QuoteReally hoping Galway Utd hold onto Manning next season.
seen Ireland play against Malta and Switzerland. Not a bad side the performance against Switzerland was very good. Noe Baba is v solid at right back strong and athletic. Eoghan Stokes looks decent aswell although not sure if playing upfront on his own suits him. Manning was also good has a nice left foot. The left winger Coustran also looked to have good dribbling ability. Two centre mids alos looked solid. No real outstanding talents in the squad however but I guess it will up to how they progress in teh net few years.
Really hoping Galway Utd hold onto Manning next season.
Squad announced for two friendlies against Azerbaijan at the end of the month: http://www.fai.ie/ireland/news/dooli...eri-friendlies
Few players there on the fringes of first team action
Including the 4 LOI lads. Maybe 10 league starts between them. McGrath has played twice for Pats first teamOriginally Posted by tetsujin1979
54,321 sold - wws will never die - ***
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New blog if anyone's interested - http://loihistory.wordpress.com/
LOI section on balls.ie - http://balls.ie/league-of-ireland/
First time seeing that Billy Murphy mentioned. He was signed by Bristol City from Hereford United and broke into Hereford's first team towards the end of last season: http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Bristol...ail/story.html Don't think he's Irish-born. His twitter references a town called Leominster in Herefordshire.
under 17 squad for friendly http://www.extratime.ie/newsdesk/art...ia-friendlies/
maybe scully now committed. no ampudu. mcdermot is a new one in derry lad at spurs http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/firs...mas-mcdermott/ . ronan midfielder at wolves is a new one as well i think signed for 100,000 from rochdale in summer https://twitter.com/Comptonstars/sta...06440476921856
I thought things had gone dry on the 'poaching' front. Nice to see a new recruit. I wonder has it gone under the radar for the OWC boys.
ronan actually played for brits 17s this week they were hammered 7 zip by orangies http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/...75615/page-118
scully is also in england 16s squad for tournament this week http://www.thefa.com/news/england/de...adEygsHc7ef.99
Was at the U19 friendly earlier against Azernbaijan. Finished 6-0 to Ireland, but that's not a fair reflection on the game. It was 2-0 at half time and honestly it could have been 3-1 the other way. Ireland's defence were playing like they've never seen each other before and, on more than one occasion, a clearance rebounded back from an Irish player in the box to present the Azeri with another opportunity. Doherty in goals made a magnificent save from one of these rebounds when the defence got in each other's way trying to clear. The first half goals came from two of the few periods of good play from Ireland. Hutchinson scored the opener when the opposition failed to clear the ball adequately and he finished strongly from outside the box. The second was scored by McGrath late in the first half, the St Patrick's Athletic player fired home from the edge of the six yard area, through their keeper's legs. On another night it would have gone straight into his arms, but sometimes you get breaks like that.
The third was a remarkable finish from McGrath, early in the second half, and from outside the area, on the corner of the box, he scored an overhead kick into the far corner. I really do hope the FAI put this online because it was something to see. After this the opposition wilted, and rarely threatened the Irish goal for the rest of the game. Ryan Manning came off the bench to score twice in quick succession, with Jack Hallahan scoring the other goal.
With the elite group stages only a month away, I had hope some players would put their hands up for inclusion, but only Coustrain and Hutchinson stood out for the home side. Hallahan and Manning looked good when they came on, but that was about it. I won't make the second game this Friday, my stupid job is making me do stupid work, but I really hope there is an improvement in performance, if not the scoreline.
How did Mann & Feeny look Tets ?
Mann was solid, but nothing spectacular. Feeney came on with about 20 minutes to go, hard to judge at that stage because Azerbaijan had pretty much given up
goals and some highlights here
McGrath's second goal wasn't quite as spectacular as I thought, but still a great finish.
http://www.fai.ie/ireland/news/dooli...fa-elite-phase
Hopefully they can qualify. No byrne.No o hanlon cleary or whelan from the pool. O Hanlon went off injured on Monday so maybe that is issue or maybe not. Hard to believe these 4 lads would not add to the team. We have some midfield if byrne and o hanlon cant get in squad.
But they r qualifiers for a tournament u have to play the best eligible players unless they r with the senior side
I agree completely. Gives them the best chance of qualifying.
<EDIT>
hmmm, the U21 squad named last week has Byrne in it: http://www.fai.ie/ireland/news/king-...r-in-waterford
but no Cleary or O'Hanlon. Curiouser and curiouser.
Are they eligible for England???
Cleary, O'Hanlon and Byrne should be there. All are playing well for their clubs and if we make the u19 euros, then it could be the push that our players need at their clubs. I would query if O'Hanlon and Cleary ****ed off the set-up by playing for Liverpool rather than coming over for a friendly. I'd personally prefer if Byrne played for the u19s given that they have a decent chance of qualifying, rather than the u21 game.
Cleary is a very decent defender. He has a great ability to get goals which helps to catch the eye. I wouldn't rate the Liverpool defence too highly, so it's possible he could get a chance at some point. Personally, i think he will become a decent mid-lower premiership club player at best. Nothing wrong with that at all. His next loan move is vital.
O'Hanlon is easilly in the top 4 or 5 players in the Liverpool u21 team. Their u21 team is excellent so that sounds alot worse than it is - put it this way I would say there is maybe five or six players that could play at a very high level. O'Hanlon is a Rodgers type player, but I'm not sure he would do too well in League 1 or the lower realms of the Championship getting kicked around, which is the initial level that he might have to play at to make an impression - funny enough O'Hanlon and Welshman Harry Wilson might make a massive impression if they got into Pool's first team. Liverpool are stacked with excellent players going forward. The jury is out on whether he will become the latest victim of a player who could have become really top class if we had a proper development structure in place in this country.
Whelan is a very promising defender, but I can't say I've seen too much of him. The word from Anfield is that Conor Masterson is really making an impression - I know he's not going to play for the u19s this year but it's good to see nonetheless.
Byrne is different class. He has as much if not more technical ability as O'Hanlon, but he is uber confident. I had great faith in Conor Clifford becoming a top player and I got that badly wrong, but I have massive faith that Byrne will play at a very high level. Put it this way, I view him as every bit as good if not better
than Grealish. He may need a loan to a good Championship club or lower premiership club next season, but unlike O'Hanlon, I think he could hack the physcial intensity of the Championship.
Every so often a post comes along...
Great stuff. Excited about Byrne and O'Hanlon. It's such a difficult task predicting how these youngsters will go, particularly at the top tier clubs. John O'Shea and Darron Gibson have gone on to establish themselves as definite PL players. Others establish varying levels of careers at varying levels of the football pyramid (Flood, Partridge, Barrett, Stokes, Clifford and so on and so forth).
God some of the lads mentioned there had great talent. Bad luck through injuries, being at the wrong club at the wrong time or maybe not having the best attitude cost us a few great players down the years...the curse of the Irish youth star
Masterson might end up skipping the U19 side, he's featured for the U21's already this season: http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/late...1s-down-shrews
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