Absolutely huge game in terms of the next few weeks.
Cork will go ahead of us if they win and then we face Drogheda the following week who will be looking to pull closer to us. Could end up nervously looking over our shoulder for the last series.
Cork will believe they owe us one and our centre halves could struggle against Kavanagh & Kilduff.
I'm thinking a 1 - 1 draw. But hoping for a 3 - 2 win
Attendance should be up a bit too with Cork bringing a good few with them.
I think that we'll win (not comfortably, but we'll win) and put this sudden talk of a relegation battle to bed.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
It can be a frustrating thing, being a Limerick fan and living/working in Kildare, but I can actually go to this game! This being my first since UCD (a)...
I assume you can still park in LIT?
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
What a performance. I've only seen so many games this season, but bar the first 30 minutes against Bray (a) earlier in the year, I haven't seen Limerick play that well in a long time. I didn't see them play that well once in the FD last year. I haven't been to see them in a while, and listening to reports and the radio it sounded like Limerick were really struggling, but maybe that's all been leading up to tonight.
Ryan, a rock at the back, a great save to deny Cork a long range screamer in the first half, and then just very dependable under pressure. Williams and Folan kept their shape well for most of the game, limited Cork to potshots and distant crosses. Only got in a muddle once, and that allowed Cork in for the goal. That was disappointing, but other than that they were great. Kelly and Nzuzi were pushing down the flanks at every opportunity, supporting the attack. Nzuzi just bossed the left back position, especially in the second half, barely put a foot wrong.
Controlled the midfield, O'Leary and Gamble on top form, though seemed like O'Leary might have been carrying a knock by the conclusion. Lots of really effective triangle passing between the centre, the wings and the back, keeping possession really well, the sort of basic thing that Limerick have struggled with at times over the course of the season. Ryan and Folan were at this short kick-out game all night, which was annoying plenty of us in the terraces, but they never actually gave the ball away in a dangerous spot.
Gaffney maybe should have done a little bit better, but I think he's struggling in a team where he isn't clearly the stand-out player. Worked hard down the left, but wasn't able to make any real opportunities for himself. He did do great work to keep the ball in play in the lead up to Curran's header on to the post in the first half though. On the other side, thought Galbraith was a bit disappointing. Too many times he got the ball in space on the right, then just brought the ball into towards the centre, held, held, held it, then ended up passing it off backwards, or back towards the right, when he should be playing the through ball or taking on Murphy. The few times he did, he scorched him, but his crosses from the by-line were all pretty awful. Didn't seem too committed to chasing the ball down a few times either.
Curran was amazing tonight, dead on his feet at FT. He was everywhere, lone target man, attacking midfielder, helping out at the back, putting the work in. Total commitment. For his goal, took the ball down well from the air and then just curled it home deliciously. Well deserved, and my man of the match.
Kelly was great too though, and his role in the counter attack that led to the second was huge, steaming down the pitch and then piledriving the ball home when it came back to him. Love Taylor going mental in front of the fans!
Cork just weren't in large parts of the game, and failed to test our defence enough, save for that piledriver in the first and the late strike. Poor old Horgan on their left got an awful doing from our fans all throughout the second half, they never let up,and he just snapped near the end. No surprise to see the red produced, and the ref could have sent off at least one more Cork player, but I suppose the pile of yellows was an attempt to just calm things down. Ref was poor for the most part, blowing constantly for piddling little infringements, and I think Curran's deflected "goal" in the first should have stood, seemed too low to be a handball.
Jason Hughes was on for around 10 minutes, a few good touches, made himself useful.
You could see how important the result was at the end with the way the team and Taylor reacted. Five clear of Cork, really not that far off Shams, and I really hope we can put this talk of a relegation threat behind us now. This is the exact way Limerick should be playing, week in, week out, and if they can keep this up for the rest of the season, we'll be laughing all the way to the scary heights of 5th. Great atmosphere tonight, was a bit disappointed at the actual attendance, but c'est la vie.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
Yes, they were very good tonight. It's not been the only good performance though. Second half at home to Bohs and Dundalk were the highlights for me. Away to Sligo we were excellent and lost, even last week at home to Derry and lost, we were quite good. Haven't heard any of the radio commentary but I get the sense it has been overly harsh from some of the postings on here. Great win tonight, I agree the crowd was a little disappointing.
good performance,taylor tinkered a bit tonight with success tbf.held bradley in front of back four ,gave o leary and gamble more freedom to get foward ,put curran more wide with gaffeny up top.gaffeny obviously not match fit but made a huge difference.very impressed with curran again,his willingness to work hard for the team no matter what is to be admired and a brilliant goal to cap his performance.that goal came at a good time for us,while the team effort can not be questioned some individual performances were littered with mistakes..BUT..a very good 3pts.btw where was everbody?1248 is very disappointing.
Great performance and win, could have been more hitting crossbar andgoal disallowed for deliberate hand ball.... The lads really upped the tempo of the game lots of lovely football (not going backwards either) and players looking for the ball more. The players were wrecked at the full time whistle.
Switching from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3 last night was a qualified success. Taylor tried that shape earlier on in the season, but with Gamble as the anchorman. Here, Bradley was in that role and his superior distribution meant that we were able to work the ball forward from the back more quickly and effectively than we've been capable of up to now.
Some problems were still evident. Galbraith was still running inside into blind alleys on the right. Gaffney isn't suited to the lone striker role in this shape (although he did provide the flick on for Curran's opener). Curran played the inside forward role on the left very well, although with both wide men looking to come inside as always, there was the danger of us falling into the trap of lacking width and being overly predictable in our approach again. Thankfully, the support from full back was much better this time, owing to the added freedom offered by fielding an anchorman. Both Kelly and Nzuzi overlapped and supported well, with the former bagging the winner. Unfortunately, particularly for the right footed latter, their final ball was often lacking, and even when it wasn't, the Limerick presence in the box was scant.
The only real chance we created from open play (other than Kelly's winner) was Curran's header onto the post in the first half, stemming from Galbraith's only successful cross of the night. We also had Curran's header from O'Leary's free kick, which was brilliantly saved by McNulty.
Folan and Williams are not a natural partnership, as I've pointed out before, but they did well here apart from the goal we conceded. They often swapped positions to ensure that Folan was the one picking up Kilduff from goal kicks.
All in all, a big improvement. Bradley starred in the anchorman role, dropping in to the back line and distributing the ball wide and forward. Both full backs profited from this change in shape, getting forward more effectively. Curran did well in the inside left position. However, the misuse of Galbraith continues. Gaffney, unsurprisingly, did not fare well as a lone striker. And despite playing well from a possession perspective, neither Gamble or O'Leary possess the dynamism necessary to support him effectively.
It's a work in progress. But at least Taylor finally dumped the approach that has been failing him so blatantly of late.
Great performance last night best in a while. Players worked for the whole 90 mins and when we had the ball we actually looked like doing some damage with it not just tapping it around in harmless areas. Currans goal was a screamer.
What about McNultys save from a Curran header too though :O.
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