a low gate. I would be rather be solvent than bankrupt.

Tbh it is a battle for relegation from hereon im afraid to say! We definitely overachieved last year .

Another point with Matthews team is that it is a very long time since we came back from losing a game one minute to winning it against topflight oppostion.

I think the last time was under Stphen Kenny against Bray Wanderers in Flancare two years ago when from 0-2 down we won 3-2.

That is my big problem with Matthews-we NEVER COME BACK FROM BEING BEHIND IN THE LEAGUE!

Another worry is I had a look at the stats of how many points we got from the same amount of games over the last few seasons since we got promoted . This makes for very interesting reading!

After 20 Games:

2000/01 31
2001/02 26
2002/03 24
2003 27
2004 21

the stats tell its own season. I will tell you one thing that thank god there is no playoff spot this year.

end of rant