Genuinely think Harry Kenny is getting a hard time from pats supporters, over a third of the season gone and they are 3 points off Europe (probably) and only 6 off dundalk.
Thats fair enough and I've only seen Pats once (against Rovers) but you've a huge amount of new players is it not reasonable to expect it to take time to build up patterns of play and consistency.
If you can stay within a couple of wins of a European place you'd have to expect the team to improve as the season go's on.
Harry hasn't become a bad manager overnight and the players haven't either.
Saying that i'll be hoping you start to improve after tonight
Our next 3 games are Rovers (A), Waterford (H) and Derry (A), we'll know after them if we have improved or not.
We're missing Toner and Clifford tonight, Toner not a major loss as Webster will come in, some will argue he should start ahead of him anyway but Clifford will be a big loss, gives us a lot of energy in the middle.
Here on a technicality.
Whatever about you choosing to be irritated about the 'champions-elect' phrase, the post actually supported what you said that St Pats are not too far way from the business end of the table.
The reality is that a win tonight (unlikely as it may be) would give St Pats an enormous psychological boost and would put the current table toppers within reach.
There is this myth floating around that Kenny is a great manager. It's nonsense. I am not saying he won't/can't be, but he has some how built this image of being a successful manager, and it has little or no substance . The Bray example was only a few months and a bit of an anomaly.
I'm assuming Clark and Grace are available and uninjured, Kavanagh is out apparently mentioned in team news , no word on Bolger and Boyle , don't know whether that is because no change i.e they are still out or because they might be back and thus aren't mentioned with Kavanagh.
I've always thought Toner was an excellent player , i would have him over Webster every day , has to be a form/confidence thing.
If anyone wants a laugh have a look at Limericks red card against Longford,refs are getting worse!
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
Would normally agree with the sentiments of the non-Pats fans above, but in this case the worry really is just how bad we've looked this season.
Our place in the league isn't something many people would have been too disappointed with at this stage of the season, and most people even expected a slow start, but the main issue is that we've not looked like a team that has a particular style of play in mind at all, and for all Harry's talk of wanting to play similarly nice football to what we did under Bucko...he doesn't really appear to know how to do it and our results have mostly reflected that as we've grinded out results via hard work rather than with any kind of class. All this despite our personnel.
The last few weeks have earned him a bit more favour but I'm honestly still not confident at all that he'll prove to be a success. Would love to be proved wrong of course.
I don't think that was the case for most tbf, and anyone that predicted that was only blinded by Forrester and McCabe being announced on the same day anyway.
I think most would be happy with European qualification anyway. We're in a situation where Dundalk and Rovers have more balanced and settled squads, so outdoing them was always going to be some effort, but because of the effort made in pre-season anything less than 4th would be an absolute bust.
3rd/4th is absolutely achievable. Between Derry, Pats, Bohs and Waterford, in no particular order
Would have felt that preseason and still think it an achievable target. Pats have impressed in bursts (first 20 mins at Dalymount they were exceptional). Consistency was always going to take time and I suspect they will improve as the season goes on and players gel. Agree anything below 4th worth be a very poor return for some heavy investment
I dont get why Pat's fans are so anxy so early. It takes more than a preseason and the first round of games for a manager to find their feet and impose their ways with a team. Plenty of signings to integrate. Doesnt matter the quality of the players, it takes more time than Kenny has had yet. Early season optimism was a tad high but yet are well improved already on the last couple of years with points on the board. Placid wont be happy with criticism of Harry as he had him annointed as Rovers saviour from Bradley? Just as I type Pats go behind to Rovers and Dundalk score also. Any word on the relegation 6 pointer in Cork?
Flores with a screamer to put Dundalk 2-0 up against Waterford.
Hery off, the dirty bastid.
Last edited by dahamsta; 30/04/2019 at 9:26 AM.
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