5th place play-off of sorts

So tomorrow night is a cup final of sorts for 5th place. While there would still be tones of work to do with a win it would still keep us in a very tasty mix till the end of the season.

But a loss would end all hopes of 5th as blues have a game in hand.

After our excellent performance in Monaghan I'm hoping we can put in the exact same work rate and get a draw at least while our home record against waterford could help us push on for the win

Really looking forward to the game but I doubt many others will bother to come out and watch which is very disappointing.

Have been thinking about formations a lot since Gillespie came back and maybe its time we went all Barcelona and played with 2 holding midfielders (Gillespie and Hylo) and let the other 3 midfielders (Brady, Salmo, Crawley) at it with aussie up front on his own, a player able to provide a match winning moment.

Then again Waterford will be going all out attack so maybe its not the game to look at that formation, anyway just a thought during what was a long week

deans wont be playin as hes still servin that 3 match suspension.. hes much missed for being the chief organiser in defence and in givin players rollickings and gee-ups.. I am goin to predict us to lose in the hope that we win..

While deanzeys orders are missed I have faith in floody and hope! Have hope!

Fantastic performance all round tonight every single player gave it 110% and they finally got their reward not without the traditional flancare nervous last 10 minutes but we got their with fantastic attacking play in the first and iron defending in the second.

Jeff flood man of the match for me he won every single ball superb! Rouse made a world class save and was excellent in his shot stopping and catching tonight but his kicking needs work but still a 7/10 performance for him.

Brady was stunning again while Crawley gave us a real threat as always, great to have 2 pacy and natural wingers.

Jean worked hard again and I'd love to see him score one as reward for that hard work.

As for Gillespie it was a sending off I'm afraid he stumbled over the ball about 4 times before finally been booked and to clap at that fat pr1ck of a ref was very silly for such an experienced player, he exploded at the lino then so FAIlure will probably give him an extended ban but really they should be banning ten tone tessies from refereeing what a joke of a so called ref. Wouldn't be a town game without a clown in black I suppose.

Anyway 5th place is ours again now and I absoutely can't wait for the funn harps game next week it's another massive test for us

Harps and salthill are the next 2 so 6 points there and that should be enough to get us 5th really given how all over the shop waterford are half the time they shall drop some points, town have a way of stealing defeat from the jaws of victory thou so I wont be counting any chickens. Good to get a win

Attendance of 101 nearly cried when I saw the attendance last night, heard people using the weather as an excuse but if it's not the weather it's the gaa and if it's Not the gaa it's the game on tv and bla bla bla, awful the way people desert their local team.

Hard to judge the performance, as Waterford didn't look at all interested first half. They must have got a deserved rollacking at half time, and it was more even.

I'm something of a Gillespie defender, as I think his contribution has a tendancy to be underrated (and it's not like his wages would be available for elsewhere), but he was stupid to get sent off. Whether the booking was harsh or not is debatable (probably was justified imo, at that stage of the game), but to get sent off like that was reynolds-esque. Ref wasn't great all night, but clapping a decision like that is a booking. Both bookings justified is my conclusion.

Surprised the attendance reached 3 figures, 101 looks a bit face saving to me. Having said that, was a terrible night and whilst we're looking for progress it was essentially a dead rubber. It's always going to be hard to get the numbers out in those circumstances. I'd be more bothered by the lack of numbers when we were still in with a shout earlier on, tbh.

Hopefully we can keep this squad together now and add a bit more quality in certain positions and that should see us pushing for a top 3-4 place and hopefully that will intice a few people into coming out.

Originally Posted by outspoken

Hopefully we can keep this squad together now and add a bit more quality in certain positions and that should see us pushing for a top 3-4 place and hopefully that will intice a few people into coming out.

well 3 good teams will be going up and 1 crap one coming down so we should be aiming top 3 at the very least next season if we keep the same squad as the quality of the 1st division will have lowered quite a lot.

great to get a win, it was getting very dis heartening heading out and seeing us being performing badly week in week out! We took both our goals well but still Waterford had plenty of chances in the second half to get somethin out of the game. Very impressed by Crawley since he has arrived, he always gives 100%, always closing down and likes to be involved in the play, he would definately be one of the first players we should keep along with Sammo.. Though Flood was very good last night, wasnt sure of him before but he really stepped up last night and won everything in the air.. Gillespie deserved to be sent off, was stupid what he did, I do think he adds to the team, but he hasnt played for us often enough between injuries and suspensions.. Hopefully we see out the season with a couple of results would be nice to hit the winter break as the best of the rest

I assume Mr. Gillespie will be off at seasons end?

delighted with the result. dowling took his header well from a super cross from gillespie it had goal written all over it.. I think that we have a serious chance of gettin fifth but it all depends on waterford's run-in. I am not sure who they are playin.. At least we have more points than last season.. I think we will beat Harps away as we have won every game there this season and Salthill at home. We wont get anythin from Cork.. but I am very happy with the way we are endin the season after our awful blip.. btw i agree with Macy that Gillespie deserved to be sent off for clappin at the ref.

Originally Posted by Acornvilla

I assume Mr. Gillespie will be off at seasons end?

Depends if anyone else wants him, I think we should sell him to some aisan club for a few millon haha they obbesed with former united players they'd pay anything for them

Originally Posted by outspoken

Depends if anyone else wants him, I think we should sell him to some aisan club for a few millon haha they obbesed with former united players they'd pay anything for them

well more does he need the money badly enough to keep playing was my thinking, and do we really want/need him, and will munnely still be happy to stump up the cash

Originally Posted by Acornvilla

well more does he need the money badly enough to keep playing was my thinking, and do we really want/need him, and will munnely still be happy to stump up the cash

If he's available on the same basis, imo, we'd be nuts not to keep him on.

Originally Posted by Macy

If he's available on the same basis, imo, we'd be nuts not to keep him on.

based on the quality of his corner for graham dowlings goal I would keep him.. people tend to forget that he was unlucky not to score earlier in the season in gortakeegan from his cracker of a freekick..theres also the PR aspect too..

Originally Posted by Martinho II

based on the quality of his corner for graham dowlings goal I would keep him.. people tend to forget that he was unlucky not to score earlier in the season in gortakeegan from his cracker of a freekick..theres also the PR aspect too..

I think any pr spin we may have received from signing him is long since gone to be honest, I do think he is a useful addition, but then again he hasnt played often enough between injury and suspension and i think the money could be spent better and pump the money into keeping Sammo and dotsy in particular rather than 'sponsoring' gillespie.. I dont think we can justify keeping him by two set pieces... If we were to sign him on squad wages (and i know that wont happen) by all means keep him

Originally Posted by Cabs88

I think any pr spin we may have received from signing him is long since gone to be honest, I do think he is a useful addition, but then again he hasnt played often enough between injury and suspension and i think the money could be spent better and pump the money into keeping Sammo and dotsy in particular rather than 'sponsoring' gillespie.. I dont think we can justify keeping him by two set pieces... If we were to sign him on squad
wages (and i know that wont happen) by all means keep him

fantastic post totally agree.

I saw an interview with Cathal Brady on extratime, he was saying TC has been chatting to him about next season and he says he's happy to stay on. Training is handy for him, he knows Tony well and he likes the club. So hopefully we'll keep most of those we want to keep. The manager's working on it anyway which is important. Gillespie has made a contribution when he's played but as has been said if the money has to be found to keep some of our best players then I'd rather do that.

If we don't keep Gillespie will his wages be available for the general squad budget? If no, we'd be better with him than without, imo.