Premier Division Fixtures - March 3rd

[Kingswood Rover]

Great night if you are of he hooped persuasion, Rovers players still getting to know each other Connolly was excellent, for a man of of such portly dimensions he can sure get around the pitch, Super crowd and good away support considering it was on the box and the weather being obnoxious, we wont win the league but i would be optimistic about a top three.

[nigel-harps1954]

I'm struggling to get my head around just exactly how bad Anthony Buttimer was last night.

First Bray goal, free kick that never was. Dylan Connolly may be in with a shout of representing Ireland at the next Olympics on the diving board. Either that or he has spring loaded boots that go off occasionally while he's running. Ciaran Gallagher made a balls of the resulting free kick, but a free that should never have happened in the first place.

Penalty that was wrong on two counts. Mickey Funston was probably two yards away from a cross hit when it struck his hand..which was also at least two yards outside the box. How can a cross that he could not possibly prevent striking his hand, that was outside the box, be awarded a penalty? Buttimer didn't even think about it, just blew the whistle straight away before the ball even hit the ground again.

Brays fourth goal, Ciaran Gallagher came out of his box, cleared the ball with a diving header, got a clash to the head off Dylan Connollys knee and was down, clearly in some distress with a head injury, Buttimer doesn't stop play, McCabe sticks the ball into the net and goal is awarded. Connolly himself went down with a head injury a mere ten minutes later, with Harps on the ball, and Buttimer stopped play immediately. Ollie Horgan and the entire Harps bench were rightly going absolutely bananas with Buttimer all night.

Bray are not a great side. They'll grind out results, and they'll finish in the top half, but I honestly don't think they're all that better than Harps, a side hot favourites to be relegated.

[peadar1987]

I'm struggling to get my head around just exactly how bad Anthony Buttimer was last night.

First Bray goal, free kick that never was. Dylan Connolly may be in with a shout of representing Ireland at the next Olympics on the diving board. Either that or he has spring loaded boots that go off occasionally while he's running. Ciaran Gallagher made a balls of the resulting free kick, but a free that should never have happened in the first place.

Penalty that was wrong on two counts. Mickey Funston was probably two yards away from a cross hit when it struck his hand..which was also at least two yards outside the box. How can a cross that he could not possibly prevent striking his hand, that was outside the box, be awarded a penalty? Buttimer didn't even think about it, just blew the whistle straight away before the ball even hit the ground again.

Brays fourth goal, Ciaran Gallagher came out of his box, cleared the ball with a diving header, got a clash to the head off Dylan Connollys knee and was down, clearly in some distress with a head injury, Buttimer doesn't stop play, McCabe sticks the ball into the net and goal is awarded. Connolly himself went down with a head injury a mere ten minutes later, with Harps on the ball, and Buttimer stopped play immediately. Ollie Horgan and the entire Harps bench were rightly going absolutely bananas with Buttimer all night.

Bray are not a great side. They'll grind out results, and they'll finish in the top half, but I honestly don't think they're all that better than Harps, a side hot favourites to be relegated.

First game for me in about 4 years, not sure I could have picked a better one from a Bray perspective.

First goal, very soft free kick. We were on the other side of the pitch, but I commented at the time that Connolly was already on his way down before the challenge came in. He looked like he'd already lost control of the ball and was trying to get something from the situation.

Second goal, again too far away to see whether the incident was inside the area, but it was very harsh to penalise Funston for it, not much he could have done with the ball coming at him from that close, and his arms didn't look in an unnatural position to me.

Third goal was good work from Bray, great ball in from Kenna and superb header from Greene.

Fourth goal, really felt for Harps. Gallagher did a great job coming for the ball, and took a boot to the face for his troubles. McCabe should have put the ball out, and if there was the possibility of a head injury, Buttimer should have pulled play back.

Fifth goal, good work from Connolly to get the ball around Doherty at the second attempt.

The result might have been harsh on Harps but I think on balance Bray were still the better side (in my own biased opinion!). Doherty made three or four brilliant saves, and Harps' second goal was a real gift from Cherrie. Connolly looked dangerous all game, but with some better decision-making Bray probably should have had at least another goal, possibly two.

Paddy McCourt was good once he came on, and his delivery for Harps' third was perfect. Apart from the final 20, when Harps were pushing forwards to get back into the game, they actually looked reasonably solid at the back (for a team that ended up conceding five, at least). On that performance, I don't think they'll be in major danger of relegation this season. Bray still look too shaky in central midfield and at the back to really push for European football.

[nigel-harps1954]

Damn it, I'm struggling to find Bray fans to argue with.

[littlebray]

I tend to agree about the soft free, but on the penalty, from where I was watching, Funston's reaction, very quick, was to bring his arm down towards the flight of the ball. I would certainly agree with Buttimer (who ever thought I'd be writing that!) that it was a deliberate hand ball. As for whether it was inside the are, only TV shots will determine that, but I felt it was probably marginally inside.
All that said, the referee should almost certainly have given Harps the earlier penalty shout, which I think was a good one, and I was very surprised he didn't whistle as soon as Gallagher went down. I thought it was Ethan Boyle who hit him, by the way, in the course of that spectacular tumble-turn that he himself was injured in.
Great watching, hope it will encourage a lot more to come down to the Grounds again. I thought the attendance was a bit more than 700, but not a lot.

