Quotegoal!
morrison, nice take
Well, I doubt thats gonna happen - 0-0 after 52 mins...Originally Posted by elroy
goal!
morrison, nice take
Ken Foree, what was the game like?
sorry i didn't see it either, just clicked yer man's link above and bang morrison scored (maybury hit a ball up the right and morrison lobbed the keeper who was racing out to that corner of his box). kavanagh did well a few minutes later and created a great chance for himself with some persistence (and not a little skill) and should've put it away for two nil but blasted straight at the keeper and over (mighta skimmed the top of the bar). from what i saw, ireland looked a lot like they did on saturday, plenty of possession but a bit jittery at times.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...ls/4390921.stm
The BBC didnt rate Ireland at all.
ugh..
Thanks for the link. How come the print on the site indecipherable?
Last edited by dahamsta; 30/03/2005 at 12:46 PM.
Going by aertels report you'd nearly think they were worse than Saturday!!!
Really disappointed in Kerr tonight. The game was crying out for McGeady.
How on earth anyone can want to see O'Shea as a central midfielder is beyond belief. I'd say his pass success rate tonight was about 20%.
Anyway, poorest match I've seen in Landsowne in years. Pity Kav didn't get a goal. At least he showed what he can do when he's allowed go forward. He and Keane would be a letal partnership.
And they wonder why our friendly attendances have been so poor
Fair play to the Chinese fans; they dominated us (as per usual at home friendlies).
I've been to a few games with rubbish Irish fans in my time & this ranks among the top. I think the home friendly fans are some kind of weird race. I'm actually happy that all the competitive games don't go on general sale even tho I'm not a block booker.
I tried singin for the whole first half on the North Tce, even did the whole of "Team Of Gary Breens" to number 12 with choruses & no-one else sang it. At one stage I sang something & some knob down the back gave me an "on yer own, on yer own"!
Went down the South Tce for the second half to see if it was any better but it wasn't so I just gave up. The biggest moment of the night for most of the fans (after the goal) was when Roy Keane came on. Are they only there for him?
To make matters worse we were stood beside a couple of know it alls that wouldn't stop criticising the team. Theres so many of them at these games. One of them even shouts at Johnno; "O'shea, you're nothin but a fukcin lanky donkey".
Like I dunno, I already have a ticket for the Italy game, but that'll be my last friendly. And they wonder why our friendly attendances have been so poor.
Free therapy; thanks Foot.ie
"I always likened him to a Rolls Royce. You just used him once a week & he'd be flawless"
Townsend on McGrath
I didn't see the game myself but this is what www.sportinglife.com had to say, they seemed more interested in writing about what Kerr said after the game rather than what happened on the pitch:
Clinton Morrison spared the blushes of boss Brian Kerr with a goal of pure genius which stood out like a beacon in the dire gloom of this meaningless friendly.
This was one of those games everybody connected with the Republic of Ireland will want to forget in a major hurry, but for Morrison who remains out in the cold for club, but can do little wrong for country.
Morrison's exquisite 82nd-minute finish was his fourth goal at international level from his last six appearances.
Prior to Morrison's strike China had the better chances in both halves.
With 10 minutes of the first 45 remaining Paddy Kenny had to make a sharp save from Zhao Junze who fired in a low shot from the edge of the area.
In the second period the Sheffield United goalkeeper could only watch as the impressive Sun-Xiang clipped an effort just wide of the post after his pace had taken him through on goal.
The quality of the match then descended further and looked to be heading for a draw until Morrison made the difference with his smart lob.
Republic of Ireland boss Kerr felt Saturday's draw with Israel had taken a lot out of his players and admitted China were difficult to break down.
He said : "China got a lot of people behind the ball, they were an awkward team to play against.
"The pitch didn't help - it was in diabolical condition for a full international - but in the end we got the victory, although I would have liked us to be more fluid and better.
"There's no doubt mentally and physically the boys put in huge effort in Israel but tonight was different - their system of 5-4-1 was difficult to break down."
He added on Sky Sports: "It was a risk for us, taking on this game but we've had 35,000 come along and look at the number of players we used.
"It's 21 or 22 over the two games and that has its benefits.
"It's good for the morale of players to know they're not just making up the numbers - and I think we used the numbers well."
Last edited by Irish_Praha; 29/03/2005 at 10:19 PM.
The one thing I learn from tonight is Alan Maybury is **** and should never be allowed to play for Ireland again and why McGeady didn't start I'll never now.
The atmosphere would be better at a wake. We have some of the quitest supporters in the world.
That was one of the worst friendlies ever. Pitch was dreadful, standard of play was dreadful to. In the final third we are useless and dodgy at the back when we are put under any pressure.
Fúck we have so so many players who are in teams without first team football !!
They were brutal again and surely nobody can argue with that.China should have wont this game.What appears to be the problem with Kerr giving McGeady a run.Robbie was running around like a headless chicken again,falling all over the place looking for a free kick.Clint proved again how important he is.Elliot tried and should have had a pen.Doc(S*it) Reid had his moments,Kav..good shift as had duff, kenny, O 'Brien Dunne and Paddy Kenny,Miller..reasonable but clearly too light,Mabury..we need to lose this guy..O Shea..Same old same old..Kilbane(crap)..We would want to improve dramatically if we are to progress any further in this group stage.AS for the Crowd Fcuking Dire apart from the Chinese
I've seen better Junior League games played on sheer muck
a)block bookers were forced to buy them
b)largest away attendance in Lansdown in years
I'm not calling for Kerr's head - far from it in fact but I would love to know what was going through his mind tonight with his subs.
