Shels Away Friday 19th:

**Jofspring** · 15/07/2013, 5:27 PM

Shels are having a little bit of a resurgence so it will be a tough enough game. Our record in Tolka isn't the worst though so that is a decent sign. Would be great to see a few new faces come in during the week for this game.

I'll go with Shels 1-2 Limerick.

**redron** · 19/07/2013, 9:17 AM

This will be a tricky one.

Shels will be full of confidence and will have no fear of us given their performances against Cork (won) and Drogheda (drew - could have beaten them) in their last two matches, the two teams immediately behind us in the table.

And in the match at Thomond Park, they showed they can defend when they put their minds to it.

But I reckon if we can play the game at a reasonably fast pace and make our decisions a little quicker than we sometimes do, then they won't be able to keep up.

**kingpin4** · 19/07/2013, 1:09 PM

I'm not too confident. I was hopeful there might be at least 1 or 2 new faces around the squad by now.
Shels will be confident and are a much better team than when they played in Thomond Park.
I'm going for a 1 all draw.

**bluewhitearmy** · 20/07/2013, 1:48 PM

It has gotten very annoying how little we do with the ball we could have it for ages and come nowhere near threatening anything. Way too much just tapping it round going nowhere with it.
Some poor shouts out of Taylor imo dropping Folan for Call for one, cant say why it was Folan and not Williams dropped if he was bringing Calla in. Another was bringing on Sheedy and leaving Gaffney on the bench Sheedy was never going to be any use with the lumping it into the box we were doing near the end Gaffney would have been better suited. I hate when he throws people like Browne earlier in the season and Calla lastnight up front near the end they get in the way more then they help.

We desperately need defenders the goals given away were very poor again. Im fine with just staying up this season i dont think we were ever going to be doing more then that but we need to be showing more then we are at the minute imo.

**Jofspring** · 20/07/2013, 1:58 PM

I'd take a few defenders to see out the rest of the season over any other position if signings are coming in.

**bluewhitearmy** · 20/07/2013, 2:09 PM

Originally Posted by Jofspring

I'd take a few defenders to see out the rest of the season over any other position if signings are coming in.

Definitely. 2 or 3 centre backs would be nice.

**da bishop** · 20/07/2013, 7:17 PM

despite the bright start this was poor stuff overall,in the end shels wanted it more and tbf to mcdonnel he made changes that had the desired effect.shels second goal worth going for alone cracking goal.wouldnt agree with folans ommission and while we had our usual spells of ball retention it was all a bit aimless.cannot understand whats happening with gaffney who is always a handfull for defenders.while staying up is fine,it looks like 8th or 9th imo,its hardly a realistic position given our budget and the playing personnel we have,we should be doing a lot better..then again on our 2nd half efforts last night maybe not.

**AlanOB** · 20/07/2013, 7:53 PM

I wasn't at the game but two things jumped out from the coverage online:

1. Dropping Folan - I pointed out the obvious need for a blocker after the Bray game, and called for Calla's return, but dropping Folan rather than Williams is just bizarre in the extreme.

2. We were exploited on the counter attack again. I look forward to seeing the two goals and being utterly unsurprised by how they happen. Teams know that we push both the full backs on to "provide the width". They also know that we play an ultra-slow, short game. They can just sit deep, narrow and compact, wait for a turnover, and pick us off in wide areas on the break. Without a proper covering centre back, that must have been even more of a doddle.

Getting tiresome now to be honest.

**bluewhitearmy** · 20/07/2013, 8:21 PM

Originally Posted by da bishop

despite the bright start this was poor stuff overall,in the end shels wanted it more and tbf to mcdonnel he made changes that had the desired effect.shels second goal worth going for alone cracking goal.wouldnt agree with folans ommission and while we had our usual spells of ball retention it was all a bit aimless.cannot understand whats happening with gaffney who is always a handfull for defenders.while staying up is fine,it looks like 8th or 9th imo,its hardly a realistic position given our budget and the playing personnel we have,we should be doing a lot better..then again on our 2nd half efforts last night maybe not.

I never get this, bar maybe Dundalk there is no-one ahead of us in the table that has a smaller budget then us and Dundalk is probably very close to being the same as ours if it is smaller. We are ahead of everyone we have a bigger budget then at the minute. And as for the playing personnel we have everyone above us has far better playing personnel then we have I cant see which of our players would get into any of Pats,Derry,Sligo,Dundalk,Shamrock Rovers teams. A lot of people seem to think just because people come from the UK they are on huge money and will be better then whats in Ireland when according to a lot of people it is actually far cheaper to get lads from the UK then it is to get some of the better LOI players.

**NeverFeltBetter** · 20/07/2013, 11:39 PM

A lot of people seem to think the club are operating on a level relative to Man City in the EPL. They aren't.

**Lim till i die** · 21/07/2013, 12:15 AM

Afair first goal was a horse over the top that calla and ryan made a mess of.

We had no shape to speak of by the time the second cringe worthy goal was blasted in from two yards.

**redron** · 22/07/2013, 10:33 PM

I see that Folan is suspended for our next match. Dropping him from the starting eleven makes total sense so.

**bluewhitearmy** · 22/07/2013, 10:47 PM

Originally Posted by redron

I see that Folan is suspended for our next match. Dropping him from the starting eleven makes total sense so.

Dont agree tbh dont think weakening our back line for what was a winnable match makes much sense . I know what you mean its to let Williams and Calla have a game together but one game is not going to make that big of a difference anyway.

We dont have a great squad so need to play all of our best players anytime we can imo.

**redron** · 23/07/2013, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by bluewhitearmy

Dont agree tbh dont think weakening our back line for what was a winnable match makes much sense . I know what you mean its to let Williams and Calla have a game together but one game is not going to make that big of a difference anyway.

We dont have a great squad so need to play all of our best players anytime we can imo.

Well, presumably Taylor felt that the starting eleven he put out was capable of winning the game anyway, so his decision to try out the alternative centre half partnership is justifiable. If we weren't so complacent in our play in the second half, I think we could have won it too or at the very least gotten a draw (given our lack of penetration up front).

Btw, I thought Shaun Kelly had a really good game.