[peadar1987]

Damn it, I'm struggling to find Bray fans to argue with.

I can put my green and white blinkers on if you like?

I tend to agree about the soft free, but on the penalty, from where I was watching, Funston's reaction, very quick, was to bring his arm down towards the flight of the ball. I would certainly agree with Buttimer (who ever thought I'd be writing that!) that it was a deliberate hand ball. As for whether it was inside the are, only TV shots will determine that, but I felt it was probably marginally inside.
All that said, the referee should almost certainly have given Harps the earlier penalty shout, which I think was a good one, and I was very surprised he didn't whistle as soon as Gallagher went down. I thought it was Ethan Boyle who hit him, by the way, in the course of that spectacular tumble-turn that he himself was injured in.
Great watching, hope it will encourage a lot more to come down to the Grounds again. I thought the attendance was a bit more than 700, but not a lot.

Always hard to judge attendances from within the stand. Where I was sitting it was about 90% full, but the ends are always a bit more sparsely-populated. Counted about 50 Harps fans on the other side. I think the tent holds just under 1,000, 975 or something, so 750-800 attendance with those in the tent, the Harps fans, and people behind the goal at the Bray Bowl end seems reasonable

[nigel-harps1954]

I can put my green and white blinkers on if you like?

I think littlebray got there ahead of you with the penalty decision. Funston is lost as a midfielder, should be a goalkeeper with reactions like that if he can deliberately handball from two yards in that fashion.

Always hard to judge attendances from within the stand. Where I was sitting it was about 90% full, but the ends are always a bit more sparsely-populated. Counted about 50 Harps fans on the other side. I think the tent holds just under 1,000, 975 or something, so 750-800 attendance with those in the tent, the Harps fans, and people behind the goal at the Bray Bowl end seems reasonable

I'd say you're not far off with that 90% full assumption. There's a photo of the stand on here: http://54crew.com/news/2017/3/4/lets-talk-about-bray
When you zoom up to the photo you can see maybe close to 100 empty seats dotted along the stand, and a couple of small blocks of empty spots.

I didn't think the stand held that many but I see that Wiki has it as 985 seats. On that, there probably was around 850 or so there with 50-60 Harps fans. Quite disappointed with the travelling support although the weather would have put people off travelling too.

[nigel-harps1954]

Hard to see actually without being able to zoom in properly. Taken on my phone though, and zooming in on the phone you can see a patch of 20 seats on the left hand side, around 30 or 40 seats on the far right side, and there's a small patch of empty seats behind each dugout.

[monkey9]

I tend to agree about the soft free, but on the penalty, from where I was watching, Funston's reaction, very quick, was to bring his arm down towards the flight of the ball. I would certainly agree with Buttimer (who ever thought I'd be writing that!) that it was a deliberate hand ball. As for whether it was inside the are, only TV shots will determine that, but I felt it was probably marginally inside.
All that said, the referee should almost certainly have given Harps the earlier penalty shout, which I think was a good one, and I was very surprised he didn't whistle as soon as Gallagher went down. I thought it was Ethan Boyle who hit him, by the way, in the course of that spectacular tumble-turn that he himself was injured in.
Great watching, hope it will encourage a lot more to come down to the Grounds again. I thought the attendance was a bit more than 700, but not a lot.

With there being only one camera at games, i wouldn't hold my breath.

[SeanDrog]

With there being only one camera at games, i wouldn't hold my breath.

Ah now, glass half empty .... at least there was a camera there I remember the days of aertel and waiting for pages to scroll lol

[Lim till i die]

Dundalk sligo kicking off shortly.

If dundalk avoid defeat you're looking at a big title decider between two unbeaten sides in oriel next week.

Was out in ul during the week chedoze can run the 100m in four seconds on astroturf.

[ToberonaTornado]

1-0 Dundalk,McEleney

Goal > https://twitter.com/Jamiecm81/status/838118492008251392

[SeanDrog]

Given the dog fight to avoid the bottom three I find myself cheering for fellow Louth men tonight.

Enemy of my enemy and all that ....

[nigel-harps1954]

Sligo having a poor start to the season. 2-0 down already.

[Lim till i die]

Sligo having a poor start to the season. 2-0 down already.

In fairness to Sligo their opening two league games have been against arguably the two greatest sides the game in this country has produced.

Ion Stephen Henderson doing a top job as usual at cobh. It's a crying shame the fai robbed a team like ramblers of a shot at promotion.

[ToberonaTornado]

Dundalk promotion poster for next week:

[sbgawa]

Dundalk promotion poster for next week:

That's excellent

[joey B]

3-0 Dundalk and Rover's down to 10 men.

[nigel-harps1954]

4-0 in Sligo now.

[SeanDrog]

Two hammering in a row for Sligo ouch ... Dundalk showing no mercy