Republic of Ireland V Oman 3rd September 2014 & Georgia 7th September 2014

[Fixer82]

Gibson has impressed me with his passing, Pilkington has looked bright, Hoolahan his usual self.
Delighted to see Doyle get a goal and he's played well down channels.
Brady looks a bit rusty and Meyler...what an effort. Backs not really tested.

Quinn looks bright too but wouldn't fancy him against the likes of Germany and Poland, a bit lightweight perhaps

[DannyInvincible]

Overall, it's hard to judge so far. Oman aren't up to much really.

He seems to be keeping all his frontline players wrapped up for Sunday. Of that side, I'd say only Given and Ward are likely to start that game. Maybe Brady too.

Can we read anything into the allocated squad numbers? If so, they'd perhaps indicate this is strictly our "second string". Besides Keogh at number 4, Meyler has the lowest squad number at number 12. Could Keogh possibly start with O'Shea in Georgia?

By the way, as the coverage went to the ad break at the end of the first half, the sprinklers came on on the pitch, but only in the right half of the field. Were we watering only the half we're playing into in the second half? Aren't there rules against that? Maybe just in competitive games...

[jinxy lilywhite]

Don't think so. Our pitch our rules.

[IsMiseSean]

Who's yer man sitting between MON & Roy?

[geysir]

Glen Whelan's appearance is greeted with some degree of relief.
Gibson was a player who needed to be taken off just then.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Fantastic ball by Whelan to be fair.

[DeLorean]

What a flick by Keossi.

[tricky_colour]

Nice footwork from Pearce, he should be on Strictly Come dancing,
he is nearly as good as Lionel (Blair not Messi).

[Closed Account]

Team for Sunday looks like:
Given
Coleman
O'Shea
Wilson
Ward
McGeady
Whelan
McCarthy
Brady
Keane
Long

[IsMiseSean]

If Given was going to start on Sunday surely he would have been given more game-time tonight?
I'm thinking Forde will get the nod...

[zero]

missed the first 40 mins due to traffic/work/internet issues.

ok performance. meyler did well, bit disappointed he didn't get a go in the middle of the park. when we went to 3 at the back near the end it worked for 30 seconds then really didn't at all.

i thought robbie looked very sharp when he came on. still seems to have that burst of acceleration. has to feature on sunday, probably start. whelan also looked good.

hoolahan didnt do much from what i saw and gibson was understandably rusty. ward managed to look shaky without having anything to do.

[Stuttgart88]

Can you hear Oman sing? No-o.

[Stuttgart88]

I thought Gibson did fine. In credit to Keogh, he carries the ball out of defence quicker and with more attacking purpose than any of our established CBs. That's all I'm saying.

Maybe Whelan is not best suited to the deeper lying role and would be more effective a bit further forward?

Pilkington didn't catch my attention at all.


The 3 attacking subs made a difference and I feel that in a full tempo game all 3 would lift the performance to another. level.

Not much wrong with tonight, some bright spots but still no great answers to the important questions.

[DannyInvincible]

Robbie looked very eager to add to his goal tally when he came on; dare I say, possibly bordering on greedy. He could have laid it off to Long on at least one occasion, I thought. Nevertheless, he still looked sharp and dangerous, and I'd rather he had an appetite to score than not.

Don't think so. Our pitch our rules.

Actually, I think you're right. Funnily enough, it was the Setanta Cup semi-final second-leg between Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers at Oriel Park last April, or the LOI's Watergate scandal, that I had in mind, although I was confused as to which way the rules went. Trevor Croly wasn't pleased with Dundalk's watering of only the Rovers half at half-time on that occasion, but it seems it's something Dundalk do regularly: http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/irish...610286-cawley/

[DannyInvincible]

Was the attendance given, by the way? Or did the FAI skip that announcement to save face?

Edit: Just saw it given as 14,376.

[TrapAPony]

Team for Sunday looks like:
Given
Coleman
O'Shea
Wilson
Ward
McGeady
Whelan
McCarthy
Brady
Keane
Long

Youre most likely correct but I would put Wilson at left back and Pearce centre half

[tetsujin1979]

would have given MOTM to Gibson, except for the yellow card I thought he barely put a foot wrong.
anyone else see MON standing up to Tony O'Donoghue in the post match interview?

[DannyInvincible]

Gibson passed the ball very well. Would have to agree.

anyone else see MON standing up to Tony O'Donoghue in the post match interview?

It was a delightful dose of sarcasm after the wicked time Tony used to give poor Trap. Tony got his comeuppance.

[backstothewall]

Just home from the game

I won't go into all the individual performances as the defenders had very little to do. After about an hour, I got fed up listening to my dad, who is always convinced the opposition are just about to score, and told him just to point out to me the next time an Oman player had the ball in our penalty area. I'm still waiting...

Gibson was very obviously the best player on the park. I thought it was an incredible performance, especially considering how long it has been since he had his boot on. He has to play against Georgia for me.

He was booked at almost exactly 70 mins. The guy he chopped down was throwing himself around all night. I would suspect it was arranged beforehand that he would be going off at 70mins, and he had just had enough of his antics and decided to leave one on him before he went off.

[ifk101]

I thought Gibson was poor, looked off the pace, loose in this passing and his substitution didn't come a moment too soon. He lacks the match sharpness to start in Georgia.