That is a very bad defeat for UCD, especially on the back of last weekend
Were Drogheda that good? Or UCD v bad?
I just can't believe Bayly would do something like that.
5 league games without scoring in Inchicore now. Any chance Pats could move ground?
Torn apart in the first half. Quigley excellent. Played a lot better second half. North should have scored and Clarke made a great save from Zayed in injury time but Pats deserved the win.
The first half was our best half of the season so far. Should have had the game wrapped up by half time. Sligo came into more in the second half with North and Zayed both missing a great chance each.
Absolutely delighted with the win, we had no one on the bench and didn't make any subs.
Sign of Champions from Dundalk. They really have been excellent this season. Congrats to the new Champions
Treble still on the cards
An air of resignation coming from Inchicore?
It was much better when ye were bristling with indignation about all sorts of things - now it seems that even a truckload of Queen CD's would do little for motivation and inspiration.
The gap is only 9 points and we are still due to come to Richmond Park on Sept 5
Ref was very poor all night. City need to convert possession into goal scoring chances. I thought that Dundalk bossed the first half and should have gone in two up. The second half was very different, City bossed possession but apart from set pieces, posed no real goal threat. In my opinion, that is the difference between the two teams at the moment; Dundalk always look threatening when they have possession. However, Caulfield will put that right. Cork are going places.
The moment in the game that defined why Dundalk are six points clear at the top was just after City scored. Dundalk won a free kick with the chance to put pressure on the City goal. Kenny sent both centre halves up. Many clubs after being under the cosh for 40 minutes of the second hall, playing away from home, and getting a result that would preserve their 3 point lead would have kept the four defenders back. Dundalk sent the two centre halves up and one got the winner.
As the man said, you have to earn the right to win.
We fairly gifted Drogheda two or three goals. Can't really do that.
First goal was three Drogheda players on the edge with acres of space to find the best man; shot was straight at the keeper (making his debut; O'Donnell must have been injured) and through his legs. He seemed to be a bit flat-footed; messed up his footwork.
Second was an absurdly short back-pass.
Third was a breakaway from our attack; Sami laid the ball off to Creevy on the edge of the area and then went to ground jumping over a Drogheda tackle. He wasn't looking for anything and it wasn't a foul; think it was an awful call by the ref gave a free out and book him for diving, but Drogheda went straight up the pitch and scored. Fourth was similar - Sami missed an open goal; Drogheda went straight up the pitch and scored.
Drogheda played well, but they didn't tend to have anyone on the ends of all the crosses they were putting in. Against a better team, they might have lost 2-1 or something and been likening it to that Man Utd v Fulham game.
For our part, whenever Benson or Ayman got on the ball, Drogheda fouled them, and that stifled our only plan really.
So we were wasteful up front and absent in defence; can't have any complaints really. I think it was good that Bray equalised in injury time, even though it drops us down to eleventh.
We have to be the most inconsistent team in the league though. We've played some super stuff this season - against Pat's twice, in Derry, gave it a right go in Dundalk, beat Sligo. Played really well in Cork. And then we go and concede ten in two games to mid-table sides. Ridiculous.
On another note - is that now ten games in a row without a goal for Shamrock Rovers B? That must be getting on for a league record?
Hugely disappointing for us to concede straight after equalising having worked so hard to get back into the game, especially with 6000 people there. Congrats to Dundalk.
Hopefully we can consolidate 2nd place and get back into Europe.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
It must be very disheartening for the young lads. I genuinely think some of their attacking players didn't touch the ball at all apart from kicking off after goals last night. Daniel Purdy could be doing better than wasting his time there. Maybe he feels he'll get in the first team at some point but he's not exactly got a platform to show how good he is. He could have stayed with us and I'm sure he had other offers.
Upwards to the vanguard where the pressure is too high.
I though apart from one half v Rovers, possibly 15 mins v Pats, the only other side to challenge us at home so far was during a 20 min period in the second half v UCD. They were excellent and may have got a result had we not been 2 goals up at the time. It did finish 5-1 but it was far from plain sailing at times.
It just have been very disappointing last night from Corks viewpoint and they will have thought they deserved a draw, but they took a very long time to really threaten us, I think 75 mins before the first real chance. They did improve in the second half and are a decent team, but I thought we deserved huge credit for getting the winner 2 mins later. As mentioned above, sending both centre halfs up immediately after losing the lead showed the hunger to get the winner.
The way Dundalk are set up makes it difficult for teams to threaten our goal, a consistent back four, decent keeper then Shields sits in front. This means one less in 'regular' MF but when you have sometime like Towell charging forward it's a system that works well.
Still long way to go and almost 3 months left to play, anything could happen, but it's looking good for us, that's for sure. Just need to keep focus on the next match, and Drogs away will be a tricky match.
Edit, that game v UCD finished 5-2 not 5-1, and they were 1-0 up after 2 mins. During the spell I was talking about it was 4-2, and we were actually 'hanging on' at times.
Last edited by oriel; 02/08/2014 at 2:48 PM.
#DundalkFC - First Irish club to win an away game in Europe (1963), first Irish club to win points in a group stage in Europe (2016).
How did Gaynor do for Cork?
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