Hamilton - the greatest exponent of the commentators curse!
"and with that goal Ireland have one foot in the World Cup finals" queue Irelands concession of a hatrick within 30 seconds...
Galway United vs Derry City
Express returnee will have the support of the president of the state!
Galway is very motivated before the first match in the Premier Division after a recent break-up of the club, while guests from Northern Ireland starting the season with ever lower expectations.
The President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins will attend the debut of home team in the Premier Division. He is a big supporter and former president of Galway Utd. Otherwise, the club from the west coast of the island has played five consecutive seasons in the strongest domestic competition until 2011 when they experienced a collapse on the pitch (1-3-32, 20: 115) and off the pitch (the club was disbanded). However, with the help of a strong fan base and two local clubs (Mervue United and Salthill Devon) the Maroon Army was brought to life in 2013, so the club's longtime secretary became president. Hard work and determination for re-establishment of the club paid off as they never hoped for, because one season in the First Division was enough to return to the big stage. True, it wasn't easy, in the league have secured third place only in the last round, then defeated on both occasions the second-placed Shelbourne, that would pave the way towards the elite also with two wins in the play-off against UCD, 11-placed team from the Premier Division.
Their coach Tommy Dunne, who played just for Derry when tonight's opponent won the last title (18 years ago). Anyway, his coaching career started in Finland, where he remained for three years before coming to Cork. It is interesting that there came at a time when the club was re-established as was the case with the Galway last year. hHe hastily introduced both teams in the elite. The team did not change a lot of players, but it's worth noting that the promising central defender P. Barret, offensive midfielder R. Manning (best young player of the club last season) and experienced striker V. Faherty (second best scorer last year) are no longer at Eamonn Deacy Park. Defense is led by young right-back C. Horgan, who was in an ideal team of First Division and newly arriving S. Oji, centre back who will mean a lot to the back line with his experience. Captain P. Sinnot, the best player of the club last year R. Connolly, former Mervue top scorer G. Shanahan received help in the middle because D. O'Leary arrived from Cork. Offensive no new players, so the main word will still have a young American J. Keegan, who was club top scorer in 2014. There were some problems with the extension of his work visa, but in the end everything had ended well for both sides. The Tribesman have played three friendly matches before the start of the season, two wins and a draw without conceding a goal. Back-up goalkeeper G. Hanley and new central defender K. Cantwell are injured and will be out for another month. The young defender A. Byrne is suspended from last year, while left-back M. Ludden is doubtful due to injury in training yesterday.
Exactly 30 years since Derry City joined the football competitions in Ireland. In fact, it is the only club in the league who is from Northern Ireland from where they have deviated due to security concerns (they were not allowed to play at their stadium). So, they play in a league that is outside of their geographic jurisdiction, the best example of this is Monaco, which competes within the French league. The Candystripes are known for their excellent editions in the Cup competitions (15 trophies), they are the only club that won all three major domestic competitions in one season (1989), and dropped out of the Premier Division only in 2009 due to financial problems. So even though this is a club from a neighboring country, certainly not talking about a club that has no important role in the League of Ireland. However, in the the last two seasons team is in a declining form with a bad performance at their Brandywell which was once known as a difficult-conquerable fortress for the visiting team.
Since last summer at the helm is Peter Hutton who at the beginning of the season 2014 was assistant coach. Although he in the past was interim coach on two occasions (2004 and 2009), this time he got a two-year contract. Normally, Hutton is a club legend, a former captain and the recorder for the most appearances for City (18 years was a player). Before this coaching engagement, was the first coach in the First Division club Finn Harps. Admittedly, he doesn't expect easy task because the budget is reduced in accordance with non-securing playing in Europe next summer, so it is not surprising that he has at its disposal only two players who have more than 25 years. Two experienced midfielders B. Molloy (former captain, 10 years at the club) and D. Ventre (arrived last season from Sligo, where he was captain) left the country. But that's not the worst as far as the outgoing transfers. Talented left winger M. Duffy was club top scorer in the league matches last season, which was enough to go to the big Scottish Celtic. An even greater loss is going to Australia of R. Patterson, who was three years in a row top scorer of the club including all competitions in which they took part. The two of them scored exactly half of the club's goals in the league last year. The excellent defender and captain R. McBride will continue to lead the backline, and P. McEleney the midfield, although there are still some very talented young midfielders such as B. McNamee, M. Timlin, S. Dooly... As replacement for the the first striker was brought experienced Englishman A. Elding to whom this will be even 20th club in his career (he was top scorer in 2013 in Sligo). The team looked great in pre-season matches when they recorded all six wins, three against the Northern Irish Premiership clubs. Even three players must serve a penalty from a previous season: R. McBride, S. Dooley and M. Timlin. New acquisitions, defender S. Sharkey and striker C. Morrison are injured, while another new pair of defender - forward (S. Kelly and A. Elding) is not sure that will debut due to injury in yesterday's training.
Until The Last Rebel!
What in the name of the sweet Lord is that?^^^???
"Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins."
"Homer Simpson, smiling politely."
Will be watching in my local pub in Voronezh tonight with 9 LOI "heads". In 2 other of our pubs they will be livecasting (taking the RTE feed), one of the pubs is a Spartak Moscow HQ and about 30-40 yokes will be watching. Had a smile thinking, jesus, there'll be more people watching in Russia tonight than in some First Division matches (sorry, bad joke).
RTÉ stream not working for anyone else?
Great finish by Danny North but Jesus is he getting fatter?
Oji already making me depressed.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
John McKeown, future pub quiz answer, etc. Cabinteely one up.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
Great to see Cabinteely having a good start. Here's hoping they don't fall into the usual LOI thing of spending ludicrous amounts of cash on completely frivolous stuff...
Welp...
https://vine.co/v/OEZLD55OvPw
Looking at the team line ups for the Pats v Rovers game I was reminded of the George Orwell line from Animal Farm:
"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
3336 in Oriel tonight, very good crowd to start off the season, hopefully can keep that up!
2-1 derry now Houston and Ryan Curran
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