The model of the club just hasn't worked out this year. Last year we blitzed the First Division and had a very credible cup campaign by reaching the semi losing narrowly to Dundalk at Oriel. Slogett and O'Connor departed in the winter and the squad was pretty much eviscerated in the summer. Yes, we had started to drift but the squad depletion and the uncertainty has left us unable to credibly compete this year. Maybe succession planning has been insufficient or maybe that level of flux just can't be managed. I feel having already lost all our best players and having just signed two experienced Premier quality midfielders may actually see us positioned to hit the ground running in the First.
As for last night, I think the youthful nature of the team leaves us prone to complete collapse in a way that might not happen if we had a few veteran heads. It's been an arduous and challenging season and the team must be increasingly demoralised. Rovers actually played better against us in Tallaght and could probably have hit more than ten the time they hit seven but last night we performed even worse. Credit to Bohs for continually pushing and having the appetite.
It looks like you didn't understand what I posted.
Let me try to make it clearer - Some posters regularly make a generalised assumption that all fans of any one particular club have an identical view. That has no connection with how some fans of different clubs may agree on some points
(I realise this is probably pointless, if you just wanted to have a lazy jibe)
Last edited by Ezeikial; 17/08/2019 at 12:16 PM.
Good win for Rovers last night up in the Brandywell. Having the best keeper in the league helps. Jack Byrne ran the game, as he runs every game and it was a good finish by greener. Can't remember the last time we won twice in a season up there. Not much Rovers can do about catching dalk, especially with 2 gimmes coming up for them against UCD. A win on Waterford will at least prolong the coronation I suppose.
Fair play to Rovers - any win in the Bradywell is decent, two wins in the same season is remarkable
It most be frustrating to have "the best keeper in the league" along with "the best defence in the league", and "the top three left backs" etc etc and still have lost 3 x the number of league games as Dundalk, conceded more goals and also be so far removed from maintaining a credible league challenge past July.
I was generalising based on the fact Bohs fans are unlikely to give rovers credit for something positive for obvious reasons and Dundalk fans on here and online in general take exception to anyone saying any club in the league is better than then at anything in any way.
You don't have to try to double down on something that is so obviously unfair and inaccurate
Generalise - to make a broad, sweeping assumption or statement - is exactly what I said you were doing.
Your justifying "fact" about Bohs fans is also askew for example - I recall the much maligned marinobohs recently giving repeated credit for the matchday experience and organisation at Tallaght Stadium (maybe this credit is due to SDCC?)
GIS rest of of us a break from yousers superior wit,
Guys,as they used to say back in the golden days of football forums,fecking message each other cos nobody,bar yous wants to listen in.
And the group think continues in the posts above... suggest for convenience you set yourselves up as BoEz and jointly post to cut down on the boring repetitive narative
Succession planning is one thing, but UCD constantly churn out young players. Obviously they struggle to maintain premier division status frequently, but never before have the been so badly embarrassed. Portsmouth / Rovers / Bohs results shouldn’t happen regardless of the level or circumstances. A lot of people refer to the players they lost during the midseason, but it’s not like they were flying before the break and have just fallen off a cliff since!
From the outside looking in, Mahdy seems to consistently score goals and make the difference in games. He’s been behind Davis who scored less goals and now Sam Byrne who is seriously out of shape.
Would I be right in saying a lot of the UCD squad is the U19 squad that one the league a couple of seasons ago/competed in Europe? You would wonder if last seasons success was down to a golden group of talent rather than managerial decisions!
Within 10pts and 2nd is progress, law of averages game coming up as well, next season we need to be challenging till the end though.
UCD had enough decent players with LOI experience in their starting XI last night to have ensured not have lost anything like 10-1 but an inexperienced goalkeeper and another couple of inexperienced U19s in defence in a system that passes the ball out of the backline can become a recipe for disaster.
That horrifically bad Galway United team from 2011 conceded 8 on one occasion, 7 on one occasion and 6 on four occasions. This current UCD team are still superior to that Galway United team so I think O'Neill is going to have to change their approach to avoid this again if he's stuck with inexperienced teenagers at the backline.
The Leinster Senior League needs a strong Bohemians
Mahdy is developing and he's just not that effective as a centre forward. He's only figured so much due to Davis' injury earlier in the season and departure. He may be our top scorer but in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king. I don't think the complete gutting of the squad in midseason can be understated. We've never had our squad disassembled midseason like that. We had one outfield sub in one match. We had sustained a bad run of losses but we were rarely outclassed. The complete collapse has taken place after the raft of departures. I wouldn't focus too much on the Portsmouth result, it was a friendly utilising U19s and U17s. Pineapple would have a better idea how many of the title winning/European U-19 squad are in the current senior team. I think Kearns was one.
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