- Roy should have been no where near that bench - he should have been workin for Sky tonight instead of Stapo
- Mcgeady should have gotten at least an hour
Fair play to Kav, Clint and Elliot - played well. As for the so called experienced players....Moran was right - none of them had any interest tonight. Hard to lay the blame soley with the players either. It was a stupid fixture. Would have been more beneficial last Wednesday
Resign, now!
Anyone have a clip of Morrison's goal?
Well that was forgetable....
There was ups and downs and so
UPS
1. Great finish from Morrison...
2. Elliot looked sharp and eager....
3.The passing of the arm Band from Kenny to Kilbane and then when Kilbane was replaced by Keane he chose not to wear it but pass it on to Kav who will always rememeber captaining Ireland. I found it amusing and a very nice gesture form Keane.
4. The fact that Keane stuck around for the match which was utterly meaningless was another gesture of good will and unity that should not go unnoticed by those who do not agree with his Royness.
5.Lots of happy Chinese people with there little red flags.
6. Miller didnt play really crap.
7. Full game for PKenny and good save in first half and end of second.
DOWNS
1. I'm not a celtic fan but NO MCGEADY
2. Brian's is obviously very worried by the amount of critism
3. John O'Shea and Maybury fought it out for worst match ever at Lansdowne. (Maybury should not be in the squad and its very worrying that he is our best cover)
4. The match highlighted the fact that Kerr has not brought that many new young players into the squad and is afraid to do so even against the likes of China.
5. Very poor atmosphere at LR. Understandable considering the weekends result but still.
6. Why must we always get a result in these crappy friendlies its hurting the progress of the squad and these things don't seem obvious to Kerr? (which is worrying
Couple more but I wont go on moaning....
Last edited by onenilgameover; 30/03/2005 at 12:03 AM.
Doherty gets on, McGeady doesn't. A shambles. Kerrs convervatism and treating friendlys like competitive games is very very frustrating, what was he playing at with the selection and subs? Duff starts? Pointless. I was looking forward to seing Elliot and McGeady for the full 90 minutes and that's why I wanted to goto this game, I ended up with neither and wish I hadn't bothered jumping on the DART at all.
The Chinese fans were brilliant though, outsung us (Not hard) and were superb for the whole game, I know more than likely they all live here anyway rather than traveled but even so, they were there in numbers and were well heard, fair play to them.
My scores for the players tonight (out of 10):-
P.Kenny 7 - Didnt have to do too much but made the odd good save
Cunningham 6 - Pretty much average (only played 1st half)
Dunne 6 - As above, not really tested too much by the Chinese forwards
Maybury 4 - Did not look at all comfortable, lost his rag with a Chinese winger late on.
O'Shea 5 - Very average game, looked at bit lost at the end of it, didnt seem comfortable with the ball late on
Duff 5.5 - Not at his usual high standard, still caused them some problems in 1st half
Kavanagh 7 - Took a while to get into the swing of things, but gave a solid performance by the end - nearly scored a great goal.
Kilbane 5.5 - Average at the start, but was really drifting by the time he was taken off. Tiredness perhaps ?
A. Reid 6 - A couple of good crosses, but has played much better for us on other occasions.
Elliott 6.5 - Tried hard, made positive runs early on, not quite the finished product for us yet tho.
Robbie K. 5.5 - Not one of his greatest games, nearly got a pen. early on. Looked drained by the time he was taken off.
Subs
45min
O'Brien 6 - Wasnt really tested.
Miller 6.5 - Not bad, better than he's normally been.
62min
Morrison 8 - Full of enthusiasm, scored a good goal, saved us from a bad result. Def. seems to enjoy playing for us.
66min
Roy Keane 6.5 - Nice that he played, average performance
67min
Doc 7 - Not much time, but caused the Chinese no end of problems. Won almost every header, but his knock downs were not always into the right channels.
Overall it was a pretty sloppy show tonight. I was hoping the players might be up for it after the result slipping away on Sat, but (except one or two) they seemed very, very pedestrian. I know its China, and its only a friendly but even in other friendlies theyve had a bit more application and effort. Given the circumstances it was a shame BK didnt experiment a bit more. It would have been interesting to see if the likes of McGeady could have mixed it up a bit and if Spurs' Kelly hadnt been injured it would have been ideal for him. Still Paddy Kenny's got a full 90 mins under his belt now, and other players in the margins did ok when they came on (Dunne, Miller) even if the opposition wasn't of a particularly testing standard.
It goes without saying we will have to improve tho, if we're to win our next few proper matches. I wouldn't fancy our chances of winning, even in Tórshavn or Nicosia, were we to play like that.
Whilst you may rate Maybury a 4, I think it is worth mentioning that it
was his long pass which gave Clinton his opertunity, without that
we were stuffed.
We only seemed to only sparking life when Keane and Clinton came on.
I though Paddy Kenny's save was a little similar to the one which Given
didn't quite save, so it was good that he got a full 90 minutes in goal.
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks