Squad Announcement

[pineapple stu]

Lads, what know ye of the keeper Murphy?

Bit of a dodgy debut v. Turkey, I think (overshadowed though by the legendary Omer Catcin! ). Think that's about his only cap to date? Was keeper for the U-16s when they won the European Championships. Don't know much else than that. Where's Nicky Colgan these days? Was at Barnsley last I heard, but think he was moving on?

[tetsujin1979]

Bit of a dodgy debut v. Turkey, I think (overshadowed though by the legendary Omer Catcin! ). Think that's about his only cap to date? Was keeper for the U-16s when they won the European Championships. Don't know much else than that. Where's Nicky Colgan these days? Was at Barnsley last I heard, but think he was moving on?

Colgan's on loan at Dundee. I imagine Murphy only made the squad because Stack's injured. Saul Deeney could even push Colgan further down the lines the way things are going!

[pineapple stu]

Is he getting his game? SPL over Division Two surely, especially after Kerr's comments about the eL and Division Two players?

[Stuttgart88]

Colgan's on loan at Dundee. I imagine Murphy only made the squad because Stack's injured. Saul Deeney could even push Colgan further down the lines the way things are going!

I think Stack's impending trial is more the reason for his absence. Deeney's been getting great reviews alright.

[eirebhoy]

I think Stack's impending trial is more the reason for his absence.

Stack's out for 6 weeks mate.

Colgan has only played one match for United, only joined them last week.

[Stuttgart88]

Stack's out for 6 weeks mate.

Sure, but would he have been picked if fit? He's been left out of all squads since his "troubles" started, as we've discussed before on other threads. Though I think Colgan was preferred to him earlier in the year anyway, despite Stack's good early performances for Millwall. It's just my opinion but I think Kerr is overlooking him until his trial is over.

[Slash/ED]

Sad to see Murphy not doing so well atm, he was a superb propsect when he was a teenage regular for Tranmere and always impressed me alot for the youth teams, more so than Stack even. However, he's still very young for a keeper so has time to realise his potential I suppose.

[dr_peepee]

At the end of the day you can't keep everybody happy all the time, but you have to go some way to reward/acknowledged progress. And seemingly overlooking people who have undoubtedly made some progress of late out of some misplaced sense of loyaly for someone who's career's gone static, even backwards, can't bode well for relations in the future.

For me if a player on the fringes (especially one who could be an asset down the line) is excluded from a squad he should be fully aware of the reasoning behind it, if only to keep him in the loop and at the very least give him an aspect of his game that he needs to work on to oust the man in posession. That doesn't seem to be the case with these lads judging by the sounds being made from Ian Harte...

I have to admit though that the withdrawels from the Friendly squads have dramaticaly reduced in recent times... But someone like Steven Reid or Rory Delap should without a doubt in my mind be there ahead of Graham Barrett.

[Eirambler]

Colgan has only played one match for United, only joined them last week.

Was watching Rangers v Dundee Utd tonight, Colgan let in 7!

He was the cause of at least 3 of them, and probably should have saved 1 or 2 of the others.

If Kerr ever gets the tape of this game, we wont see Colgan in green for a while.

[1MickCollins]

Was watching Rangers v Dundee Utd tonight, Colgan let in 7!

He was the cause of at least 3 of them, and probably should have saved 1 or 2 of the others.

If Kerr ever gets the tape of this game, we wont see Colgan in green for a while.

This must be a record for the number of goals conceded by an Irish keeper in a top-flight game ( Is Rangers v Dundee really top-flight?? ) - who is the resident statistician??

[pineapple stu]

(Is Rangers v Dundee really top-flight??)

Technically, it was a cup semi-final, so Colgan's alright!

Bad performances by Irish keepers...Given's let in four a couple of times this season alone (played v. Fulham?) to get the ball rolling...

[eirebhoy]

and it was Dundee Utd, not Dundee. There could be a Dundee fan lurking on here.

[Junior]

Colgan didn't play too well (I can't recall all the goals but was definitely at fault for the second). However, some of the defending was Sunday league stuff. If a team gets beat 7-1 you can rest assured the outfield players have themselves to balme - however, this will not have helped Colgans confidence one bit.

2-0 down at half time, Dundee Utd brought it back to 2-1 after 50 minutes and were having a great spell including a shot which went off both posts before bouncing out. At 2-2 who knows what would have happened.

However, as is generally the norm with Celtic or Rangers once they pull away the other team doesn't have the discipline, ability, confidence to stop it.

[sadloserkid]

and it was Dundee Utd, not Dundee. There could be a Dundee fan lurking on here.

There might not be a Dundee fan (though if my fellow Limerick fan Nempton is around then there is) but there's a Dundee United fan in my good self.

[pineapple stu]

This must be a record for the number of goals conceded by an Irish keeper in a top-flight game ( Is Rangers v Dundee really top-flight?? ) - who is the resident statistician??

Good point on anohter thread - Colgan himself conceded seven for Barnsley against Man City in the League Cup earlier this season! Not top flight still, but he must have the monopoly on most goals conceded by an Irish keeper in a (foreign) cup tie!

[tetsujin1979]

Didn't Packie Bonner concede 5 or so in a UEFA Cup tie for Celtic against Neuchatel Xamax - spelling way off there, Swiss team - about 91/92??

[eirebhoy]

I decided to go and look at what the general view is with Southampton fans on Delap and here is a couple of recent posts I pulled out from their forum (remember he played right back at the weekend):

funny how the team functions in midfield as soon as Delap is removed.

Yes I was there and I thought we were brilliant but for once the weak link in the team wasn't Delap.

http://saintschat.com/ipw-web/bulletin/bb/index.php

[Closed Account 2]

Lads, what know ye of the keeper Murphy?

Was great for us at Tranmere, but then his contract was up and decided to go to WBA when they first got promotion to the Premier League. Has been at them since, but rarely played - tho he did keep up his stat of saving a pen on every debut (he came on as sub and saved a Michael Owen pen at Anfield, previously he'd done this for Tranmere and Ireland U21s - or might have been U19s). However he didnt play much for WBA and was loaned out to Walsall this season where he's been pretty average. I always thought he looked a bit too short to be a top class goalie, but maybe he's gained some height since then.

And I think I'd rather get Niall Quinn out of retirement and stick him in goal than play Nick Colgan, the man was a disaster last time I saw him play for us vs Nigeria at Charlton in the summer.

[tetsujin1979]

And I think I'd rather get Niall Quinn out of retirement and stick him in goal than play Nick Colgan, the man was a disaster last time I saw him play for us vs Nigeria at Charlton in the summer.

Actually I thought Colgan kept it respectable. At least 2 decent saves and the goals were hardly all his fault. Having a centre half pairing of Cunningham and Doherty, with little or no pace between them, against the likes of Agahowa probably contributed more to it than anything.

Having said that he's at best 3rd choice keeper at the moment, and probably will be 4th by the time the World Cup rolls around