Ireland Vs. China

[AmenToThat]

Whilst you may rate Maybury a 4, I think it is worth mentioning that it

Agreed but he got cought out three times in the second half and is clearly not good enough.
I hope Kelly continues to progress at Spurs.

Nice to see Paddy Kenny keep a clean sheet, good back up for Given.

O Shea's passing was ****e but defensively he was solid and surely cant pass the ball that badly again.

Glad Dunne got a game and although you cant fualt the defensive partnership of O Brien and Cunningham I think Dunne is a better player than O Brien.

Reid, solid.

Duffer, I simply refuse to say anything bad about him no matter how he playss.

Kilbane hasnt been the same since christmas for Ireland or Everton.

Kav, did well and I hope Wigan go up this year.

Elliot, more lively than Keane.

Clint, god bless the chap.

Miller, better than expected.

Roy Keane, roy keane.

McGeady, god only knows why he didnt get a game, criminal, but solid job at polishing the bench with his arse.

[tetsujin1979]

Foul, dire game of football.
Positives:
Elliott looked hungry for his first goal, I thought he should have been MOTM
Dunne had a good showing with 2 defensive partners
Morrison's 4th goal in 6 games
Reid and Duff together again, whatever about away from home, when there are going to be times when we have to defend, they should always start at home where the wider pitch makes them more of a threat.
Kenny had a postive showing, performing well when needed
Kavanagh might have played himself into the Israel game ahead of Holland
Err, that's about it.

Negatives:
Everything else!
O'Shea stands on his left leg, and shouldn't be allowed back onto a football pitch until he becomes more two-footed
Maybury was caught for pace with the same move twice, and both times nearly cost us a goal
Miller was on the pitch??
Robbie was anonymous, I said before the game not to play him
Why did McGeady not play after getting promoted from the U-21s? At least with their qualification in tatters he might get into the senior squad more often
The pitch was in a horrendous state after the 6 nations (although this is not necessarily the FAI's fault)
No more international football for 2 months!!
The guy standing in front of me was up to his tonsils in all kinds of chemicals (again not the FAI's fault, but I'm ranting here!)
Again, no penetration through the middle - severely lacking against Israel - the goal was route one Wimbledon football at its best

[Eire06]

Thought Kavanagh played a blinder last night he was on a different level to the rest of the team.. Strong solid performance throughout the whole match, and really deserved man of the match, I'd like to see him with more first team places...

Reid was a disaster I just held my head every time he got the ball cause I knew he was gona do something stupid with it...

Looking at that team last night they get paid thousands a week to play football and they produce performances like that.. I don't blam Kerr at all it was a friendly time for trying out new players and tactics ect.. they were a mess..

In fairness to them though every time Ireland were attacking they were against an 11 man China Defence.. Which can be hard to crack with the worst of teams.. Fair play to China though they brought it to us, no walkover as expected..
Hopefully this week will be a reminder to the team and us of what can go wrong so easily and they get a kick up the ass from it..


Oh on another point was shocked when Roy came on thought he didn't do friendlies That'll shut a fair few critics up

[eirebhoy]

Lads, people have to take off the glasses and realise that Maybury was a lot better than O'Shea last night. OK, Maybury isn't international class but I don't know how anyone could give O'Shea a higher rating than him last night. My brother absolutely despises O'Shea and it was him that made me notice how many passes he misplaced. He must have had a success rate of 20-30% max.

It was Andy Reid's worst game I've ever seen for Ireland. His little chip ball to Elliott was very good but everything else was not going where he wanted it to go. His confidence was absolutely drained and you could see that when the camera zoomed in on him. He was actually dying to get off the pitch and was nowhere to be seen after a few subs.

BTW, just to let people know. A lot of you know this but a lot of you wouldn't. Kavanagh was never a holding midfielder at Cardiff. He got forward an awful lot and would get 3-5 shots on goal per match. When Roy came on Roy jumped into the holding role and people got to see the real Kav getting forward. I'd absolutely love to see a Kav and Keane partnership for 90 minutes. They're best of mates off the pitch these days and they understand each others game (when one goes forward, the other stays back).

[Eire06]

BTW, just to let people know. A lot of you know this but a lot of you wouldn't. Kavanagh was never a holding midfielder at Cardiff. He got forward an awful lot and would get 3-5 shots on goal per match. When Roy came on Roy jumped into the holding role and people got to see the real Kav getting forward. I'd absolutely love to see a Kav and Keane partnership for 90 minutes. They're best of mates off the pitch these days and they understand each others game (when one goes forward, the other stays back).

Ya if one good thing came out of the game last night it was Kavanagh, he really played his heart out, and showed how versitile he is..
Himself and Keane will help make a class midfield
Hope we see more of it in the upcoming matches

[Stuttgart88]

Kavanagh & Keane could be a quality duo. But I thought Maybury was really poor and has no pace. Giving him credit for the goal is spurious - it was a bog standard ball up the line & I think it was actually aimed for Doc.

O'Shea's distribution is a problem though I thought he was sound in Tel Aviv.

Andy Reid was really poor and early on I really sympathised with Kerr. If Reid had played like that in Israel we'd have been in trouble, yet our biggest criticism of Kerr is that he never played Reid!

Paddy Kenny was class. Great save and the difficulty of that catch late on is not to be underestimated.

[Aberdonian Stu]

I was standing beside a devout Maybury hater so decided to play devil's advocate, and well I ended up agreeing with her. He isn't up to this standard and while I have no problem also criticising O'Shea it was clear that Maybury was worse last night.

[pete]

Kavanagh was clearly the winner of the MOTM lucky dip. Best sideways passer ever! Very limited player with no pace, turns like the titanic, reminds me of Carsley.

[eirebhoy]

I was standing beside a devout Maybury hater so decided to play devil's advocate, and well I ended up agreeing with her. He isn't up to this standard and while I have no problem also criticising O'Shea it was clear that Maybury was worse last night.

No he was not. I am absolutely positive about that. Unless you call 20% pass success rate good enough...

I'm not a fan of Maybury either btw.

[eirebhoy]

Kavanagh was clearly the winner of the MOTM lucky dip. Best sideways passer ever! Very limited player with no pace, turns like the titanic, reminds me of Carsley.

As I've said, he has only had the chance to play the holding role for Ireland. That is not his position and he is a long ball specialist, albeit in the Championship.