Presidents Cup

**McNasara** · 02/03/2014, 5:04 PM

1:0 Pats won, congrats! Keith Fahey is scorer.

**The Donie Forde** · 02/03/2014, 5:47 PM

Who skippered Sligo today?

**Djm1901** · 02/03/2014, 5:51 PM

Attendance given as 1,300 on the score.ie
Not bad for effectively a pre season match

**Nah Nah Nah Nah** · 02/03/2014, 5:58 PM

Alan Keane

Cracking goal by Fahey today. Even got a round of applause in the Sligo section.

Decent game. Really could have gone either way. We missed a good few chances and Pats had a goal disallowed for offside and seemed pretty adamant they should have a penalty for handball (it was up the far end from us). Good crowd there as well. Surprised how many we brought to it. Great preparation for next week. Plenty of tackles going in. None more then by John Russell. Think he was taken off before he got himself sent off.

**The Donie Forde** · 02/03/2014, 6:19 PM

Originally Posted by Nah Nah Nah Nah

Alan Keane

Thanks for that!

**NeverFeltBetter** · 02/03/2014, 9:55 PM

Was an attendance called out?

Edit: Also -

**Dodge** · 03/03/2014, 12:28 AM

No attendance called out. Agree with most of what Nah Nah said above. The Keane handball was definite and the offside looked dodgy but I felt Sligo were very much on top for last half hour and really thought a goal was inevitable.

Only some great last ditch defending by Browne and wayward finishing by North kept Sligo scoreless. Sligo looked way, way fitter

**Fester** · 03/03/2014, 1:44 PM

Originally Posted by Djm1901

Attendance given as 1,300 on the score.ie
Not bad for effectively a pre season match

I would have said at least 1500, however it was a great match and thunderbolt of a goal.

**wonder88** · 03/03/2014, 9:34 PM

It is nice that the game went well by accounts on here, 1300-1500 is not bad I suppose but I wish people would not compare this game "as just a pre-season friendly". It is something that I find strange with the sporting public in Ireland (and some players/managers) is that they run-down competitions they take part in. The GAA are really bad with this in relation to the National Leagues; teams who have not a hope of winning the All-Ireland go on about how the league is just a preparations for the championship, and where they duly get eliminated from fairly quickly.
The same happens with the Setanta Cup in soccer. Fair play to Shamrock Rovers for winning 3 cups last year and well done to Pats for winning The President's Cup yesterday. Glad there was some tackles flying in, one of the early games I can remember watching on tv had Keegan and Bremner send off in a Charity Shield with Clough just starting as Leeds boss.

**Charlie Darwin** · 03/03/2014, 9:55 PM

Was that the one where Giles got a very harsh yellow for decking Keegan in the jaw?

**wonder88** · 03/03/2014, 11:52 PM

Think it was, I was very young and only getting to know the players but the determination of both teams sticks in my mind. Of course there was no love lost between some of the big clubs at that time. Problem here in our league (Dublin clubs esp) is that the players are switching clubs every year, saw James McClean say this in a tweet while back. It must be hard for followers of St Pats to cheer on 5? ex-Shamrock R players from last year and have their league winning captain playing for the Hoops.

**Charlie Darwin** · 04/03/2014, 12:40 AM

Originally Posted by wonder88

Think it was, I was very young and only getting to know the players but the determination of both teams sticks in my mind. Of course there was no love lost between some of the big clubs at that time.

I should have actually edited my post after, I looked it up and it was the same match, as seen about half way through this video (although you should watch from the start for an hilarious example of little Sammy Lee reducing Norman Hunter to his knees):

Problem here in our league (Dublin clubs esp) is that the players are switching clubs every year, saw James McClean say this in a tweet while back. It must be hard for followers of St Pats to cheer on 5? ex-Shamrock R players from last year and have their league winning captain playing for the Hoops.

Eh, I don't think so. Certainly, there will always be some fans who hold players' pasts against them, but by and large I think most Rovers fans appreciated former Bohs captain Ken Oman for his contributions to our European run, etc. Examples of players going between, say, Liverpool and Everton are exceedingly rare in recent times, but as recently as the '60s it was pretty common for Denis Law to represent both Manchester teams, and so on. The English game has become quite polarised since, but in many ways the Irish game has stayed pretty close to amateur level and really players just go where they can get a wage like they did in England 50 years ago. Obviously there will be players who have their allegiances too, but in reality if Rovers say you're no longer wanted, are you as a player going to turn down an offer from Bohs just to keep the memories alive? Of course not.

**Nah Nah Nah Nah** · 04/03/2014, 7:56 AM

Look at the "celebration" scenes after the game. It was just a pre-season friendly. Neither team wanted to get hammered but once that didn't happen it didn't really matter who won it.

**legendz** · 04/03/2014, 8:46 AM

Originally Posted by wonder88

I wish people would not compare this game "as just a pre-season friendly". It is something that I find strange with the sporting public in Ireland (and some players/managers) is that they run-down competitions they take part in.

It's not unusual across sports for competitions outside the premier competition to be ran down. I've come across a few articles on teams around Europe wanting to avoid the Europa League.
I don't see anything wrong with last Sunday's game being called a glorified friendly because it's what it was. It is prestigious to take part in it though as it represents having being successful. I'm sure all teams will be happy if they're playing in the '15 Presidents Cup.

**Dodge** · 04/03/2014, 9:15 AM

Originally Posted by wonder88

Think it was, I was very young and only getting to know the players but the determination of both teams sticks in my mind. Of course there was no love lost between some of the big clubs at that time. Problem here in our league (Dublin clubs esp) is that the players are switching clubs every year, saw James McClean say this in a tweet while back. It must be hard for followers of St Pats to cheer on 5? ex-Shamrock R players from last year and have their league winning captain playing for the Hoops.

You're a Rovers fan, have you any issues with ex-Bohs or ex-Pats?

Players come and go. They always have.

**PartySaint** · 04/03/2014, 10:27 AM

It was a good game to watch, Sligo like Dunadlk in the LSC game against us really controlled the game for long periods and I'm not sure how they didn't score.

I've seen us in pre season 4 times now, one was against Bluebell where we changed the entire 11 at half time and controlled the game throughout, another was Ballinmallard which you can't judge because of that pitch but i wasn't too impressed with us against Sligo and Dundalk

But we still won both games against the sides who finished 2nd and 3rd last season.

Bring on the proper stuff on Friday and we'll see what everyone is made of.