That booing was largely sarcastic. Thought the crowd mostly enjoyed it during a pretty drab game.
As a positive to the game I thought O'Kane was superb when he came on.
If it's any consolation, the brass band (who were thankfully denied access to the PA system tonight) got booed every time the trumpet started playing, so hopefully the FAI will have taken note and that will be the last of that!
That booing was largely sarcastic. Thought the crowd mostly enjoyed it during a pretty drab game.
As a positive to the game I thought O'Kane was superb when he came on.
It's all that fish they eat.
Haven't read the whole thread yet, are there any guesses on when we last started with only two players in the top division in England?
Even extending it to four players in their respective top divisions would be going back a way
Sometimes simple solutions are the best.Originally Posted by KrisLetang
There is an old saying in football, of you don't shoot, you don't score.
highlights (ie icelandic free kick)
Gretzky says that in his book "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
This time last week even the crustiest relics on here seemed quite full of hope, what an underwhelming two matches.
So it wasn't just me who noticed about Westwood? Thought I was going crazy.
Although this was just a meaningless contest in the truer sense of the word, the Irish performance was shockingly bad and no excuse for dragging down the Icelanders to defend against that nullifying game in the 2nd half. The blonde kid who scored is on the Bristol City subs bench when they're hard up. This is a makey up team who scraped by Malta 1 nil in a similar friendly conditions after a wc qualifier. I thought the best player on the park was the very impressive Sverrir Ingason, a young center half with Granada.
Though it probably means that the more certifiably deluded of posters here will continue to find excuses for claiming that Iceland are still a small team running their luck (for over 4 years now), playing a simple game against teams who are having an off-day,
and will be found out eventually when they play a real team like Germany/France/Spain
Last edited by geysir; 29/03/2017 at 12:16 AM.
I don't think anybody here even remotely suggested anything like that.Though it probably means that the more certifiably deluded of posters here will continue to find excuses for claiming that Iceland are still a small team running their luck (for over 4 years now), playing a simple game against teams who are having an off-day,
and will be found out eventually when they play a real team like Germany/France/Spain
I think Geysirs hit the Brennivín and whale blubber a bit hard in celebration.
Not a very nice thing to say about his girlfriend Stu!
The icelandic defence was pretty solid, mind you ours was too apart from the free kick.
I think we should have had a man on the line for the free kick, we should have done better, it was not a great free kick it was way to easy, one side
of the goal was wide open.
it was over the PA I am afraid. definitely where I was sitting anyway
Whale blubber, he doesn't drink. I don't know what sort of amnesia he suffers from, which board he thinks he is posting on.
Iceland are very well organised and very well coached. Kind of says a lot really. They also have been playing and learning to control the ball in tight positions from a young age, technically far sounder than we are.
Look semantics lads, i think some of those shots and mccleans first werent going on target from where i was standing behind the goal for example. We created SFA in 270 minutes if you include Georgia, bar colemans run and some pretty poor defending. It's very worrying, regardless of who plays we still aren't creating anything. Thats the biggest worry, not sure what O'Neill and keane have them doing in training but they need to rectify it before Austria, these 2 games could well be a god-send before the june 12th game.
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
I'm not disagreeing but it should be noted that Hoolahan played exactly zero of those 270 minutes. It's well established that he's our go to guy when it comes to making us tick in the final third. We really were crying out for him last night when it was obvious that any amount of crosses or long balls wasn't going to work. I think those three games have highlighted how reliant on him we have become, which is a major worry in itself.
Some bits from Martin O'Neill's post-match press conference:
I think it may have been BTTW that had an uncharacteristic hissy fit when some of us had the audacity to opine their preference for Westwood over Randolph at one stage, so I've a feeling, like yourself, there could be some biased motivation at play here.
I had little interest in seeing Hayes in the squad, let alone the starting XI, but I thought he was clearly one of our better performers. He worked tirelessly and forced his way into the game and even came across a decent amount of possession. It would have been difficult not to notice him I think.
Did he even have enough to do to look ropey throughout? He had pretty much no saves to make, no crosses to gather and he got got a lot of distance with his kicking. To really nit pick you could maybe argue that he ran a small risk of taking the extra touch before making his clearances, allowing the forwards to close in on him.
As for the goal, if a player ducks then the keeper is not going to see it until it's too late and it was right in the corner. The wall (Hourihane) simply hung him out to dry I think. Even Randolph (who would have saved it apparently) knows exactly how that feels.
I've joined the thread late and haven't had time to read (yet) what everyone has said, but in my opinion, regardless of whether the wall ducked or not I think Westwood should have done better. He wasn't obscured by the wall at all. He clearly saw it early, picked the flight and direction of the ball, reacted by shifting his weight but then just stopped. OK, so maybe experience led him to recognise that by completing the dive he'd have been exposed to a deflection, but I think just assuming a ball hit well at head height won't make it through the wall was a bad assumption. I think he should have completed his dive myself.
I'm not going as far as blaming him but, since micro-scrutiny of everything our keepers do is the norm for this forum, that's my own micro-scrutiny. Wall didn't do it's job, but KW could have done better too.
Otherwise he did fine. Both keepers had so little to do you couldn't make a judgment.
Desperately crying out for him.
However I'd be critical of O'Neill for two things:
Brady can't influence play from left-back as well as he can from LM. Ward or Cunningham should have been picked at LB to allow Brady to play LM and to link with Hendrick.
Everyone can see McGeady has been enjoying a more central role at Preston. This is where he should have started in my opinion.
Failing that Brady should have been given license to play further forward.
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